Official Language Controversy

Looking at the war sparked off by the History teacher in class, we see that regionalism has always been present. The "beast" has just been awakened. Statements like "I do not want a South Indian identity just because i am dark" are very frequent. Some people just dont know how to take compliments (even if they are due to a mistake).

I seek to end this controversy once and for all (considering its so obvious - how can there have been so much heated debate? :) ) I list out the various options and explain why they are not adequate solutions to the problem.

• Hindi: Clearly it is unacceptable. The very fact that it has been chosen as the national language has resulted in a lot of bad blood. Clearly, we are unhappy with the present state of things. So we can safely say this is not the right solution.
• English: How can the official language be alien? How? It helps create a national identity and portrays unity. Considering, in the preamble to the Constitution, we feel that India is sovereign and we have thrown off all the "yokes of foreign rule", we cannot popssible have the creation of a national language which is not even within India. Also, hardly anyone from above the Vindhyas can converse properly in this language (as far as i have seen at least :) ). So English is ruled out.
• Tamil: What can i say? My cousins from Tamil Nadu have tried in vain for so long to get some little recognition for their language. It just does NOT happen, does it? Why is it so hard for them to get a hint? Clearly, considering how long they've tried, its about time they give up
• NO NATIONAL LANGUAGE: How devoid of self - identity should one be to even consider or think abt having NO national language? I mean come on, honestly. I am sure that such lack of integrity is very rare. Just say we cant settle on the plurality so we'll just NOT even try. The "We cant settle the dispute so we wont even try" attitude is startling. I mean where is the fighting spirit? This is obviously far from the solution as im sure our country is made up of millions of self respecting people and such suggestions are exceptions to the rule.
• Kannada: Although this is the best possible option as it is the proverbial perfect language, it has not been advocated very strongly as the people here are happy with their own identity and dont impose it on others. Within their confines, they ensure that self identity and the sense of values and language is advocated and followed to the letter. Imposition on unconnected third parties is seriously not worth bothering about.
• Bengali: "ARE YOU MAD?" Sums it up pretty much.
• Khasi (or some other North Eastern language): "According to the 1971 census there are about 220 languages spoken in these states" (http://www.iitg.ernet.in/rcilts/n_e.html). I think we'll just wait till they figure out among themselves which language to ask for as the national language.

So we now have 1 language from the South (Tamil. Kannada has not really been pushed for), 1 from the North (Hindi - we can ignore Bengali for obvious reasons), representation from the North East (as i have not been able to identify one. This is probably because i know very little abt them. So ill just refrain from comment. As usual.) and one alien language (Am ignoring the NO national language argument as ppl interested in this debate must have some form of identity abt themselves - I hope). The solution to this so simple it has just to be seen.

The national language should clearly be Kannada. As a language, it is derived from Sanskrit, so it has some aspects close to Hindi. It is related to tamil (many words are identical or very similar) and is very similar to telugu. Most importantly, it is not imposed. We just hope that enlightenment would dawn on the whole country where they'll "realise" for themselves that this is so clearly the answer. This covers all the above concerns. It is not alien to India. It borrows from other many other languages and thereby keeps evolving. Most importantly, it relies on the self realisation of all the people in the country and is clearly not an imposition. So what possible rational objection could anyone possible have to this?