Discussion in English on the importance of Hindi

A group of young friends meet after a long time. They sat all night discussing patriotism and itz implications on language with context to its objective in relation to India. We had clearly run out of conversations.

All argued the importance of hindi in English. Everyone said Hindi should be given more importance than state languages as it could unite India. Also, it made patriotic sense.

I have logically thought myself out of patriotism. To me someone saying Hindi should be learned by all Indians is as bad a logic as someone saying Marathi should be learned by all Marathis.

Everyone contributed. Lohit called me a hypocrite as I carried a passport. In my defence, getting a passport was not an emotional decision. Harsha backed her incorrect logic with unheard, generalised , possibly incorrect, qualitative data quoting no source of the information. She said things like learning Hindi can help people earn their living. Well if you learn Marathi, you can drive taxis in Mumbai (Hehehehehe). There were points when Deon's eyes rolled up as if he is trying to make up his mind. Every time he did that he gave me some hope that I would have some support only to shatter it almost immediately. I am sure Shradha made some good points which I cannot recall (I am not sure if this is relevant to the topic, but one of Shradha's aunt try to speak Gujrati to me. I dint know how to react. I dint). Richa used an approach of falsifying the opponent's point by proving it redundant thereby confirming her point due of lack of choice. She asked-

"If not Indian then what is one's identity?"

"Before you ask this question, you have to ask yourself who is it that is asking the question."

There was no follow up question. Agnes had had it.

"If you dont shut up, I will lock you up in the room with Sherwin and Mili."

They were in the room confirming their newly discovered identities more than anyone to themselves. If objective of language is communication, they were communicating the highest form of human emotion- love, but not in Hindi.

Also, Agnes should have considered before making such statements how awkward it would have made the three of us feel.