Collection of "preferred language" data by the banks.......................by K J S Chatrath

 I have put some self –imposed restrictions on myself. I keep away from all talk of politics and of religion. I am of course a self-professed atheist.

Today, quite unwillingly, I got sucked into a bit of politics. I had gone to the nearby branch of a nationalized bank where I have an account. I wanted to get an FD made for a small amount. The kind bank manager, noting my old age, offered to give me the FD receipt there and then if I waited for a few minutes. He quickly made an FD and handed over the receipt to me.

Out of sheer habit resulting from working for a life time in bureaucracy, I looked at the FD receipt with a fine comb. And caught, what I thought was a ‘mistake’.

Next to my name was typed ‘HINDI’. Pray what is it, I asked the kind bank manager. Oh, that is your preferred language, he explained. But you never asked me about my preferred language. Feeling a little sheepish, he said, Oh that is the default choice in the software, he explained. But ‘Hindi’ is not my preferred language, I told him. My preferred language is my mother tongue, which is Punjabi, I told him. Now clearly on the defensive, the kind bank manager cancelled ‘Hindi’ in pen and initialled the cutting.

Let me elucidate a bit. There is a Census organisation in the country which collects census date every ten years. It has, for some reason (blame it on Covid) not been collecting the data since the last census in 2011. In the course of data collection they ask, if I remember correctly, about one’s mother tongue but not the ‘preferred language’.

I wonder if the Census Commission and the RBI have been kept in the picture while taking the decision to collect one’s “preferred language” through the banks?