Should national language be a mandatory subject in our education system?

India is filled with varied cultural history. We have so many languages spoken across the country which are local to that area or to that particular sect/culture. Even though we have all these varied cultures we still are one country and need to work together to move forward in the 21st century .Many developed countries have a national language and have progressed. Looking at them we should understand that we need a common medium of communication.

English is the unofficial language of the world. Should we use this as our common medium of communication? What percentage of our population knows the English language? Hindi is our national language but how many of us know Hindi? Should we include it as part of our curriculum to increase the percentage of population which knows Hindi?

My personal opinion, Hindi should be made a mandatory subject in our school system. I am from Chennai and I was not required to learn Hindi. I had no problem for 23 years but when I started traveling to the north, I had problems communicating with people out there. Later I moved to the U.S and most of the Indians used to speak in Hindi and I couldn't understand a word of what they said. Even the Americans were surprised to hear that I couldn’t understand what the others spoke. Now I have started learning Hindi.

What are your thoughts? Experiences?