Hindi vs Regional Language Issue

A Closer Look at India’s languages (Infographic), Credit: daytranslations.com

The compulsory imposition of Hindi in schools under the draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 displeased non-Hindi speaking states like Tamil Nadu. After much backlash the clause was revised to make it non-mandatory. This was not the first time in the independence history of India that the issue of languages has arisen. It arose in the past, it will arise in the future.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

India has a rich heritage in terms of languages and every language spoken, even by the most remote areas, is respected by the Constitution.

“History demonstrates that, from times immemorial, India has been a multilingual country, each language having a certain region in which it was supreme, but none of these regions truly constituted unilingual kingdom or principality.”

In ancient India, Sanskrit was most prevailing language by the 'elites' and Pali was the medium of communication for 'low order' peoples. With the invasion came many languages like Persian, Turkish, Arabic, etc. but at the regional level, local dialects became popular. After few years when British invaded India they introduced English as the main languages in majority of the government offices (bureaucracy, courts etc.) and all the government functions began to carried out in English.

Debate for single language:

When the Indian Constitution was being framed in the Constitution Assembly the question of choosing one language as the official language arose in the minds of the Constitution makers. Debate was mainly among three popular languages, viz. Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani. “Most of the regional languages like Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, etc were found to be not suitable in spite of their literary accomplishments, owing to geographical restrictions.” These languages were not spread beyond a province/state. The whole assembly was divided into two groups one which supported Hindi and wanted it to become the official language and the other which did not favour Hindi to become the official language.

Those who favoured Hindi pointed out that Hindi is a mother tongue of around forty percent of the people living in the Country and understood by a large proportion of non-Hindi speaking population as well. But those doesn't favoured Hindi debated why not make any other languages as National language because there are many languages in the country and few of them have considerable following as well.

Ultimately, when the Constituent Assembly was on the verge of losing its unity, a compromise called Munshi-Ayyangar formula was adopted without dissent. This formula did not provide any national language. It proposed that Hindi in the Devanagari script would be the “official language of the Union” and that English would continue to be used for all official purposes for fifteen years from the date of the Constitution, which could be extended by Parliament. But the day never came. In 1967 The Official Languages Act provided indefinite usage of English and Hindi as the official languages of the country.

CONSTITUTION IN RELATION TO LANGUAGE

India is a multilingual country. So the fathers of our Constitution felt the need to specify the languages to be used in the state functions. Therefore, Part XVII of the Indian Constitution came into existence which not only provides for the official language of the Union (Article 343-344) and official languages of the states (Article 345) but also the language of interstate-communication (Article 346-347), language to be used in the courts and in legislative processes (Article 348). Apart from these provisions, there are some special directives too (Article 350-351).

Munshi-Ayyangar Formula also recommended the Language Commission to include all the regional language in order to give them equal respect and to prevent them from being ignored. Eighth Schedule contains the name of the languages which have been recognized as the official languages. At present there are twenty-two languages enumerated in the Schedule.

Significance of single Language

India is a nation comprising of people from different backgrounds, religions, languages and culture. In such a diverse nation, there is a constant search to find a common attribute that binds people together into a single identity. In this regard, language is most often imposed on people by governments. The role of national language is in the social transformation. The existence of a single language brings about togetherness and attachment in the society.

The aim of the Constitution makers in attempting to make India a monolingual nation was not to promote monopoly of Hindi by overthrowing other Indian languages. Instead they wanted to introduce ‘a pan-Indian language’ which could be used for governing India and which the citizens could use to communicate with others who did not speak their language.

Basically, a national language is required to bring together, diverse cultures and ethnicities under a single roof so that a nation can develop easily and speedily with least friction. A close knit and integrated society develops at a faster rate as compared to a disintegrated society.

CONCLUSION

The issue of national language has grown more complex than what the constitution makers had thought it to be. The recent separation of Telangana as a separate state from Andhra Pradesh is also a result of lingual conflict. It is evident from this instance that a language has the power to make or break a country. People develop an attachment towards those who speak their language.

Though India has been unsuccessful so far as implementation of a single language as official language is concerned, the policy of bilingualism has somehow helped in restoring social harmony and national unity in so far as language is concerned.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India specifically provides for unity and integrity of the nation. Therefore, nothing should be done that would be inconsistent with the ideal.