The language debate in India: Moving towards genuine multilingualism

The willing acceptance of Hindi, especially in states where it is not the mother tongue, would involve gentle persuasion and not official direction. Especially when it gets caught in political cross-fires, the debate is then not about language but about the politics it represents.

BySandeep Shastri

Published Oct 18, 2022 | 1:03 PMUpdatedDec 23, 2022 | 12:56 PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin during the inauguration of the Chess Olympiad on July 28

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has once again brought to the centre-stage the language issue by writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter. The letter says that the “aggressive attempts of the Union government to impose Hindi are impractical and divisive in character”.

It would be important to raise the question whether the opposition to Hindi that is being articulated by the chief minister of Tamil Nadu is an opposition to the language per se or an opposition to the ‘political domination’ that the language represents.

The protests in southern states against what they would term ‘Hindi imposition’especially Tamil Nadu — have been occurring with regular frequency. Each time, the central leadership has had to use its good offices to douse the fire and assuage sentiments across the board.

Language debate and the Constituent Assembly

It may be useful to record that in the Constituent Assembly, the last Article to be approved was the one on the official language of the Union. As the Constitution had to be adopted, a compromise was arrived at, which finally took the form that Article 343 today reads.

This Article says that the “official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. … for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union… Parliament may by law provide for the use, after the said period of fifteen years…”.

Jawaharlal Nehru addresses a meeting of a committee of the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are among the others seen

Jawaharlal Nehru addresses a meeting of a committee of the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are among the others seen (Wikimedia Commons)

From this narration, it is clear that Hindi was to be the official language of the Union. For the first 15 years, English would continue to be used for all official purposes by the Union. The same has been extended by Parliament every time that the 15-year period was about to lapse.

NEP focus on ‘promoting multilingualism’

It may be useful in this context to look at a few developments in the recent past that could well provide a solution to the challenge.

The BJP has consistently and rightly stressed the need to provide primacy to Indian languages. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution lists 22 languages, many of which are used by the states of India as their official language. The Ministry of Home Affairs has received a request for inclusion of 38 other languages in this list.

In the National Education Policy 2020, there is a clear focus on “promoting multilingualism and the power of language”.

One of the mandates of the NEP is to introduce between Classes 6 and 8 in schools, a project on “The Languages of India”, to expose the younger generation to the wide array of languages in the country. If this project were to be implemented in letter and spirit, it would surely go a long way in bridging the divide between languages.

Three-language formula: Need for give and take

The other point that the NEP 2020 emphasises is the need for a three-language formula. Such a formula has been discussed and debated for many years. The debate often got contentious when deciding which three languages need to be studied as part of schooling.

Ideally, it needed to be one’s mother tongue, the official language of the Union, and English as a global link language. What happened in reality was that especially if the mother tongue was the same as the language of the Union, then students often limited the learning to only one language and at best to two languages — Hindi and English.

A meaningful three-language formula would be when those who had Hindi as their mother tongue additionally studied another Indian language — preferably from outside their region — besides English as a global link language. This give and take would help in ensuring a greater acceptance of the three-language formula.

One has noticed the gradual spread (and acceptance) of Hindi across the country.

Yet, it is important to underscore two points here. The willing acceptance of the language, especially in states where Hindi is not the mother tongue, would involve gentle persuasion and not official direction. Especially when it gets caught in political cross-fires, the debate is then not about language but about the politics it represents.

Secondly, an effort by those whose mother tongue is Hindi to learn and speak another Indian language from outside their region would go a long way in building bridges with those who speak different languages. This would be an authentic way of promoting multilingualism.

(Sandeep Shastri is a keen student of Indian politics in general and Karnataka politics in particular for the last four decades, and the national coordinator of the Lokniti network. These are the personal views of the author)