Date: 16/09/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources; Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Phrases: Hindi Diwas, Official Language of the Union, Hindi-Urdu Debates, Constitutional provisions of language, Promotion of Hindi

Context:

• Recently the Hindi Diwas was celebrated across the country which commemorates September 14, 1949, the day when the Constituent Assembly of India took the decision to make Hindi the official language of the Union government.

Background

• At the time of independence Hindi was the spoken language of large parts of North India, it was seen as a safe option for the national linguistic unification of the country.
• However, large parts of the non-Hindi speaking regions (mainly southern states) of the country were unhappy with the idea.
• Debate over predominance of Hindi has been there since the 18th century and eventually it was given status of official language of the Union and English as an associate language for 15 years after the commencement of the constitution.

The Hindi-Urdu tug-of-war

• According to historian Sumit Sarkar Urdu had been the language of polite culture over a big part of North India both for the Muslims as well as Hindus in the 18-19th century.
• In the 18th century, Persian used to be the official language.
  • By the 1830s, the East India Company replaced Persian with English at the higher levels of administration and the local vernaculars would be in usage in the lower levels.
  • At this time Urdu was popular among the local population of North India, it found predominance in lower levels of government service.
  • The socio-political changes in the mid-19th century coupled with bifurcation of government education into Hindi and Urdu led to establishment of different schools of different communities.
• The desire to find a place in the administration prompted many proponents of Hindi to spell out its merits which included calling Hindi as the language of original habitants
• In 1900, the government of the North West Provinces and Oudh gave equal status to the Devanagari and Urdu scripts, thereby alienating many Muslims.
  • It argued that the Hindu-Muslim conflict also lay in Hindu-Urdu debate of 19th century and became more pronounced when Pakistan adopted Urdu as its official language.

Post-1947 debate over Hindi

• Hindi as the official language of an independent India was considered a unifying force in a country with diverse languages, scripts and dialects, strongly objected by the non-Hindi speakers.
• The constituent assembly also had debates over terms such as “official language”, “national language “and different languages, scripts etc. which included Hindi Vs Hindustani, Roman Script to Devanagari script etc.
  • Some members called for English and some called for Hindi and members from south opposed both English and Hindi because both were foreign to natives.
• The first Prime Minister Nehru acknowledged the contribution of English but supported Hindustani and argued not to impose any language as official/ national on the people against their will.
• In the end a compromise was reached wherein English along with Hindi was made the official language of India for a period of 15 years.
  • At the completion of the period, Hindi would replace English as the only language to be used for official purposes.
  • Also Article 351 of the Constitution asked for the promotion and development of the Hindi language in a way that it could serve as a means of expression in all matters.

From protests to Hindi Diwas

• When the 15 year period came to an end protests broke out over the fear of imposition of Hindi in large parts of non-Hindi speaking India, particularly in Tamil Nadu.
• The people’s resistance resulted in the Centre passing the Official Languages Act, which stated that English would continue to be upheld as an official language along with Hindi.
• In the later years the government has made several efforts to propagate Hindi as the unifying language of India, the celebration of Hindi Diwas being one among them.

Hindi’s reach in numbers

• According to the 2011 linguistic census there are 121 mother tongues, including 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
• Hindi is the most widely spoken, with 52.8 crore individuals, that is, about 43 % of the population, declaring it as their mother tongue.
• The next highest is Bengali, mother tongue for 9.7 crores (8%) — less than one-fifth of Hindi’s count.
• More than half the population of the country knows Hindi and about 11% of the population (14 crores) declared Hindi as their second language which puts Hindi as mother tongue or second language to about 55% population.
• Hindi has been India’s predominant mother tongue over the decades, its share in the population has risen to 43.6% in 2011 which was 37% in 1971.
  • Between 1971 and 2011 the number of individuals whose mother tongue is Hindi rose from about 20 crores to about 53 crores.

The status of English in India

• English, alongside Hindi, is one of the two official languages of the central government, but it is not among the 22 languages in the 8th Schedule.
• It is one of the 99 non-scheduled languages and there were only 2.6 lakh individuals with English as the mother tongue in 2011.
• As a second language, 8.3 crores spoke it in 2011, second only to Hindi’s 13.9 crores.

Conclusion:

• Unity in diversity has always been the strength of India and diversity is a great philosophical idea and should never be seen as a cultural burden.
• Therefore, in the context of identity associated with language and India being a federal polity, both centre and states should follow cooperative models and avoid language hegemony/chauvinism.

Source: Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. “ In the recent years there has been a greater push to promote Hindi as the national language of the country in Indian political discourse which is contrary to the spirit of the constitution and linguistic diversity of the county” in light of the statement given, write your arguments against and in favour of the statement. (250 words).