Flaws and Intersections: The Lines of Language Politics in India

With its recent recommendations of imparting education in regional languages up to class fifth and changes in the Three Language Formula, the National Education Policy (NEP) has sparked off an age-old debate about linguistic chauvinism in India.

NEP 2020 tinkers the three-language formula with three languages being taught from

pre-primary stage- with two languages out of three being native to India. To contextualize, it becomes increasingly important to look at these policy changes in the backdrop of debates around language throughout our history.

Twenty-two languages are listed in the 8th schedule; while Hindi along with English is the Official Languages of the Union. While in the pre-independence era, all leaders more or less agreed to the idea of the creation of states on linguistic lines, things have changed drastically in the aftermath of the Partition. The top brass of the Congress was unwilling to create provinces on linguistic basis due to the fear of secessionism. Regardless, the State Reorganization Committee was constituted to carve out states on the basis of language.

The issue of national language was ridden with immense controversy; with the more

conservative members like RV Dhulekar relentlessly pushing for Sanskritised Hindi as the national language. This led to a near impasse with the South Indian members, who were put off by the fanaticism of Hindi supporters. Many in the congress had stopped advocating for Hindustani, Gandhi’s choice, as the national language in the face of Urdu identification with Muslims and Pakistan. The idea of national language was eventually dropped, and the terminology “Official language” was adopted, and Hindi and English were designated as the same. Hindi was slated to replace English in a period of fifteen years and the promotion of Hindi was made the responsibility of the central government.Even numerals became an issue of immense debate, with Hindi supporters pushing for numerals in Devanagari instead of the international form, but the latter was accepted as standard eventually.

As the 15 year period drew to a close, Tamil Nadu saw violent protests by students and parties like the DMK, with about 50,000 students coming out on the streets on 26 th January 1965; and by February the law and order situation deteriorated. The Centre relented and allowed usage of English along with Hindi.

Three years on, in 1968, with the introduction of the three-language formula the issue got a fresh lease of life, and Tamil Nadu continued to teach only English and Tamil.

Over the years, numerous states have been created on a linguistic basis, many of them in the North East-starting from Nagaland in 1963 to Arunachal Pradesh in 1987. Even Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were carved out of Punjab in 1966, in the view of Shiromani Akali Dal and other predominantly Sikh organizations pushing for the creation of a Punjabi Suba.

All in all, a distinct hierarchy with respect to languages has emerged, with Hindi and English reigning supreme in the context of access to state structures and employment, followed by the 22 languages in the eighth schedule; and the unrecognized regional languages struggling for survival and recognition. The latter category includes tribal languages such as Gondi, Mandari and Ho, and Garhwali, Kumaoni, Bhili, and Pahari- all of which are considered to be “dialects” of Hindi for the purposes of the Census, although a large number of linguists consider them to be distinct languages.

The three-language formula and its limits:

The three-language policy is attacked on two fronts- the hegemony of Hindi over other scheduled regional languages and the promotion of dominant regional languages at the cost of minor languages, often spoken by the most vulnerable sections of the society in a particular state.

The three-language formula envisioned the teaching of South Indian languages as the 3rd language in Hindi-speaking states, while the rest of the states were supposed to teach Hindi, with English being taught throughout the nation. Needless to say, the Hindi speaking states didn’t keep their part of the bargain, with Sanskrit becoming the de-facto third language in the Hindi speaking states, with some schools offering modern European languages (mainly French and German). Among the non-Hindi states, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, and Tripura have not implemented the three-language formula.

As a result of the hierarchical division in languages cemented by Article 341 and the Eighth Schedule, people hailing from the Hindi belt are essentially relieved of dealing with multiple languages, and those who speak scheduled languages other than Hindi have to learn Hindi or English, and people who do not fall in these categories have to face the double (or, more appropriately, triple) whammy of learning the dominant regional language, along with Hindi and English. For speakers of non scheduled languages, their mother tongue doesn’t find a place in the school curriculum or in the official business of the state.

For instance, in Bihar, only Hindi and Urdu have been recognized as state languages, whereas Maithili, which is a part of the eighth schedule lacks recognition. Magahi and Bhojpuri are still unrecognized at both Union and State level, although about 25% of the population reports Bhojpuri to be their Mother Tongue, about the same as Hindi; and 10% of Bihar’s population considers Magahi to be their Mother Tongue as opposed to the 8% who report Urdu as their mother tongue. Similarly, in Uttarakhand, Hindi and Sanskrit are the two official languages, while Garhwali and Kumaoni which are spoken by 23% and 20% of the population remain

unrecognized. Moreover, both the languages are categorized as vulnerable

in the UNESCO Atlas of World’s Languages in Danger.

Hence, while the NEP 2020 stresses education in mother tongue till primary level, and flexibility in the framework of the 3 language formula, little will change on the ground till they are lumped as Hindi for official purposes and are not accorded due recognition by their respective state government. If they are recognized as separate languages, a massive exercise involving training, writing new books, and restructuring the curriculum needs to be undertaken by the states.

The love-hate relationship with English:

Whilst the recommendation of imparting elementary education in mother tongue has been celebrated by some, especially in the face of abysmal educational outcomes; many scholars from marginalized backgrounds have stressed the importance of an English-medium education especially in government schools, considering a significant number of India’s poor are dependent on these schools, and it is the only avenue they can afford to learn the language. Many of them join the gig economy- as delivery persons, call center workers, technicians among other things- and all these require a functional knowledge of English. Notwithstanding the issue of medium of education, the importance of a strong base in English is irrefutable.

The NEP, unfortunately, carries on the ambivalence that the government has had towards English since the very beginning; and one must move beyond the dogma of regarding English as a foreign language.

References-

1. https://feminisminindia.com/2019/06/10/anti-hindi-agitations-history-tamil-nadu/

2. https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/06/07/brief-history-anti-hindi-imposition-agitations-india.html

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Hindi_agitations_of_Tamil_Nadu

4. Census of India, 2011

5. https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/23/special-articles/breaking-chaturvarna-system-

languages.html

6. Upholding Fundamental Linguistic Rights and Empowering Speakers of the Tribal

Languages-Anvita Abbi

By-

Madhav Chadha (madhavchadha5@gmail.com)

An accidental B-school student who reads feminist theory for fun!