Editorial: Avoid linguistic hegemony

Linguistic diversity forms a key component of India’s identity. It is the celebration of this pluralism that strengthens the country’s unity. Any attempt to tinker with diversity will amount to undermining the civilisational idea of India. union Home Minister Amit Shah has once again stirred a hornet’s nest by claiming that Hindi should be accepted […]

Linguistic diversity forms a key component of India’s identity. It is the celebration of this pluralism that strengthens the country’s unity. Any attempt to tinker with diversity will amount to undermining the civilisational idea of India. union Home Minister Amit Shah has once again stirred a hornet’s nest by claiming that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and that it is the only language that unites the country. The BJP leader would be well advised to desist from stoking divisions that have long been addressed and assimilated as part of India’s national identity. Promoting a language that advantages one set of Indians over others is a recipe for division over diversity. It is fallacious to equate uniformity with unity. In fact, any attempt to impose uniformity will undermine India’s unity. The imposition of Hindi would be a great disservice to the youth who have global aspirations. Understandably, a strong pushback to Shah’s controversial prescription has come from the leaders across the political spectrum in the South and Northeast. These two regions have historically resisted the move to make Hindi a compulsory subject in school curricula. The three-language formula should not be tinkered with at any cost. Instead of imposing one language on the country, it is time we celebrated linguistic diversity. It was to the credit of the enormous wisdom of the framers of the Constitution that all other languages, along with Hindi, were accorded the official language status. The primary purpose of a language is to help people communicate — among themselves and with the government.

Since Hindi is limited to a geographic region, the makers of our Constitution adopted the pragmatic approach of retaining it just as one of the many official languages. When it comes to communicating with each other, the argument that Hindi is the lingua franca of India is flawed. Except for Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar, almost every Indian State has a language of its own. Even in these four States, there is no standard spoken Hindi. More than a mere tool of communication, language is also about culture and identity and equal treatment is a tribute to the unity in diversity which makes India unique. While the promotion of Hindi or any other Indian language is desirable, the language of homogenisation in the garb of unifying the people must be avoided. The Home Minister’s argument that Hindi alone has the potential to become India’s “identity” is faulty. It must be pointed out that the creation of States on linguistic lines helped placate and unite those who spoke different languages in the country. In an increasingly globalised world, English has become the common connector, social aspiration and gateway to opportunities. English has a strong utilitarian value while regional languages are the official languages of the States.

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