Learning with the Times: India doesn't have any 'national language'

What does the Constitution say on languages?

Article 343 of the Constitution and the Official Languages Act say that the official language of the Union will be Hindi. However, the attempt to adopt Hindi as the official language was strongly opposed by several non-Hindi speaking states, especially Tamil Nadu, which erupted in violent protests leading to a compromise in allowing the use of English also for official purposes. Thus, the Constitution and the act allowed English to be used for transaction of business in Parliament, by Centre and states and for certain purposes in high courts for 15 years. Later, the act was amended in 1967 to allow continuation of English for official purposes. It is argued that while Hindi is the official language it was never given the status of national language, as India, being a multilingual country, has no single national language. Article 351, a directive, says it is the duty of the Union to promote the spread of Hindi language, so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India, never using the term national language to refer to Hindi.

How many languages does the Constitution list?

The Constitution listed fourteen languages — Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu — in Eighth Schedule, in 1950. Since then, the list has been expanded thrice, once to include Sindhi, second time to include Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali and yet again to add four more languages — Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri — bringing total to 22 scheduled languages. The claims of many more languages for inclusion is under consideration.

What's the three-language policy that was recommended for education in the country?

The three-language formula recommends the study of a modern Indian language, preferably a south Indian language, apart from Hindi and English in Hindi-speaking states and the study of the regional language along with Hindi and English in non-Hindi speaking states. The All India Council for Education in 1956 recommended the adoption of the three-language formula and it was endorsed widely and adopted by the chief ministers conference. This three-language policy was reiterated by the National Policy on Education in 1968, yet again in 1986 and was adopted as a Programme of Action by Parliament in 1992. Yet, an official review of the three-language formula in the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in January 2000 found that in many states, apart from Hindi and English, Sanskrit, Arabic or even European languages like French and German were being allowed in place of a modern Indian language.

Why has the attempt to increase use of Hindi led to controversy?

Large states with non-Hindi speaking populations have always resented what they see as an imposition of Hindi and huge budgetary allocation each year for promotion of Hindi as official language and incidents due to acrimony over this issue have increased in recent years. For instance, Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution in December 2006 to make Tamil the official language of Madras HC. Earlier, West Bengal too had sought to introduce Bengali in Calcutta HC. Article 348 (2) of the Constitution and Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, together entitle Hindi-speaking states like Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to use their official language, Hindi, in their respective high courts. Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi wants an extension of this constitutional provision to Tamil as well. SC rejected request of both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal claiming it would impact transfer and posting of high court judges all over India as it would be possible to post only Tamil-knowing judges to the Madras high court and would involve voluminous work of translating thousands of orders and laws in Tamil. But, of course, the same problem could be faced by judges from the south or other non-Hindi speaking states posted to Bihar, UP, MP and Rajasthan high courts. Again, in September this year, a Union minister from Tamil Nadu, M K Alagiri, asked to be allowed to answer questions and speak in Tamil in the Parliament. The Lok Sabha secretariat turned down the request saying that only MPs asked for interpreters in the past, not ministers, as the business of the house had to be transacted in Hindi or English.