Contents

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Chapter-1 ...................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
CAN INDIA HAVE ONE COMPULSORY RASHTRA BHASHA? ...................................................................... 5
CHAPTER-2 .................................................................................................................................................... 7
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES......................................................................................................................................... 7
TWO OFFICIAL LANGUAGES HINDI AND ENGLISH .................................................................................... 7
Hindi In Roman Script ............................................................................................................................... 7
ENRICHMENT OF HINDI ............................................................................................................................ 8
REGIONAL SCRIPTS .................................................................................................................................. 11
CHAPTER-3 .................................................................................................................................................. 15
LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION ........................................................................................................... 15
COMMON SCRIPT FOR ALL INDIAN LANGUAGES.................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER-4 .................................................................................................................................................. 19
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. 19
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................ 21

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 Chapter-1
Introduction
FROM the time when the Constitution came into force in 1950, it was clear that its language
provisions were only a compromise that meant different things to different people. For those who
wanted Hindi to take the place of English not only for purposes of official communication but for
all other purposes which English had been serving, the language provisions meant only a capture
of the first bastion from which base they could set out to achieve their over-all objective.1 To
those who had not really accepted Hindi as the national language and symbol of Indian national
identity but had acquiesced in the compromise, the language provisions meant an indefinite
continuance of English for all-India purposes and full development of the regional languages.
They did not really believe that either English would disappear from its all-India position or that
it would be replaced by Hindi and regarded the transitional character of the position given to
English merely as a sop to the Hindi enthusiasts. Theyhad no objection to government taking
special steps for the development of Hindi or its use as an additional official language of the
union as long as they, the non-Hindi speakers, were not placed in a disadvantageous position in
the context of all-India opportunities and the development -of their own languages did not face
any threat. This dual position about the place of Hindi and English in independent India was
linked with the fact that while Hindi was the regional language of one part of the country,
English was more widely current among the middle classes of the bulk of the non-Hindi
speaking regions.2 The position may have been different if the language selected as the
prospective permanent official language of the Union had been Hindustani, which while without
any literary or academic standing or a fixed region-bound home of its own being only a spoken
language3 – was understood all over the country and could have therefore been developed de-
novo as a literary and language with all sections of the people and all languages of the country
taking part in such development. It would also have had the advantage of life-long sponsorship

1
"Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities: 50th report (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF).
Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
2
Rudyard Kipling, The Stranger, in THE WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING (Delphi Classics, Series Two, version 5,
2015); see also Rosina Lippi-Green, Accent, Standard Language Ideology, and Discriminatory Pretext in the
Courts, Language in Society, 23-2, 163-198 (1994).
3
"Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2001". Ministry of Home Affairs, Government
of India. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2015.

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by Mahatma Gandhi who was still the symbol of India's independence besides being its principal
architect. But the language selected was not Hindustani but Hindi, and in the Devanagari script.
Not only was it a regional language; it was also already a developed literary and academic and its
further development was bound to be in the hands of the elite writing in that language rather than
in those of the elite of all the Indian languages.4 Nationalism in a multilingual society is such a
delicate plant, especially when the common foreign ruler with his unifying effect on his multi-
lingual subjects has disappeared, that if one wants a common language for promoting emotional
identity and national integration, is easier to do so with a non-region bound and underdeveloped
language, as it would have both the negative advantage of equal disability for all and the positive
advantage of opportunity for participation by all linguistic groups in its development. Hindustani
could have satisfied this criterion; but not Hindi. Moreover the linguistic fanaticism that had
accompanied the debate both within the Congress party and in the Constituent Assembly on the
language issue had fouled the atmosphere; and the kind of confrontation that had developed in
the Constituent Assembly had not really been resolved by the compromise formula that was
accepted by such a large majority. The Union government did not take any active steps either for
the use of Hindi for official purposes or for imposing any restrictions on any of the uses for
which English was being put. The linguistic problem now got diverted from the Union sphere to
that of the states and the launching of a movement for the formation of linguistic states. Andhra,
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and at a later stage Haryana and Punjab
all joined the ranks of the linguistic states which were already in existence at the commencement
of the Constitution; and regional languages came to the fore in the linguistic development of the
country.5 This not only took an anti-English slant but also an anti-Hindi slant and sub national
feelings got mixed up with regional languages and their development. Linguism, allied with
regionalism, emerged as a new force and its impact on the Union language issue got naturally
clouded by the fact that Hindi was itself a regional language whose adoption as the official
language gave an unfair advantage to the Hindi speaking region and also posed a threat to the
development of other regional languages. Jawaharlal Nehru was against a quick change-over to
Hindi. He said, "We cannot fix a date and say that from that date English ceases and Hindi

4
THOMAS HYLL AND ERIKSEN, ETHNICITY AND NATIONALISM, ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES 17 (Pluto Press,
London 1993).
5
Kanchan Chandra, "Ethnic Bargains, Group Instability, and Social Choice Theory," Politics and Society 29, 3:
337-62.

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comes in. It has to be gradual process.6 In this gradual transformation, dates have very little
significance except to examine the position from time to time to see whether we are going along
the right lines".7 According to him, English would continue to beat associate or alternate
language as long as people required it; and a decision on the final replacement of English by
Hindi would be left not to the Hindi knowing people but to the non-Hindi knowing people. The
Official Languages Act, 1968, thus provided for a continuance of the use of English as an official
language beyond the transitional period of 15 years from January 26, 1950 provided by the
Constitution. The Act made provision for an enlargement of the use of Hindi by prescribing that
translations in Hindi should be provided for all Central Acts, ordinances, and rules, regulations
and bye-laws issued under the Constitution or Central Acts and a similar facility was authorised
for state ordinances and Acts. The state governments were also empowered, with the previous
permission of the President, to authorise their High Courts to use Hindi or their state official
language for judgments, decrees or orders passed by them, subject to an English translation also
being issued under the authority of the High Courts concerned.8 NEHRU's ASSURANCES The
Official Languages (Amendment) Act 1967 gave statutory shape to Nehru's assurances. It
provided for the use of English for purposes of communication between the Union and a state
which had not adopted Hindi as official language.9 When Hindi was used for purposes of
communication between a state with Hindi as official language and another state which had not
adopted Hindi, such communication in Hindi had to be
accompanied by an English translation of the same. The Act provided that this position would
continue until legislature of all the states passed resolutions for its discontinuance. These
provisions were reinforced by a Resolution which contained some important provisions: (i)
acceleration in the progressive use of Hindi for official purpose of the Union; (ii) development of
all the 15 major languages of India; (iii) arrangement for the implementation of three language
formula; (iv) compulsory knowledge of either Hindi or English for recruitment to Union
services; (v) holding of UPSC examinations in English and all the languages included in the

6
V. Geetha & S.V Rajadurai, TOWARDS A NON-BRAHMIN MILLENNIUM: FROM IYOTHEE THASS TO
PERIYAR (SAMYA, CALCUTTA, 1987) 481; see also INTERNATIONAL TAMIL LANGUAGE FOUNDATION,
TIRUKKURAL/THE HANDBOOK OF TAMIL CULTURE AND HERITAGE (ITLF, CHICAGO, 2000) 1346.
7
Ramasami Periyar, RELIGION AND SOCIETY: SELECTIONS FROM PERIYAR'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 28
(EMERALD PUBLISHERS, MADRAS, 1994).
8
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATE (PROCEEDINGS), Vol. IX (NEW DELHI, LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT, 1949).
9
"The Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) - Rules 1976 (As Amended, 1987) - Paragraph
1". Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2015.

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eighth schedule of the Constitution.10 The situation
now quieted down with English having been allowed to retain its position and Hindi appeased by
more concrete steps being taken for its use for official purposes.11 Thus, the position now is that
Tamil Nadu has openly opted out of Hindi and has gone in for a two-language formula which
includes English in addition to Tamil, while in the other non-Hindi states, Hindi continues to
figure in the three languages formula, but in an anemic fashion and without the status that
English and the regional language obtain in the school curriculum. As far as primary education is
concerned, which alone affects the bulk of the school-goers especially in rural areas, neither
Hindi nor English figure in the teaching programme.

CAN INDIA HAVE ONE COMPULSORY RASHTRA BHASHA?

Where do we go from here? Are we to accept a continuance of the pre-independence position
when the ruling and middle classes used English for functioning at the national level and the
masses used the regional language for functioning at the regional level through their linguistic
links with their ruling and middle classes and also indirectly participating in national affairs
through their links with their own regional leadership? It is true that there is now more linguistic
integration among the Hindi regions a whole, and similarly among each other of the non-Hindi
regions on the basis of their individual regional languages; but there has been no linguistic
integration among the masses of the different regions nor has there been any use of Hindi for the
linguistic integration of the ruling upper classes.12 National integration in a multi-lingual country
does not require the imposition of one official language on the country, especially when the
language selected for the purpose is one of its many regional languages even if it happens to be
that of the largest linguistic group in the country.13 There is a lot of fore in the Sunit Kumar
Chatterjee’s Contention, supported by the authority that he quotes of lenin, that a polygot nation
does not need a compulsory national language. What he quotes from Lenin is worth repeating:
"We of course are in favour of every inhabitant of Russia having the opportunity to learn the

10
"Statement 1 - Abstract of Speakers' Strength of Languages and Mother Tongues - 2011" (PDF). Ministry of
Home Affairs, Government of India.
11
"The Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) - Rules 1976 (As Amended, 1987)". Archived
from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
12
"Govt to promote use of Hindi in routine conversation, NE - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 11
June 2016
13
GRANVILLE AUSTIN, THE INDIAN Constitution: CORNERSTONE OF A NATION 277 (CLARENDON, 1966).

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great Russian language. What we do not want is the element of coercion." It is also worthwhile
quoting in this context what Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, who later founded the Jan Sangh, said
on the subject during the last days of the debate in the Constituent Assembly on this subject. "If
it is claimed by any one that by passing an article in the Constitution of India one language is
going to be accepted by all by a process of coercion, I say, Sir, that that will not be possible to
achieve. Unity in diversity is India's keynote and must be achieved by a process of understanding
and consent."14 At the same time, the convenience, in fact the necessity, of having one or more
languages as the official (not national, as all languages spoken in a country can claim to be
national) language or languages for Centre-state and inter-state communication for political,
economic, legal and even social reasons cannot be disputed.15

14
CAD debate VI
15
Rao, V.K.R.V, Many Languages, One Nation: Quest for an All-India Language, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
WEEKLY, VOL. 13, No. 25 1025-1030 (JUN. 24, 1978).

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 CHAPTER-2
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

TWO OFFICIAL LANGUAGES HINDI AND ENGLISH

Therefore while a multi-lingual nation like India cannot have a national language or Rashtra
Bhasha, it should have an official language. But India cannot have one official language. Hindi
has been accepted by the Constitution; the Constitution has also provided for English- -as the
official language and Parliament has extended its continuance for an indefinite period.16 Both
these provisions are acceptable to a very large number of our people. Wisdom therefore seems to
indicate that the present position regarding the official language should be stabilized and that
both Hindi and English should be given constitutional recognition as the two official languages
of India, as long as Parliament by a near unanimous vote supported by a similar vote by all the
state legislatures does not seek to alter the position. This suggestion for the constitutional
formalisation of having two official languages for the country does not rule out the possibility of
having some day only one official language, namely Hindi; but Hindi can become the sole
official language of the union only with the near-unanimous consent of all its people and
primarily of its non-Hindi people.17

Hindi In Roman Script

There are three factors which could be of crucial assistance in persuading the non-Hindi people
to accept Hindi as the sole official language for the Union. First, a bi-lingual script would go a
long way in breaking non-Hindi resistance to the learning of Hindi. But I do not mean by this the
adoption of the Persian-Arabic script used for Urdu in addition to the Nagari script used for
Hindi.18 There is neither motivation nor case in learning behind the Arabic script as a second
script for Hindi. But the position is different, with regard to the use of the Roman script as a
second or additional script for Hindi.19 English as a language will continue to be learnt even if it

16
Article 343, Constitution of India 1950.
17
indianexpress.com Archived 25 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
18
"Urdu is second official language in Telangana as state passes Bill". The News Minute. 17 November 2017.
Retrieved 27 February 2018.
19
Rohit Wanchoo & Mukesh Williams, REPRESENTING INDIA: LITERATURES, POLITICS, and IDENTITIES 73 (OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2007).

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is not the official language; the Roman script will therefore have to be learnt by a growing
number of the people. If Hindi could also be learnt in the Roman script and official documents
and other material made available in this script, one major obstacle tc the learning of Hindi by
the non-Hindi regions would have been removed and the country would move faster towards the
use of Hindi as its official language. It would also remove the negative motivation of some of
India's religious minority groups that tend rightly or wrongly to regard Hindi as something
specially Hindu. Moreover the country has had considerable experience in teaching Hindi
through the Roman script in its defence forces and by all accounts no difficulty has been
experienced in the process. From the technical point of view of printing also there would be no
difficulty while the economics of production costs also would be in its favour.20 I would
therefore suggest the use of the Roman script as an additional script for Hindi in order to increase
its acceptability in the non-Hindi areas of the country.

ENRICHMENT OF HINDI
Second, I would suggest that positive and determined steps should be taken to implement that
part of Article 351 of the Constitution which imposes on the Union Government the duty to so
develop the Hindi language as "secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its
genius the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India
specified in the Eighth Schedule".21 The first thing to do in this connection is to appoint
an Expert Committee including representatives of all the 15 languages listed in the Eighth
Schedule and of the Hindustani Prachar Sabha with the purpose of reviewing the progress of the
Hindi language since the commencement of the Constitution in terms of its development outlined
in Article 351, especially in regard to its assimilation of the forms, style and expressions used in
Hindustani and the 15 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule. The Committee may also be
asked to make concrete suggestions for the implementation of the constitutional provision. There
are however very severe limitations to what government can do in the matter of enrichment of a
language or alteration in its form and style. The enrichment of the Hindi language as desired in

20
The National Commission for Linguistic Minorities, 1950 (ibid) makes no mention of Chhattisgarhi as an
additional state language, despite the 2007 notification of the State Govt, presumably because Chhattisgarhi is
considered as a dialect of Hindi.
21
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF India DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS), VOL. IX; see also Bipin
Chandra, INDIA AFTER INDEPENDENCE 96 (PENGUIN BOOKS, 1989).

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Article 351 can come not from writers whose mother tongue is Hindi but only from the efforts of
writers whose mother-tongue is not Hindi. It is only the Hindi writers from non-Hindi regions
who can bring about a basic change in the form, style and expression of Hindi in the direction of
assimilation from other Indian languages; and similarly it is only the knowers and lovers of
Hindustani who by their writings in Hindi can bring about the assimilation of tIindi with
Hindustani. What we need is a corps of Hindi writers whose mother-tongue is not Hindi and who
are equally proficient in both their own languages and in Hindi. It is they who should be given
incentives and special encouragement to produce books, pamphlets and articles in Hindi and it is
their works which should be given subsidised publication and made available for the Hindi
speaking masses. Once the words, idioms, .and styles they even unconsciously introduce from
their own languages into Hindi get current among the public, automatically they would also enter
into the works of Hindi writers whose mother tongue is Hindi. Only thus can Hindi be developed
on the lines desired by Article 351 of the Indian Constitution.22 There is no doubt that the Union
government can do a great deal in this matter, though it is ultimately the writers and the authors
who can actually effect the desired change. What we need is a massive effort, a gigantic
campaign to harness the Hindi-knowing non-Hindi writers to write in Hindi. And money should
be no consideration in launching and maintaining a massive programme for exposing the Hindi
language to non-Hindi influences and thereby making Hindi a truly powerful force for national
and emotional integration.23 If hundreds of crores of rupees can be spent on defence or on steel
plants or power or irrigation or now rural industrialisation and agricultural development, I do not
see why a few tens of crores of rupees cannot be spent for giving the country an official and link
language. For focusing public attention on this programme, securing public support and
implementing it, I would suggest the setting up of a special organisation at the Centre with
branches in all the states for the specific purpose of developing the Hindi language on the lines
directed by Article 351 of the Constitution. Third, special efforts need to be undertaken to make
Hindi "serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India" as
required by another part of Article 351 of the Constitution.24 This means not just a change in the

22
INDIA CONST. art. 351, Directive for the development of hindi language.
23
Thomas Benedikter (2009). Language Policy and Linguistic in India: An Appraisal of the Linguistic Rights of
Minorities in India. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 134.
24
Article 351, Constitution of India 1950.

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linguistic character of Hindi but in its content as literature and other reading material.25 The
culture of India is represented not only by Sanskrit and the traditional themes it has given to the
Indian languages but also by elements specific to each Indian language which has sprung from
the region where it is spoken in terms of natural resources including flora, fauna, climate and
scenery, tradition, history, legend, proverbs, folk tales and folk songs. It is the latter which
constitutes the composite culture of India and for which the Indian Constitution desires Hindi to
become a medium of expression. If this constitutional directive is to be implemented, suitable
additions will have to be made to the current content and style of Hindi literature. This can be
done by Hindi writers taking up themes from the cultural contour of other Indian languages and
by non-Hindi writers taking up writing in Hindi on themes drawn from their own cultural
context. Translations, into Hindi of classics or selected modern writings from other Indian
languages can also help Hindi to become a medium of expression for the composite culture of
India. In fact, the influence which Bengali literature has exercised on Hindi literature and its
consequent enrichment is due to all three factors mentioned above and it came about
spontaneously rather than by any specific official or otherwise organised encouragement. For
this purpose, three things are required: (1) Facility for potential Hindi writers whose mother
tongue is Hindi to learn the language and literature of one or other of the other modern Indian
languages listed in the Eighth Schedule. (2) Facility for potential Hindi writers whose mother-
tongue is not Hindi to acquire a good grounding in Hindi language and literature. (3) A massive
programme, of translation into Hindi of classics and selected modern writings from other Indian
languages.26 To implement the first two conditions there has to be some reorientation of the
Indian language courses –whether at the graduate, honours or the post-graduate level - to include
a compulsory grounding in the language and literature of one or other of the Indian languages in
the Hindi courses and of Hindi in the other Indian language courses. To implement the third
condition, special courses need to be offered in translation techniques. It is not enough however
merely to create facilities. Suitable incentives need to be offered for the actual utilisation of these
facilities and necessary follow –up action taken. In fact, the task of stimulating and monitoring
progress in this field may be left to the same organisation that I have suggested- earlier for the

25
Ibid.
26
Paul Brass, The New Cambridge History of India IV(1) (The Politics of India since Independence, Cambridge,
1990) 136.

10 | P a g e
assimilation by the Hindi language of the forms, style, and expressions used in Hindustani and in
other Indian languages.

REGIONAL SCRIPTS
Finally, there is the unsolved problem of creating a linguistic medium for direct communication
among the masses of the country, both Hindi and non-Hindi. Th6re is no such direct contact at
the moment.27 A major reason for India still continuing to be a dual society in so many ways or
being subject to class domination rather than mass rule in spite of the democratic professions of
its Constitution is this absence of direct and face to face communication between the masses of
one region and that of another who have different mother-tongues. This is particularly true of the
rural masses. For the purpose of such direct communication what is
required is not so much a written communication link as an oral communication link. In fact, the
traditional communication link in India has been the oral one and it is audio-instruction that has
kept the masses of India educated and certainly united in spite of being illiterate. This is not a
plea for continued illiteracy.28 But literacy need not mean ability to read and write in three
languages (or two languages, for the majority of the people) till we reach the day when there is
free and compulsory education upto the high-school or higher-secondary stage for all the people
of the country including its rural masses; and even then it need not mean proficiency in more
than one or two scripts. Today we have not been able to provide primary education even upto
Vth class for all our rural children and even of those who are enrolled, a large percentage give up
before they attain literacy in their-mother-tongue (or regional language if it is different). Only
one language is taught at the primary stage and that is the regional language and only one script
is used and that is the regional script. Any attempt to teach a child more than one script is not
only educationally unsound but would also be a criminal waste of his time and energy. This
means that even if the three language formula is actually being implemented, Hindi in the Nagari
script will figure in the curriculum only either at the VI standard or the VIII standard and that
leaves out the bulk of the school-going population. For the illiterate adults and the drop-outs, the
priority script to be taught will have to be the script of the regional language or mother-tongue

27
Jean Laponce, “Babel and the Market: Geostrategy for Minority Languages” in Jacques Maurais and Michael A.
Morris (Eds.), supra, n. 3, 58, 59.
28
Kaushik Das Gupta, “The Loss of Wisdom” in Down to Earth, 9-8-2013.

11 | P a g e
and getting them to learn it is itself quite a job.29 Under the circumstance, we have to find an
alternative way of getting them to learn Hindi without the use of the Nagari script; and we should
be satisfied if this learning is confined to only understanding and speaking and does not extend to
writing. If my thesis is accepted, namely, that is enough to have an oral communication link for
the masses of the Indian people and not force on them a written national language in addition to
the regional language which they will have to learn anyhow, then we can have this taught at the
primary stage itself thr6ugh the regional script and similarly for school dropouts and illiterate
adults.30 The bugbear of learning any language additional to one's own is always the additional
script; and it is overcome only when there is a strong motivation to do so as in the professional or
literary use of that language. But the masses have a motivation for establishing an oral
communication link with the common people of the regions to which they travel and with the
common people who come to their areas from other regions in the country. As they become
conscious of the need for organising themselves on a mass basis along with the masses of other
regions, they get an additional motivation for an oral communication link. As Hindi or
Hindustani alone can provide such a link, they would be prepared to learn it as an oral language,
provided they don't have to learn an additional script to do so. And this they can do provided
Hindi or Hindustani is taught to them in their own regional scripts.31 This should not present any
difficulty. While a number of Indian languages have scripts that have some relation with the
Nagari script, all the Indian languages have a common cultural content from the national
inheritance that is contained in the Sanskrit language. In fact one way in which Sanskritic culture
has permeated the multi-lingual masses of India has been through the study of Sanskrit through
the regional scripts and the transmission of its content through audio-education in the regional
languages. This fact with its crucial bearing on a solution of the language problem of India is
generally not known to the people or even to our intellectuals. Even when it is known, its
significance for the spread of one all-India communication link is usually lost sight of. When I
discovered this fact myself - in Bombay in 1954 when I had a Telugu Pandit coming to my house
to recite the scriptures and found by accident that he was doing so not from the Devanagari but

29
P. Ishwara Bhat, Law and Social Transformation in India (Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2009) Chapter 6.
30
Kachru, Yamuna (1 January 2006). Hindi. London Oriental and African language library. John Benjamins
Publishing. p. 1.
31
Naheed Saba (18 September 2013). "2. Multilingualism". Linguistic heterogeneity and multilinguality in India: a
linguistic assessment of Indian language policies (PDF). Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University. pp. 61–68.
Retrieved 17 December 2014.

12 | P a g e
from the Telugu script it came to me as a shock and then I suddenly realised its national
significance. After this I kept a look-out for the script used wherever I heard recitals of Sanskrit
scriptures in the non-Hindi regions of India and found that in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka
the script used was not Nagari but the regional script. I later found that in Bengal Sanskrit was
being taught in many schools and colleges through the Bengali script and not the Nagari script
and that university question papers for the MA examination in Sanskrit were being set in the
Bengali script. This use of the regional script for teaching an all-India language like Sanskrit
came to me almost as a revelation and explained the mystery of how India attained a Sanskritic
cultural unity in spite of its being a multi-lingual society and why the vocabulary of so many
Indian languages had been so profoundly influenced by Sanskrit words and forms of expression.
It is therefore entirely in the national tradition if the language to which we want to give an all-
India communication status, namely Hindi or Hindustani, were to be taught in the different
regions of India in their own regional scripts. And it can be done so easily at the primrary stage
as also at the adult education stage without imposing any significant additional
learning burden on its pupils. I have been using Hindi or Hindustani as alternative equivalents in
this context because I am referring to the spoken language and not the written language.
Beginning from Gandhiii down to all the distinguished scholars who have spoken or written on
this subject, it is common ground that Hindustani with its Hindi-Urdu admixture and other words
derived from local associations (and now also including some English) has served and in fact
continues to serve as the lingua-franca not only of north India but also of a great deal of the rest
of India. Films, radio news and talks, political campaigns, and now cricket and other sports
commentaries in Hindi have all helped to maintain this process and given the country a
communication link that is not the Hindi of the pandits and the writers but the Hindustani
understood by most and spoken by many of the common people in the country. The mistake that
Gamdhiji made and others who followed hint repeated was to extrapolate this Hindi-Hindustani
identity at the colloquial level to a similar identity at the literary, scientific and; otherwise
learnied level. As C D Deshmukh has pointed out: "There are three levels at which any language
may conveniently be considered in various aspects, viz, the colloquial, the literary and the
technical.It is this first level which can most appositely be called 'Hindustani, nearest to regional
Hindustani and regional Dakhani". When one proceeds from this to the literary and technical
levels, the language departs from its primary Hindi-Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu identity and

13 | P a g e
becomes either Sanskritised Hindi or Arabicised Urdu, even as a river having a single identity at
its source becomes many as it flows and gathers strength and acquires multiple personalities.32

As far as India is concerned, as Hindi-Hindustani moves from its primary colloquial, identity to a
written language and higher literary and technical levels, it is bound to became more of
sanskritised Hindi than Arabicised Urdu. This has to be recognised as the inevitable result of the
upward progress of an all India colloquial language towards literary, scientific and technical
usage in written form. But what we can do is to dilate the measure of Sanskritisation by
deliberately working for its admixture with Hindustani and the written regional languages of
India. It is precisely this which is sought to be achieved by Article 351 of the Indian
Constitution.

32
Hindi (2005). Keith Brown (ed.). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2 ed.). Elsevier.

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 CHAPTER-3
LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION
Most of the nation states functioning in the world today are single Ianguage countries; and when
they are not, as in the case of Canada or Belgium or Malayasia or Sri Lanka, there is tension and
fear of possible partition. Hence it might appear strange and paradoxical that I should be talking
of the multi-lingual framework such as India's as an instrument to promote national integration.
33
And yet, it is not so paradoxical when we consider the evolution of India's languages, the
influence of Sanskrit, Persian and even English on their vocabulary and style, and the dominance
of common themes on the content of the literature of these languages. The medieval saint-poets
of India travelled far and wide; Namdev was born in Maharashtra but his songs are found in
Guru Granth Sahib in Punjabi; Swati Tirunal of Kerala wrote plays and sorigs in Hindi and. Raja
Sarfoji composed operas in Tamil called Kuravanji. Mirabai was the bridge between Rajasthani
and Gujarati; Vidyapati between Bihari and Bengali. Many Muslim poets 'like Rahim and
Raskhan wrote in excellent trajabhasha; Father Stephans composed his Kristapurana in Marathi.
Even in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries this tradition of writing for an allIndia audience
continued: Maharshi Dayanand was from Gujarat but his works are in Hindi; Deuskar was a
Maharashtrian revolutionary who wrote in Bengali; Kaka Kalelkar and D R Bandre whose
jnother-tongue was Marathi wrote in Gujarati 'and Kannada.34 Subramanya Bharati in his famous
Tamil song saw the vision of this oneness. Literature in our regional languages
has shown a sense of unity extending beyond its individual region right from its inception. It
began with regional renderings of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Then came the Bhakti
movement giving unity of theme and emotional fervour to the, literature in di\fferent Indian
languages. Shankaradeva in Assar or Chandidasa in Bengal; Surdasa or Tulsidas in North India
or Purandaradasa in Karnataka; Kamban in Tamil Nadu or Cherushsheri in Kerala; Tyagaraia in
Andhra or Tukaram in Maharashtra; Narasi Mehta in Gujarat or Balramdasa in Orissa; all these
sang of their deities with the same mystic rapture and spiritual sublimity.35 Not all the poets were
idol-worshippers. There were poets who were highly critical of caste-inequities and who
advocated 'Man as the highest Truth'; Kabir or Dadu, Basaveshwara or Vemana, Akho or Bhim

33
"Reviving classical languages - Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis"
34
"Language and Globalization: Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois
35
Brass, P. R. (2005). Language, Religion and Politics in North India. Lincoln: iUniverse.

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Bhoi, and a host of others who came from all walks of life; gardeners, cobblers, tailors,
scavengers and dancing girls. The second wave that spread unity over the Indian languages were
the singers of heroic ballads who raised their voice against alien invaders and appealed to people
at all levels to function as a united; body. These were all inspired by the same nationalist fervour
which is seen later in the lyrics and long poems written about the martyrs and freedom-fighters
during the nationalist upsurge. Nabin Chandra Sen's Battle of Plassey in Bengali (translated by
Maithilisharan – Gupta into Hindi), Kazi Nazrul Islam's Agnibina, Bharati's and Vallathol's
invocation songs, Savarkar's and Iqbal's poems with patriotic passion, Chakbast in Urdu and
Narmad in Gujarati, Puttappa in Kannada and Ambikagiri Raichoudhury in Assamese are
reminders of the fact that our poets, though writing in different languages, were still united in
their commitment to the cause of national liberation. Coming to more recent times when Indian
prose literature has developed and has started dealing with current social and economic themes,
we find a similar wave of unity in the different Indian languages in their treatment of peasant-
landlord relationships in the sympathy extended to the exploited and under-privileged, and in the
description of the rural masses with their backwardness, superstition, privation and penury.
Marxism and the Russian revolution, Gandhi and his national liberation movement, the upsurge
aroused among the so-called untouchables and the backward classes by the national struggle and
individual leaders rebelling against the social system - all these figure in the modern literature of
all the Indian languages and give them a basic unity in spite of their diversity as media of
expression.36 This diversity as well as unity that characterizes India's composite culture can be
appreciated and enjoyed by an Indian citizen if he can have access to all the Indian languages.
Obviously, however, it is not practicable for an average Indian to have proficiency in more than a
limited number of Indian languages and certainly not in all of them. The question therefore of
using a multi-lingual framework to, strengthen national integration turns essentially upon
building a bridge across India's many languages that will enable each linguistic group to gain
access to the other's territory. This bridge connecting Indian languages with one another - the
missing link in the Indian language family is a common script for all of them.37
The advantage of having one script for all Indian languages is not merely the case' of learning

36
Dasgupta, Jyotirindra (1970). Language Conflict and National Development: Group Politics and National
Language Policy in India. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley. Center for South and Southeast Asia
Studies.
37
Mallikarjun, B. (5 August 2002). "Mother Tongues of India According to the 1961 Census". Languages in India.
M. S. Thirumalai.

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languages other than one's own mother-tongue. In fact, it will also demonstrate more vividly than
any argument can the existence of a measure of identity among all Indian languages which does
not exist as between Indian, and European or other Asian languages. The myth that Hindi is as
foreign to the Tamilian or Kannadiga as English, or that Tamil or Kannada is as foreign to a
Hindi-speaking man as English will stand finally exploded if through a common script it became
possible for all Indians to get some acquaintance with each other's language. What some people
do not realise is that Indians have lived in one country though speaking different languages, that
there has been a considerable measure of internal mobility among them, and that almost all their
languages have been largely influenced by Sanskrit and to a smaller extent by Persian and
Arabic, and now English.38 This long historical process has given a degree of commonness and
intimacy among Indian languages that can be appreciated only if inter-communication is
established among them by a common script. In fact, with a common script, basic vocabularies in
the different Indian languages on the lines of basic English, basic Italian, basic German, etc, and
bi-lingual or multi-lingual dictionaries, it should not be difficult for Indians to get direct contact
with and appreciate the writings in other Indian languages, provided of course there is
transliteration of selected books in the common script.

COMMON SCRIPT FOR ALL INDIAN LANGUAGES

I must hasten to add that I am not advocating the abolition of the existing scripts of Indian
languages or their replacement by a common script. What I am pleading for is an additional
common script with transliteration of selected Indian books and periodicals in all Indian
languages in this additional common script.-- That the idea of an additional common script
existed even in ancient India is shown by the recent discovery of a Tamil inscription in Brabmi
script along with the Tamil script in a cavern in Madurai district in Madras State. Similarly, and
actually in current 'usage is the regional script for Sanskrit writings in many parts of non-Hindi
speaking India. The army has also had experience of teaching Hindi in the Roman script.
Altogether, it is clear that the use of another script to learn an Indian language is found in Indian
history and has also current practice behind it. The question of what this additional common
script should be may not get any unanimous answer.39 While many people would opt for the

38
"How languages intersect in India". Hindustan Times.
39
Snoj, Jure. "20 maps of India that explain the country". Call Of Travel.

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Nagari script, there will be some who would advocate the choice of the Roman script. There is
however no question of applying the doctrine of 'equal disability' which underlies the capes I
have made earlier in this essay for the use of the Roman script for written Hindi and regional
script for oral Hindi for the non-Hindi speaking people of the country. I would therefore favour
the choice of the Devnagari script as the additional script to be used for all Indian languages both
for teaching and for transliteration. The Devnagari script is not only used by Hindi, which is the
language of the largest linguistic group in India, but also by Marathi, and it has a close affinity to
Gujarati and Bengali; and the script-burden of gaining access to other Indian languages will be
practically negligible for a substantial majority of the Indian population if the Devnagari script is
adopted as an .additional script.

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 CHAPTER-4
CONCLUSION

To sum up:
(1) Hindi in the Devnagari and Roman scripts will be the Union official language of India.
(2) English (in the Roman script) will be a second or additional official language as long as it is
so desired by any member state of the Union.
(3) Hindustani, as understood by Gandhi ji and the founding fathers of our Constitution, and also
used currently by the Indian people, shall be treated as the all India oral communication link
between the masses of the multilingual society of India and also between the classes and the
masses at the national level. For this purpose, Hindustani shall be taught in all primary schools
and non-formal education and adult literacy media through their regional scripts, with
opportunity provided in the the Devnagari or Roman scripts for those who want to learn Hindi
for use as the country's official language.
(4)Hindi shall be developed as an all-India language by the assimilation of the forms, style and
expressions used in Hindustani and the regional languages listed in the Eighth, Schedule of the
Constitution, besides drawing on Sanskrit for the expansion and development of its vocabulary
(5) In the development of Hindi at the literary level, special encouragement will be given to
make it a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.
(6) For implementing items 4 and 5 above, a special national organization with branches in all
the states shall be set up for stimulation, monitoring, evaluation and acceleration of appropriate
action programmes. Finance should not be a hindrance in its working, and ample funds to the
tune of many crores of rupees should be provided for implementing its programmes.

(7) All Indian languages should be given an additional script which should be Devnagari and this
should be used for teaching languages other than their mother-tongues and English to India
children and adults who desire to learn a second Indian language.

(8) Language training should be made easy by the adoption of modern techniques. Simple
readers should be brought out for 'Basic- Tamil', 'Basic Kannada', 'Basic Marathi', etc and
accompanied by the production of functional literature, and bi-lingual and multi-lingual
dictionaries.

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(9) A massive programme of transliteration, in the Devnagari script, of selected ciassical and
modern works in all the Indian languages which are written in a different script should be
undertaken for the translation of selected classical and modern works in each Indian language
into all other Indian languages. Also, uniform children's and adult literature crucial to national
integration should be made available in all Indian languages.

(10) A massive programme should be undertaken for the translation of selected classical and
modern works in each Indian language into all other Indian languages. Also, uniform children’s
and adult literature crucial to national integration should be made available in all Indian
languages.
(11) The Central Institute of Indian languages and its Regional Language Centres, and the
Sahitya Akadami should all be strengthened and sufficient funds made available to them for the
purpose of promoting better. inter-communication and mutual access between all Indian
languages and literatures.

In Conclusion, I would plead for a patient and national approach to the problem of language in
India, with attention firmly fixed on fundamentals and not clouded by temporary passions or
short period expediencies. Languages can either divide or unite. It all depends upon the policy
we follow. What we need is a strong and nation-wide language movement which will make it
easy for the country to build up an official language representative of the nations composite
culture and the linguistic wealth of its many languages; and to give its masses an oral link like
Hindustani which in turn will also be linked with the official language of Hindi and with the
classes who will be its main users.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. "How languages intersect in India". Hindustan Times.

2. Dasgupta, Jyotirindra (1970). Language Conflict and National Development: Group
Politics and National Language Policy in India. Berkeley: University of California,
Berkeley. Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies
3. Mallikarjun, B. (5 August 2002). "Mother Tongues of India According to the 1961
Census". Languages in India. M. S. Thirumalai.
4. Brass, P. R. (2005). Language, Religion and Politics in North India.
5. Naheed Saba (18 September 2013). "2. Multilingualism". Linguistic heterogeneity and
multilinguality in India: a linguistic assessment of Indian language policies.
6. Paul Brass, The New Cambridge History of India IV(1) (The Politics of India since
Independence, Cambridge, 1990) 136.
7. Rohit Wanchoo & Mukesh Williams, REPRESENTING INDIA: LITERATURES, POLITICS,
and IDENTITIES 73 (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2007).
8. CAD debate VI
9. Rao, V.K.R.V, Many Languages, One Nation: Quest for an All-India
Language, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY, VOL. 13, No. 25 1025-1030 (JUN. 24,
1978).
10. "Govt to promote use of Hindi in routine conversation, NE - Times of India". The Times
of India. Retrieved 11 June 2016

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