Language Imposition

Issue

The framers of the Indian constitution assumed that a single language ¨Hindi" spoken by a large majority of the country would be the national language , and envisioned a phaseout period of English as the other national language. This was codified in the constitution.

However - this was not agreeable to states which had their own language and saw Hindi as another regional language. So a compromise was reached where English would be a permanent national language.

Over the years, there have been continued calls from the politicians from the North of India where Hindi is primarily spoken to go back to the original goal of the constitution and that triggers a response from the South of India where such moves are considered as language hegemony. 

The latest of these got triggered in a ¨draft¨ version of the National Education Plan which mandated learning Hindi , and although that idea was dropped in subsequent versions of the plan due to strong protest from the South states - the furor triggered by the draft has still not died down.

Analysis

A Cautionary Tale :  Pakistan and Bangladesh 

One doesn't have to look far from the sub-continent to see impact of a similar language imposition. At its founding, Pakistan took Urdu as its primary national language and that led to feeling by other language speakers as though they were treated as second-class citizens. This formed the root of a dispute that ended in the partition of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. All the blame for this should fall on those who did the imposition in the first place.

An Impact Analysis : How choice of language potentially affects opportunity ?

In a country where all citizens are treated equally by the government, any preference in language inherently creates a second class of citizenship. Those whose own language is Hindi - would score better in their Hindi examinations and that translates to better job opportunities and better life outcomes.  The rest would be the second class citizens who have to struggle harder to survive, and that would cause resentment against the government. The government would do good to avoid such divisive policies.

A Fairness Analysis : What if the shoe were on the other foot ?

Here is a hypothetical. What if the framers of the constitution used a different criteria (instead of population) for selecting the language. Say they used oldest language and picked Sanskrit or Tamil. Or used some other random metric and picked Gujarati. Would that be something that the central government would push as a policy  ?  I assume not.

A Status Quo Analysis : What is the current state ?

There are multiple official languages that can be used and English remains a National Language. 

The central government still spends more money supporting Hindi - that does cause heartburn among other language speakers.  But, there is a general peace that is holding with this Status Quo, and all flare-ups are triggered when there is an attempt to change the status quo.

My Viewpoint/Solution

In my view - this is a complex issue , but here is a framework for a solution and some concrete proposals.

Framework

• Solution should be fair

• No citizen should feel as a second class citizen in being forced to learn a language that they do not want

• Learning 3 languages is better than learning 2 languages.

Solution Proposals

• Move language from being a central government issue to being a state government issue. 

• Mandate states to pick a national language (English or Hindi) and a state language

• States should offer a menu of third language options for kids to learn

Final Thoughts

My hope is that India avoids all such divisive issues created by politicians and instead flourishes as a democracy.