<div dir="ltr"><h6 class="">Language Planning and Policy in Nepal</h6>
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<p><font color="red">Prof Dr. Ram Kumar Dahal</font></p>
<p><font color="red">Senior Political analyst,TU Nepal</font></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
study of language politics would be completely inadequate without the
proper study of language planning/policy and programmes adopted by the
various governments of Nepal. Language planning, as Crystal points out,
is a term used in socio- linguistics to refer to a systematic attempt to
solve the communication problems of a community by studying the various
languages or dialects, its uses and developing a realistic policy
concerning the selection and use of different languages (Crystal, 1985
174). Language planning and policy thus, are the important aspects of
language politics. </span></p>
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</p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">With
the introduction of multiparty democracy in Nepal in 1950, various
linguistic communities tried to uplift their languages Hindi in Terai
and Newari in Kathmandu Valley took the leading roles. During 1950-60 ,
these languages enjoyed almost freedom, though K. I Singh Government
ordered the removal of other languages from school instruction except
Nepali (however some optional languages were prescribed in class 9 and
10). With the forceful dissolution of the first democratically
government in 1960 and with the introduction of non- party oriental
democracy in 1962, the Panchayat system in the name of national
integration and extreme nationalism under King Mahendra, developed the
concept of Nepali nationalism and “one nation, one system” concept of
which Nepali Language became a part. Language actually was not studied
in linguistic sense but in socio-political sense It also stressed on the
representation of one Language system. In course of inculcating
oriental non-party culture, politics and linguistic sentiments went side
by side and linguistic issues remained highly related with political
issues. It tried to Panchayatize the Language culture, and ethnicity.
Besides Nepali Language, the Panchayati rulers discouraged other
cultural and linguistic sentiments. In practice, no investment on the
development of Language was done. Royal Nepal Academy (RNA) and few
other research institutes conducted intellectual research works for the
study and survey of other languages. <span style> </span>Till
its alleged involvement in assisting the Tibetans’ Free Tibet Movement
and the Khampa revolutionaries, the US based summer Institute of
Linguistics (Sit.) conducted linguistic research on language on eastern
parts of Nepal. The Panchayati rulers never accepted Nepal as the multi
lingual society, however, some research works were conducted during this
period. They never considered Language as national property and never
stressed on its preservation. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
concept of democratic pluralism was not encouraged in politics,
philosophy and virtually in language also Nepali language was used as a
medium for the expression of political views and desires by the
non-party Panchayat politicians. Thus, language and politics were
closely inter related. The Panchayati leaders stressed on the
development of Nepali language as the lingua franca of the nation.
Article 4 of the constitution of Nepal, 1962 gave Nepali the status of
national language, however, it did not mention about the position of
other languages. Though Article 10 of the then constitution had provided
the Nepalese citizens the right to equality it did not specify about
linguistic equality (HMG, 1962: 6) During 1962-89, Nepali became the
medium of instruction, of media of parliamentary debates, of
deliberations of the court etc. Derecognition of local Languages, thus,
remained the linguistic feature during the Panchayat period. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
New Education Plan (NEP), introduced in 1971, discouraged the medium of
instruction in school in other languages than Nepali, however, some
local languages including Hindi and Newari were prescribed in class 9
and 10 as optional subjects.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
Marich Man Singh Government, while stressing on one “nation, one
language” formula, de-recognized the degree of M.A in Hindi, Newari and
Maithili as a basis of promotion Except Nepali and English, no other
languages were recognized by the Public Service Commission (PSC). The
linguistic minorities charged the government-owned Sajha Prakashan (SP)
and Royal Nepal Academy (RNA) had not done justice with their languages.
Publication of Newspapers other than Nepali and English were also
discouraged. Radio Nepal stopped the news broadcast in Hindi and Newari
(Jha, 1993 25). Except Hindi movement, as advocated by Gajendra Narayan
Singh the, leader of the then Nepal Sadbhavana Parishad and Manka Khala
movement advocated by Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Nepal faced no important
language movements during the Panchayat period. The leaders of the
language movements, particularly Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Gajendra Narayan
Singh and Ananda Dev Bhatta, criticized the language policy of the
Panchayat governments and strongly demanded the implementation of
liberal language policy that gave equal protection to all the languages
of the nation, besides Nepali. But those personalities during the post
Jana Andolan days turned into political activists that brought language
and politics into closer ties.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">With
the restoration of multi party and pluralistic democracy on West
Minister line in 1990, Nepal started adopting liberal language policy.
Soon after the formation of a multi party interim government under the
Prime Minister ship of K P Bhattarai, government owned and controlled
Radio Nepal started its news broadcast, besides in Nepali and in
English, in Hindi and Newari In the post Jana Andolan days, the
democratically elected governments of Nepal tried to encourage the
development and promotion of various languages of the nation and started
its news broadcast in few other local languages including in Magar and
Tamang. The government owned Nepal Television (NTV) also started the
production of some tele-films on small screen in various local
languages.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
publications of newspapers in various languages were also promoted and
accordingly, few more newspapers were also published in various local
languages. However, no additional facilities were provided to these
publications from government side. The private sector is also taking
interest in this direction.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><b style><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The Nepalese Constitution (1990) and Official Language Policies:</span></b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal ( now an Interim Constitution in
republican Nepal) , 1990 framed after the mass uprising of 1990
constitutes the central and perhaps, the sole formal statement of
Nepal’s language policy-a policy that gives differential status and
power to Nepalese languages which, in turn, gets reflected in
institutional and societal support to attitudes towards these languages.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
supreme law has shown commitment for the preservation of all languages
by providing equal status to all the languages of the nation but a clear
cut distinction was marked between the national language and languages
of the nation. Nepali language in the Devnagari script, under Article
6(1) of the then constitution is accepted as the national language of
Nepal and is granted the status of the official language. All the
languages spoken as the mother tongue in the various parts of Nepal are
the languages of the nation. Similarly, Article 18, providing cultural
and education right of the citizens of Nepal, states that every
community residing within the kingdom of Nepal shall have the right to
protect and develop its language, script and culture. Every community is
also given the right to establish schools for providing education to
the children up to the primary level in their mother tongue (then HMG
1990). The then constitution, thus, had accepted the basis norms as
advocated by UNESCO and as mentioned in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, 1948 by accepting mother tongue education at primary
level.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">In
the post Jana Andolan days, various languages, besides Nepali, have
been used within parliament though House of Representatives Rules 2048
(1991) clearly mentions that Nepali should be .the medium of expression,
discussions and other deliberations. This rule has been violated by the
MPS within parliament. MP Padma Ratna Tuladhar delivered speech in
Newari, Gajendra Narayan Singh in Hindi, to mention a few. The Kathmandu
Municipality Mayor took oath in Newari.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:150%" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">The
democratically elected governments of Nepal since 1991 have adopted
liberal policy regarding the promotion of languages as outlined in the
supreme Law (1990) in 1992 (2049 BS ) the National Committee for
Formulating cultural policy and programmes was constituted by the
government, which, besides other things, recommended for the promotion
and preservation of various cultures in Nepal (then HMG, 1992). A year
later National Language Policy Recommendation Commission (1993/2050
B.S.) was also constituted which recommended for the establishment of a
separate body-National Language council to formulate appropriate
language policies and for their proper implementation (the HMG, 1993;
Yadav, 1998; 233: Gurung 1997: 495-532).</span></p>
<strong><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black">Next
week Ethnicity, National 1ntegration and Language Politics: Text
courtesy Journal of Political Science PN Campus, Pokhra, 1998. Ed<br><br><a href="http://www.telegraphnepal.com/national/2015-04-15/language-planning-and-policy-in-nepal">http://www.telegraphnepal.com/national/2015-04-15/language-planning-and-policy-in-nepal</a><br clear="all"></span></strong><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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