<div dir="ltr"><span><p>On April 22, DMK leader MK Stalin of
Tamil Nadu made a serious accusation against the Narendra Modi
government of violating the Constitution and the rights of non-Hindi
speaking citizens by pursing the policy of "Hindi imposition" and warned
the central government not to invite another <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/modi-government-violating-the-rights-of-non-hindi-speaking-citizens-dmk-4623998/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">anti-Hindi agitation</a></span>. It is not an empty threat, considering DMK’s history of fighting any Hindi imposition policy of the Centre in the past.</p>
<p>What has triggered DMK’s threat now is the <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/president-pranab-mukherjee-okays-call-for-all-speeches-to-be-in-hindi/articleshow/58213420.cms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">President’s recent acceptance</a></span>
of the recommendation of the Committee of Parliament on Official
Languages for speeches to be delivered in Hindi by political dignitaries
if they can read and speak the language.</p>
<p>The President also in principle accepted to make Hindi a compulsory
subject from Class 8 to Class 10 in all Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE) and KendriyaVidyalaya schools. Even state-owned airline
Air India has been asked to use Hindi to issue tickets.</p>
<p>For Modi and the Sangh Parivar, “Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan" has always
been an article of faith. Iconic ideologue of the RSS Guru Golwalkar
defined Hindu Rashtra in his book <em>We or Our Nationhood Redefined</em>
(1939, pp. 43-44) as follows: “In this country, Hindustan, the Hindu
race, with its Hindu religion, Hindu culture and Hindu language (the
natural family of Sanskrit and her offsprings) complete the Nation….”</p>
<p>Golwalkar saw nation-building as an exercise of bringing together
these five unities, geographical, racial, religious, cultural and
linguistic. This philosophy drives Hindutva groups to make Hindi the
national language of India.</p>
<p>There is no national language in India. The Constitution has no
provision for a "national language"; it only lists "official languages".
India has 122 languages with over 10,000 speakers. The official
business of the central government takes place primarily in English and
Hindi and there are 21 other languages, which are large enough to be
recognised as official languages. </p>
<p>Though the official census figure puts 45 per cent of the country’s population as native Hindi speakers, <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="https://scroll.in/article/667570/read-the-fine-print-hindi-is-the-mother-tongue-of-only-26-per-cent-of-indians" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">this number is actually 26 per cent</a></span> as the census lists Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Marwari and many other linguistic traditions and dialects as Hindi speakers.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Hindi is the biggest single language of the
country, but it is not the only language of the country. India is a
country of plurals, and that plurality is primarily of religions and
languages.</p>
<p>Since Modi’s rise to power, he and his party are not only promoting
Hindu-first but also Hindi-first policy. The BJP has been always
anti-English and its leaders often refer to the country’s
English-speaking elites as "Macaulay's children".</p>
<p><img title="rss-embed_042417122905.jpg" src="http://media2.intoday.in/dailyo//story/embed/201704/rss-embed_042417122905.jpg" alt="rss-embed_042417122905.jpg"><span style="text-align:left;display:block;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><strong>For Modi and the Sangh Parivar, “Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan" has always been an article of faith. Photo: India Today</strong></span></p>
<p>A day after taking office as Prime Minister in May 2014, the Modi
government had issued an order asking officials to mandatorily use Hindi
on government social media accounts. After a backlash from the southern
states, the government later explained that the order only applies to
Hindi-speaking states.</p>
<p>In 2014, Modi, his ministers and party MPs all took oath in Hindi and
some even in Sanskrit. Modi even announced he would speak to other
foreign leaders in Hindi, not English. He addressed the UN General
Assembly in Hindi, not in Gujarati.</p>
<p>When US president Barack Obama visited India in 2015, Modi again
spoke in Hindi in official meetings (it is another matter that his name
was not written on his suit in Hindi alphabets).</p>
<p>Modi regime’s glaring push for Hindi risks widening the divide in a
highly diverse country like India. "Hindi imposition" faces open
opposition from the southern and eastern states. In 2014, an MLA in
Odisha (Odia has been given classical language status together with
Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam) was even taken to task
by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly for using Hindi during the
question hour.</p>
<p>I had directed more than a decade ago an international project for a
UN research organisation to analyse the use of language as a group’s <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781403949141" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">identity and power</a></span>
within a nation-state project. For centuries, efforts have been made to
achieve the ideal nation state. This process involves projecting the
cultural traditions and language of one of the groups of the society as
the national culture and national language of the country.</p>
<p>The dominant group usually argues that use of multiple languages in
education and administration may bring long-term or permanent linguistic
division, and so opts for a single language policy in the name of
assimilation.</p>
<p>Some even suggest that the problems of minority groups can be
resolved through their successful lingual integration into the group in
power. This version of the assimilation process is misleading in two
ways.</p>
<p>First, it only assumes that there is an active interest of the
minority group to assimilate, not for the pressure from the group in
power. Second, it implies that the minority group has a choice in the
degree of assimilation.</p>
<p>The use of one national language does not automatically produce
ethnic unity or shared culture. At best, it facilitates communication
between groups and gives the appearance of uniformity to the outside
world. However, invariably the imposition of one language provokes
resistance from the other language groups.</p>
<p>This state imposition of a one-language policy as part of a
nation-building exercise was the cause for the break-up of Pakistan and
the creation of Bangladesh. The common religious identity was not enough
to keep the country together. A single-language policy also triggered
violent civil wars in Sri Lanka and Turkey. Language is also at the
roots of the ongoing secessionist movements in Catalonia in Spain and
Quebec in Canada. </p>
<p>In most countries, whether developing or industrialised, democratic
or authoritarian, members of language minorities mobilise to preserve
their languages by hook or crook.</p>
<p>As our UN project had found out, language is not only important to
preserve identity but also critical for the groups to get access to
power. Language domination is far more precarious for peace and
stability of a state than religious and cultural domination.</p>
<p>Anti-Hindi protest is not new to India, as it dates back to
pre-Independence period. Tamil Nadu has already witnessed two major
anti-Hindi agitations in the past. A DMK-led protest in 1965 had stopped
the thoughtless plan of the Lal Bahadur Shastri government to adopt
Hindi as single official language.</p>
<p>The new push by the present regime for Hindi has not only brought
serious disquiet in Tamil Nadu, but other non-Hindi speaking states are
also getting nervous.</p>
<p>Modi’s Hindu-first policy has given new life to the secessionist
movement in Kashmir in the last two years. But, if the Hindi-first
policy is pursued with the same vigour, India is probably going to
witness many more such movements in its southern and eastern parts.</p>
<p>As Telugu superstar Pawan Kalyan tweeted on April 23: “If the Centre
doesn’t respect sub-national identity in a country like ours; which is
known for cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity, then they are
creating a fertile breeding ground for separatist movements.”</p><p><span></span></p><p>On April 22, DMK leader MK Stalin of
Tamil Nadu made a serious accusation against the Narendra Modi
government of violating the Constitution and the rights of non-Hindi
speaking citizens by pursing the policy of "Hindi imposition" and warned
the central government not to invite another <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/modi-government-violating-the-rights-of-non-hindi-speaking-citizens-dmk-4623998/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">anti-Hindi agitation</a></span>. It is not an empty threat, considering DMK’s history of fighting any Hindi imposition policy of the Centre in the past.</p>
<p>What has triggered DMK’s threat now is the <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/president-pranab-mukherjee-okays-call-for-all-speeches-to-be-in-hindi/articleshow/58213420.cms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">President’s recent acceptance</a></span>
of the recommendation of the Committee of Parliament on Official
Languages for speeches to be delivered in Hindi by political dignitaries
if they can read and speak the language.</p>
<p>The President also in principle accepted to make Hindi a compulsory
subject from Class 8 to Class 10 in all Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE) and KendriyaVidyalaya schools. Even state-owned airline
Air India has been asked to use Hindi to issue tickets.</p>
<p>For Modi and the Sangh Parivar, “Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan" has always
been an article of faith. Iconic ideologue of the RSS Guru Golwalkar
defined Hindu Rashtra in his book <em>We or Our Nationhood Redefined</em>
(1939, pp. 43-44) as follows: “In this country, Hindustan, the Hindu
race, with its Hindu religion, Hindu culture and Hindu language (the
natural family of Sanskrit and her offsprings) complete the Nation….”</p>
<p>Golwalkar saw nation-building as an exercise of bringing together
these five unities, geographical, racial, religious, cultural and
linguistic. This philosophy drives Hindutva groups to make Hindi the
national language of India.</p>
<p>There is no national language in India. The Constitution has no
provision for a "national language"; it only lists "official languages".
India has 122 languages with over 10,000 speakers. The official
business of the central government takes place primarily in English and
Hindi and there are 21 other languages, which are large enough to be
recognised as official languages. </p>
<p>Though the official census figure puts 45 per cent of the country’s population as native Hindi speakers, <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="https://scroll.in/article/667570/read-the-fine-print-hindi-is-the-mother-tongue-of-only-26-per-cent-of-indians" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">this number is actually 26 per cent</a></span> as the census lists Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Marwari and many other linguistic traditions and dialects as Hindi speakers.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Hindi is the biggest single language of the
country, but it is not the only language of the country. India is a
country of plurals, and that plurality is primarily of religions and
languages.</p>
<p>Since Modi’s rise to power, he and his party are not only promoting
Hindu-first but also Hindi-first policy. The BJP has been always
anti-English and its leaders often refer to the country’s
English-speaking elites as "Macaulay's children".</p>
<p><img title="rss-embed_042417122905.jpg" src="http://media2.intoday.in/dailyo//story/embed/201704/rss-embed_042417122905.jpg" alt="rss-embed_042417122905.jpg"><span style="text-align:left;display:block;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><strong>For Modi and the Sangh Parivar, “Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan" has always been an article of faith. Photo: India Today</strong></span></p>
<p>A day after taking office as Prime Minister in May 2014, the Modi
government had issued an order asking officials to mandatorily use Hindi
on government social media accounts. After a backlash from the southern
states, the government later explained that the order only applies to
Hindi-speaking states.</p>
<p>In 2014, Modi, his ministers and party MPs all took oath in Hindi and
some even in Sanskrit. Modi even announced he would speak to other
foreign leaders in Hindi, not English. He addressed the UN General
Assembly in Hindi, not in Gujarati.</p>
<p>When US president Barack Obama visited India in 2015, Modi again
spoke in Hindi in official meetings (it is another matter that his name
was not written on his suit in Hindi alphabets).</p>
<p>Modi regime’s glaring push for Hindi risks widening the divide in a
highly diverse country like India. "Hindi imposition" faces open
opposition from the southern and eastern states. In 2014, an MLA in
Odisha (Odia has been given classical language status together with
Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam) was even taken to task
by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly for using Hindi during the
question hour.</p>
<p>I had directed more than a decade ago an international project for a
UN research organisation to analyse the use of language as a group’s <span style="color:rgb(51,102,255)"><a style="color:rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781403949141" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">identity and power</a></span>
within a nation-state project. For centuries, efforts have been made to
achieve the ideal nation state. This process involves projecting the
cultural traditions and language of one of the groups of the society as
the national culture and national language of the country.</p>
<p>The dominant group usually argues that use of multiple languages in
education and administration may bring long-term or permanent linguistic
division, and so opts for a single language policy in the name of
assimilation.</p>
<p>Some even suggest that the problems of minority groups can be
resolved through their successful lingual integration into the group in
power. This version of the assimilation process is misleading in two
ways.</p>
<p>First, it only assumes that there is an active interest of the
minority group to assimilate, not for the pressure from the group in
power. Second, it implies that the minority group has a choice in the
degree of assimilation.</p>
<p>The use of one national language does not automatically produce
ethnic unity or shared culture. At best, it facilitates communication
between groups and gives the appearance of uniformity to the outside
world. However, invariably the imposition of one language provokes
resistance from the other language groups.</p>
<p>This state imposition of a one-language policy as part of a
nation-building exercise was the cause for the break-up of Pakistan and
the creation of Bangladesh. The common religious identity was not enough
to keep the country together. A single-language policy also triggered
violent civil wars in Sri Lanka and Turkey. Language is also at the
roots of the ongoing secessionist movements in Catalonia in Spain and
Quebec in Canada. </p>
<p>In most countries, whether developing or industrialised, democratic
or authoritarian, members of language minorities mobilise to preserve
their languages by hook or crook.</p>
<p>As our UN project had found out, language is not only important to
preserve identity but also critical for the groups to get access to
power. Language domination is far more precarious for peace and
stability of a state than religious and cultural domination.</p>
<p>Anti-Hindi protest is not new to India, as it dates back to
pre-Independence period. Tamil Nadu has already witnessed two major
anti-Hindi agitations in the past. A DMK-led protest in 1965 had stopped
the thoughtless plan of the Lal Bahadur Shastri government to adopt
Hindi as single official language.</p>
<p>The new push by the present regime for Hindi has not only brought
serious disquiet in Tamil Nadu, but other non-Hindi speaking states are
also getting nervous.</p>
<p>Modi’s Hindu-first policy has given new life to the secessionist
movement in Kashmir in the last two years. But, if the Hindi-first
policy is pursued with the same vigour, India is probably going to
witness many more such movements in its southern and eastern parts.</p>
<p>As Telugu superstar Pawan Kalyan tweeted on April 23: “If the Centre
doesn’t respect sub-national identity in a country like ours; which is
known for cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity, then they are
creating a fertile breeding ground for separatist movements.”</p>
</span><p></p><p><br></p>
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