On Thursday, Home Minister Amit Shah advised people from different states to converse with one another in Hindi rather than English.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the Official Language, and this will definitely increase the importance of Hindi. Now the time has come to make the Official Language an important part of the unity of the country.”
When citizens of States who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India,” The Ministry of Home Affairs cited Shah as saying during the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee.
However, Amit Shah emphasised that Hindi, not an indigenous language, should be recognised as an alternative to English.
Moreover, he also advised that Hindi be made more adaptable by allowing vocabulary from other languages to be used.
Meanwhile, the Official Language Committee is chaired by Shah, with BJD’s B Mahtab serving as vice-chair.
Further, the Home Minister emphasised the importance of imparting basic Hindi knowledge to students up to Class IX, as well as paying more attention to Hindi teaching examinations.
In addition, Shah briefed members that 70% of the Cabinet’s agenda is now prepared in Hindi, according to MHA.
He claimed that 22,000 Hindi teachers had been hired in the Northeast’s eight states and that nine tribal communities have converted their dialect scripts to Devanagari.
According to MHA, Amit Shah claimed that all of these states have also decided to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class X.
The committee unanimously recommended submitting the 11th volume of the committee’s report to the President, according to the ministry.
However, Amit Shah has long advocated for more use of Hindi by officials and the youth, claiming that the language is the primary reason India’s culture and value systems have survived.
On Hindi Diwas in 2019, he gave his first address on the language, promoting the concept of “One Nation, One Language.”
He had said, “India is a country of different languages. Every language has its own importance. But it is absolutely essential that the entire country has one language that becomes the identity of the nation in the world. If there is any language that can tie the whole country in one thread, it is the most spoken language of Hindi.”
Further, the opposition parties reacted angrily to the statement. While the CPI(M) branded it as an attack on India’s essential diversity ideals, Congressman Rajeev Gowda reminded the BJP that Article 29 of the Constitution recognised many languages.
Since then, Amit Shah has toned down his support for the language, emphasising that Hindi is not a competitor, but rather a compliment to various regional languages.
Constituent Assembly’s debate status with Amit Shah on Hindi
Protests erupted in response to Home Minister Amit Shah’s call for “one language” for all of India on Hindi Diwas.
While it is reasonable for people to disagree over the official language of a country as diverse as India, Amit Shah claims that the founding fathers of the Constitution considered all views in the Constituent Assembly and unanimously decided on Hindi as the “Raj Bhasha.”
The Constituent Assembly of India debated the status of India’s languages between September 12 and 14, 1949, almost precisely 70 years ago.
Moreover, the usage of the phrase ‘national language’ rather than ‘official language’ was debated, as was Hindi vs. Bengali, Telugu, Sanskrit, or Hindustani; Devanagari script vs. Roman script; the language to be used in the higher judiciary and Parliament; and international numerals vs. Devanagari numerals.
President Rajendra Prasad said at the opening, emphasising the importance of the debate. “…There is no other item in the whole Constitution which will be required to be implemented from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute… Even if we (get) a particular proposition passed by majority, if it does not meet with the approval of any considerable section of people…, the implementation of the Constitution will become a most difficult problem”.
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