Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, stated that there is no directive from the Centre to make Hindi learning obligatory.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma defended Shah’s comments, saying that no directive from the Centre had been received on the announcement.
While talking to media sources, Himanata Biswa Sarma said, “There is no instruction from the Centre to make Hindi learning compulsory. In Assam, Assamese is the mother tongue.”
In addition, he said “Assam government in consultation with Assam Sahitya Sabha and tribal Sahitya prepared a language policy where a student will learn Assamese and a tribal language besides English and Hindi. Bodo Sahitya Sabha has some objections and that is why we have not announced the policy yet.”
Moreover, Sarma said that there is no instruction by the Centre to make Hindi the medium of instruction. “Shah said one must know Hindi even though we want students to learn English and Hindi. Shah has not said one must not stop learning Assamese and learn Hindi. He said that one must after learning Assamese must learn Hindi. We also want the same for by learning Hindi a student from this place will be able to apply for government and non-government jobs in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.”
Meanwhile, he added that there is no letter indicating that Hindi should be made an optional language.
However, on Thursday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, announced that the Centre has hired 22,000 Hindi instructors in the Northeast’s eight states, with all of them agreeing to make Hindi obligatory up to Class X.
“We cannot tolerate that because Khasi and Garo are the two primary languages in the state,” said Ampareen Lyngdoh, a suspended Congress leader in Meghalaya.
Moreover, Debabrata Saikia, a Congress MP and the head of the Opposition in Assam, said Shah’s remark contradicts the BJP-led government’s New Education Policy, which aims to strengthen elementary education in the mother language.
Northeast groups oppose Centre’s Hindi imposing move
Several Northeast-based organisations, including Assam’s apex literary body, the Asom Sahitya Sabha, and Manipur’s Meitei Erol Eyek Loinashillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL), a group established to safeguard Manipuri manuscripts and language, have spoken out against the Centre’s proposal to make Hindi compulsory in the region until Class 10, urging the government to reconsider its decision.
The Asom Sahitya Sabha in a statement released on Saturday said, “The Union Home Minister should have instead taken steps to develop Assamese and other indigenous languages. Such steps spell a bleak future for Assamese and all indigenous languages in the Northeast. The Sabha demands that the decision to make Hindi mandatory till Class 10 be revoked.”
Meanwhile, Amit Shah, the chairman of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, declared earlier this week that Hindi would be made obligatory in all eight northeastern states up to Class 10.
Shah said that 2,200 Hindi teachers had been hired in the Northeast and that Hindi was the “national language.”
He had, however, emphasised that Hindi should be used as an alternative to English rather than an indigenous language.
Except in Arunachal Pradesh, where Hindi is the lingua franca, where it is a compulsory subject till Class 10, Hindi is a compulsory subject until Class 10 in the Northeast.
Moreover, Hindi is not required in Tripura till the eighth grade.
In the Northeast, civil society organisations and political parties reacted angrily to Shah’s remark. It was termed an “imposition” by the Northeast Students’ Union, a regional umbrella group of student bodies.
“We have always maintained the three language formula be followed — English, Hindi and the local language,” said chairman Samuel B Jywra. “The mother language should be compulsory and Hindi can be made the alternative.”
Meanwhile, Raijor Dal and Assam Jatiya Parishad, two newly created regional parties in the state, were also opposed to the plan.
According to Lurinjyoti Gogoi, president of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, “The High-Level committee of Clause 6 had recommended that Assamese be made mandatory in all state and central schools. Even the chief minister has often spoken of the trouble Assamese language is in and called for its use.”
Further, Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, which the Union government signed with Assamese nationalist organisations in 1985 to halt a six-year anti-‘foreigner’ Assam Agitation (1979-85), speaks of constitutional safeguards for Assamese language and culture.
In Manipur, the Meitei Erol Eyek Loinashillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL), an organisation dedicated to preserving Manipuri manuscripts and language, has interpreted the Centre’s drive to make Hindi compulsory in the region as an attempt to rewrite history in favour of a larger group’s interests and ideology.
“The one nation, one language, one religion ideology of the BJP cannot be implemented throughout the country, especially in Kangleipak (Manipur), which has a unique history of over 5,000 years,” said MEELAL general secretary Huirem Loikhomba Meetei.
However, MEELAL has warned the Centre that Manipur will not tolerate the Northeastern states being treated unfairly. It asked the state’s officials to make their positions known on the current situation.
