explain the language policy adopted by the government in India
Answers
After India got Independent, borders of many states were changed in order to bring people of same culture and language in the same state (linguistic states).
No language was given the status of nation language.
Hindi was declared as the official language.
Answer:
1. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Hindi
was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 per
cent of Indians. Therefore, there were many safeguards to protect other languages.
2. Besides Hindi, there are 22 other languages recognised as Scheduled Languages by the
Constitution. States too have their own official languages. Much of the government work
takes place in the official language of the concerned State. Of these 22 languages are included
in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and are therefore called ‘Scheduled Languages’.
Others are called ‘non-Scheduled Languages’. In terms of languages, India is perhaps the most
diverse country in the world.
3. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965.
However, many non-Hindi speaking States demanded that the use of English continue. For
example, in Tamil Nadu, this movement took a violent form. The Central Government
responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes.
4. Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the Government of India. It
means that the Central Government cannot impose Hindi on States where people speak a
different language.
5. Though the teaching of Hindi across the country was part of a long-standing system, it
was crystallized into a policy in an official document only in the National Policy on
Education, 1968, called the three languages policy, referred to Hindi, English and the
regional language of the respective States It said regional languages were already in use as
the media of education in the primary and secondary stages. In addition, it said, “At the
secondary stage, State governments should adopt the three-language formula, which
includes the study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the southern languages,
apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi-speaking States.” In the ‘non-Hindi speaking
States’, Hindi should be studied along with the regional language and English.
Explanation: