- Prelims: Current events of national importance, Official Language Act, 1963, Article 343 etc
- Mains GS Paper I and II: Salient features of Indian society, diversity of India etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court said that R. Ambedkar wanted to make Sanskrit the official language of the Indian Union.
- The former Chief Justice of India, S A Bobde, had the same view.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Language:
- It is a structured system of communication.
- The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary.
- Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through spoken, sign, or written language.
- Constitution: It is mentioned in the wording of Part XVII (Articles 343-351).
Constitution and other laws on language:
- Article 343: It declares that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the official language of the Union.
- Constituent assembly: Hindi was declared the official language of the Union and it was also provided that the English language will continue for 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution.
- Official languages Act in 1963: Continuance of English indefinitely as official language along with Hindi for the official purposes of the Union and for transaction of business in Parliament.
- Article 345 leaves it to the State to choose its language for official purposes.
- Article 348 stipulates that all proceedings of the Supreme Court and ‘of every High Court’ and of Bills, etc. in Parliament shall be in the English language.
- The Eighth Schedule spell out the diversity and complexity of the language landscape
- Article 351 directs the state, in the development of Hindi, to draw upon other languages in the composite culture of India.
Sanskrit Language:
- It is considered to be one of the oldest languages in the world.
- It is an old Indo-Aryan language in which the most ancient documents, Vedas, are composed in what is called Vedic Sanskrit.
- Sanskrit used to be a pan-Indian language in the Vedic period and most languages in the country have branched out of Sanskrit.
- In India, Sanskrit is a Classical and an Eighth Schedule language.
- In 2020, the Uttarakhand Government decided to develop ‘Sanskrit Grams’ across the state to teach use of Sanskrit
Background of Support for Sanskrit language:
- On September 10, 1949, R. Ambedkar submitted an amendment in the Constituent Assembly that proposed Sanskrit as ‘the official language of the Union’.
- There were 16 signatories including:
- R. Ambedkar, T.T. Krishnamachari, Dr. P. Subbarayan, G. Durgabai, and Dakshayani Velayudhan.
- All signatories were from non-Hindi speaking provinces.
Explanation through constitutional texts:(Granville Austin’s classic, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation and B. Shiva Rao’s magisterial The Framing of India’s Constitution):
- S. Rao: B.R. Ambedkar thought ‘Hindustani should be the language of the Union and of the units’.
- Rau’s working draft had used the term ‘Hindustani’.
- The Drafting Committee had made an important change using the term ‘Hindi’.
- This was put up for debate in the Constituent Assembly.
Discussions in the Congress Party:
- One side were Hindi champions such as Purushottam Das Tandon, Govind Das and Raghu Vira.
- Members mostly from outside the Hindi heartland who resisted the imposition of Hindi.
- Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Azad and Syama Prasad Mukherjee: They argued that ‘unity in diversity is India’s keynote and must be achieved by a process of understanding and consent and for that a proper atmosphere has to be created’.
- Shankarrao Deo(in constituent assembly): ‘I am an Indian but my language is Marathi. If having Hindi as the official language means one language for the whole country then I am against it.’
Munshi-Ayyangar formula:
- Named after K.M. Munshi and N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, who had worked the most to bring about a consensus.
- Listed sponsors in the Constituent Assembly when it was debated were Ayyangar, Munshi and R. Ambedkar.
- The formula provided that: The official language of the Union was to be Hindi with the Nagari script but that International numerals would be used.
- Notwithstanding this, English was to be used for Union affairs for fifteen years and Parliament could extend this period’.
- Enrichment of Hindi through expressions used in Hindustani and the expansion of its library drawing upon Sanskrit and 13 other living Indian languages.
Way Forward
- Austin writes: amendments were submitted for Sanskrit as an official language by members knowing full well that it stood no chance of passage reflected the ‘disgust and dismay which many Assembly members by this time looked at the controversy’.
- The idea of one official language may not foster the unity of the people: It may give rise to serious imbalances in regional representation in the all India services in the long run as well as the personnel structure of the Union government.
- Natural development: Efforts should be made to ensure the natural development of Hindi in non-hindi states, so as to be able to meet the requirements of modern science and technology.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
How far do you think cooperation, competition and confrontation have shaped the nature of federation in India ? Cite some recent examples to validate your answer.(UPSC 2020) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
