Reorganise States As A Way Out Of Delimitation Maze

Linguistic boundaries within India are fraying, thanks to the transformation states have undergone in recent decades. It may be time to consider a second states reorganisation commission

- SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU

Chennai, and its chief promoter has been the Dravidian government led by M.K. Stalin. They have endeavoured to create a common cause on this issue among the southern states, while they are warring petitioners and fierce competitors on other issues.

What preceded the delimitation debate in Tamil Nadu was the language debate in the context of the NEP or the National Education Policy. But that did not seem to catch fire like it used to once upon a time. The reason being that the idea of an exclusive linguistic state in present-day India may have begun to look anachronistic. A variety of cultural, sociological, demographic, technological and economic reasons may have caused this. But the truth, which pride may blindly dismiss, is the identities of linguistic states have transformed in recent decades.

There was a significant fact that stood out during the NEP debate in parliament. It was revealed that 67 percent of students in Tamil Nadu were enrolled in English-medium schools, while Tamil-medium enrolment had dropped from 54 percent in 2018-19 to 36 percent in 2023-24. In government schools, English-medium enrolment has increased five-fold from 3.4 lakh to 17.7 lakh in the last five years, while Tamil-medium enrolment in government-aided schools fell by 7.3 lakh. The statistics are likely to be similar, or even more depressing, for other south Indian languages.