Language, Longing and Belonging in Maharashtra

For a language to thrive, its sphere must be extended to practical use. Many who claim to be ardent supporters of Marathi often fail to recognise this

- VINAY SAHASRABUDDHE

A few years back, a Hindi teacher at Moscow University told me to convey her gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Since your PM speaks only in Hindi, instead of English, to interpreters while in Russia, a Hindi-to-Russian interpreter like me is now in demand," she explained.

The moral of this story is that expanding the sphere of any language's application is a must to create a market for it. At a time Maharashtra politics is once again being stirred by the language issue, not just the Thackeray cousins, but many others in the state are missing this point.

Marathi was recently-and very rightly recognised as a classical language.

Classical languages are defined as 'ancient languages with independent traditions and a rich literary history that continue to influence various literary styles and philosophical texts'. After Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia, Marathi as well Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali have now become classical languages of India.

A high level of antiquity, the presence of a significant body of ancient literature preserved for generations, originality and distinctness of modern forms are the established criteria for granting the 'classical language' tag. Obviously Marathi fulfilled all these requirements.

However, getting the classical language tag doesn't change the ground situation.

The Maharashtra government's proposal to introduce Hindi as one of the three languages to be taught under the three-language formula had nothing against Marathi. In no way would it have damaged the future of Marathi. It could be that the Thackeray brothers conveniently used it to mobilise public opinion. But on the ground, three things are clear.