Are our language rows leading to soft sedition?

A shopkeeper was attacked by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers for not speaking Marathi.

- RAMANAND SHARMA AND SANDEEP KUMAR

A shopkeeper was attacked by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers for not speaking Marathi. And this episode is not isolated as similar attacks have been reported across Maharashtra and India. In Bengaluru, destruction of signage written in Hindi is becoming a norm and in Tamil Nadu, anti-Hindi campaigns have a long history, which often resurface in response to perceived threats to the Tamil language. Even in our capital city Delhi, sneers and subtle exclusions follow those who speak with a southern accent or hail from the Northeast. Indians are being targeted simply for speaking a different language or merely looking different outside their home states.

These are not isolated instances of regional prejudice, but illustrative of an emerging trend of linguistic vigilantism that is increasingly spreading across the nation. Any pretext of regional pride shrouds an odious belief system. It may not aspire to secession, yet it dramatically undermines national integration. This constitutes a new type of "soft sedition" in India. It represents a kind of regional hegemony that does not use violence of arms, but instead lives by cultural bullying, verbal violence, and everyday discrimination.

The underlying causes of this crisis resurfaced with the implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, especially its three-language equation. NEP 2020 aims to develop multilingualism and enhance national integration, but its implementation requires students to be taught three languages including at least two Indian languages. On paper, it allows states to choose the languages to be taught. However, in many parts of non-Hindi India, it was seen as a surreptitious advance of Hindi creating a reasonable sense of backsliding, fears of cultural dilution and threats to local languages.