A LINGUA FRACAS OVER HINDI

THE NEP'S THREE-LANGUAGE POLICY AND THE UNION GOVERNMENT'S PUSH FOR HINDI HAVE SPARKED A HOSTILE REACTION FROM SEVERAL STATES

- DHAVAL S. KULKARNI

Late in May, the Tamil Nadu government took the unprecedented step of moving the Supreme Court, seeking the disbursal of over Rs 2,000 crore in funds under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme (SSS), claiming the Union government had withheld it in a bid to coerce the state into implementing the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. Tamil Nadu has been vociferously opposing the NEP’s three-language formula and the tacit pro-Hindi tilt ascribed to it.

This is the latest flashpoint in the battle between non-Hindi-speaking states and the Centre over the NEP. On May 9, the apex court had dismissed a plea filed by advocate G.S. Mani seeking directions to the governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal to implement the NEP. The court stated that its powers under Article 32 of the Constitution were limited to ensuring the protection of citizens’ fundamental rights and not mandating policy decisions on state governments. The aggrieved states allege that attempts to ‘impose Hindi’ are part of a grand design of the Sangh parivar and, by extension, the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, to undermine local cultures and languages and imperil India’s cultural diversity.

After Tamil Nadu’s impassioned protests, it was Maharashtra’s turn to reach boiling point. Arising chorus of protests has forced the Devendra Fadnavis regime to backpedal on making Hindi the compulsory third language after Marathi and English in Classes I to V. The objecters, not counting activists, ranged across the ideological spectrum, from the Congress, Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray to CPI(M) and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Together, this seemingly unlikely coalition railed against the “imposition of Hindi at the cost of Marathi”.