Regional Languages
In British India, English was the sole language used for administrative purposes as well as for higher education purposes. When India became independent in 1947, the Indian legislators had the challenge of choosing a language for official communication as well as for communication between different linguistic regions across India. The choices available were:
- Making "Hindi", which a plurality of the people (43%) identified as their mother tongue, the official language, though only a minority of these "Hindi" speakers spoke Hindi proper.
- Making English, as preferred by non-Hindi speakers, particularly Tamils and Kannadigas, and those from Mizoram and Nagaland, the official language. See also Anti-Hindi agitations.
- Declare both Hindi and English as official languages and each state is given freedom to choose the official language of the state.
The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union. Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e., on 26 January 1965. The prospect of the changeover, however, led to much alarm in the non Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially Dravidian-speaking states in South India whose languages were not related to Hindi at all (see examples at right). As a result, Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act, 1963, which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes along with Hindi, even after 1965.
See also: Languages with official status in IndiaRead more about this topic: Languages Of India
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)