At an event organised by 'Hindi Vivek' magazine on September 15, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam was asked to speak in Hindi. She started the speech by saying that speaking in Hindi still makes her nervous and added that whenever she has to speak in that language, she feels uncomfortable and diffident. The reason is simple: her mother tongue is Tamil and she lived in Andhra Pradesh after getting married. Hindi is still an unfamiliar language to her. If the Hindi-speaking skills of a BJP leader who holds an important position in the Central government are like this, what would be the state of a large population of Indians outside the Hindi belt who never had to use Hindi in their everyday life? And then, what will happen to them if Hindi is made a necessary qualification for employment and education? Those who do not know Hindi will be excluded from the power structure of the country. With that, the concept of the motherland will be destroyed. Segregation and malice will thrive due to a language that should have been used to create unity. The 112 recommendations handed over to President Draupadi Murmu by the 30-member Official Language Parliamentary Affairs Committee chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah will certainly invite such a catastrophic turn of events.
The disturbing recommendations regarding the non-Hindi-speaking population in India have once again demonstrated that the ruling BJP government and its ideological backers, the Sangh Parivar are not aware of the deep cultural roots and linguistic diversity of the country. It has been proposed that court proceedings in Hindi-speaking states along with letters, faxes, e-mails, and invitations between government institutions must also be in Hindi. The recommendations also demand that Central government job exams, communications across ministries and government institutions, and procedures in Indian embassies in foreign countries should also be in Hindi. The language is also being recommended as the compulsory medium of education in central schools, IITs, and central universities. Special allowances for those proficient in Hindi and show cause notice for those who avoid communication in Hindi are also proposed. In course of time, a Hindutva nation that speaks only Hindi instead of regional languages and English is clearly discernible without any ambiguities or concealment in the recommendation given to the President.
As per the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, all 22 languages spoken in the nation are official. Amid the use of the big stick of power to establish Hindi as the one official language of India, as many as 38 linguistic communities across India are protesting and demanding the right and recognition for their languages. They are being ignored in the eagerness to turn a culturally and linguistically diverse India into a single Hindi-speaking Hindu nation. It does not take a genius to understand that the essence of this report is the urge to shape a 'new' country with only one language and one religion with a theme of 'Hindi Hindu Hindustan'. Amit Shah has been demanding that communication between states and people should be in Hindi and not in English. This is against the Official Language Act of 1963. It is also doubtful whether the rule - that the recommendations of the official language committee should be implemented after receiving the opinions of the states - will be complied with. The Central government has already appointed 22,000 Hindi teachers in the northeastern states. Records also show that the scripts of nine tribal communities have already been converted into Devanagari, the alphabet used to write Hindi. Bhartrihari Mahtab, Vice-Chairman of the Language Committee, explains that the recommendations prepared on the basis of the new National Education Policy will be implemented accordingly. Naturally, any attempt to unilaterally impose Hindi will lead to a major conflict in the country. South Indian states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka have already declared their opposition. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has warned the Centre of another language war. Now is the time to realise that promoting one language above others will destroy the integrity of the nation. Let the memory of India's history make us wake up to the fact that divisions through language will create wounds that never heal.