The Issue of National Language in India

Almost every country in the world has a national language that is dominant in society. India might be one of the only exceptions to this due to its deep history and cultural diversity. One might assume it's Hindi, but that does not represent all of India. People do not think it is Enlgish due to its colonial associations, but its deep roots in Indian society make it almost impossible to remove. This begs the question: what language is spoken most in India, and should that not be its national language? This article looks very briefly into this question and why Hindi or English could never be the national language alone. 

The question of a national language in India was being considered before British colonization. While there was the Mughal rule, Persian was the language used in administration, Sanskrit in culture and religion, and regional languages for everyday life. Then Maculauy’s Minute of 1835 imposed English as the language of the government and higher education. This was specifically created to create a distinct class of Indians to serve colonial administration. This ended up creating a lasting divide between the English-educated and the common majority. It also created an irreplaceable dependence on English. 

Once India became independent, the question of national language became highly debated. Hindi was the most commonly spoken language, but it was strongly associated with the North Indian Brahminical culture. This led to fierce resistance from Southern communities, especially Tamil speakers, as they saw the British cultural dominance getting replaced by North Indian cultural dominance. This led to the 1950 Constitution designating Hindi as the official language but allowing English to continue for fifteen years, allowing gradual replacement. 

When the fifteen-year deadline was ending, violent protests occurred across Tamil Nadu, forcing the government to retain English alongside Hindi. This ended any possibility of Hindi being India’s sole national language. Tamil Nadu continues this resistance by refusing to adopt the three-language policy of Hindi, English, and Tamil, opting to keep just Tamil and English. This kept the question of national language unresolved. 

During this time, India reorganized internal linguistic boundaries from 1965, creating states based on regional languages having official status. This led to this issue of a national language being felt on a regional level. Preetha Mani, an associate professor of South Asian literature at Rutgers University, argues that regional monolingualism became a component of the issue of national monolingualism. This created the three language formula of a regional language (people’s mother tongues), Hindi, and English. This created major educational burdens rather than proper trilingualism. Differences in what language one learned led to some having advantages over the others. 

Furthermore, the economic liberalization in 1991 led to English having a stronger hold in India as it was needed to open India to global markets. The middle class wanted English-medium education, an individual choice, not a governmental policy, which had a larger impact in decreasing the role of regional languages. This is not to say that regional languages still did not play an important role in popular culture, households, and regional media; it just became increasingly absent in higher education institutions and professional workplaces. 

Interestingly, the rise of Hindu nationalist politics under the Bharatiya Janata Party has created renewed pressure to make Hindi the national language. This can be seen with the National Education Policy of 2020, which re-emphasized the three language formula and promotion of Hindi, which immediately triggered protests from southern states like Tamil Nadu. 

This constant linguistic struggle has created a population speaking their regional mother tongues, national Hindi, and globalized English, but not really owning any of them. Speaking three or more languages is common, especially in urban India, but this ability has led to a lack of legitimacy in the languages being spoken. The gap from how the language is spoken and how it is taught in school is growing, leading to linguistic insecurity. This struggle can be seen with the youth who are increasingly using English as their primary language for professional and social life and regional languages at home. As well as amongst Indian immigrants who struggle to adapt to the new country while speaking multiple languages but never “well enough.” This complexity in Indian linguistic identity is only just being studied. This diversity is essential to fully understand the question of language in India.