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April      Last updated: April  15,  5:00 p.m.

M. Rama Jois

Some of the leaders of political parties who are part of NDA expressed their displeasure against the speech delivered by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in Hindi on the historic occasion of the address by President Bill Clinton of USA to the joint session of Parliament. The reason, given by them for the criticism that had the Prime Minister made his speech in English the entire world would have heard and understood it, is not convincing as it is merely an assumption. Truth is otherwise. Secondly, in our own country majority of common people would not have understood it. But one thing is certain the entire world would have come to know that even after five decades of political freedom Bharat has not developed its national languages and secured primacy to them.

Vajpayee has rightly given expression to his anguish about the charge levelled against him, for speaking in national language on such a historic occasion. I am sure, he did not do so on account of the threat given by Mulayam Singh, for it is natural for any leader of any independent nation, and a matter of national pride for the nation concerned to speak in his own national language on such occasions. Mulayam Singh, however, deserves accolade for reminding this aspect. It is equally true when a representative of a nation speaks on the floor of United Nations, he should speak in his national language. It was a matter of national pride for us when Vajpayee as our Minister of External Affairs made his speech in Hindi in 1977, on the floor of UNO. It is indisputable further whatever be the language a leader speaks apart from there being facility for translating into other major languages it goes to the world in all languages through electronic media and the Press.

It is true that ours is a vast country, and we have large number of languages, castes, communities, different foods and dresses, different religions, but still the entire people of this ancient land have been living as a nation from times immemorial. What binds them to each other? Justice Bhagwati of the Supreme Court had disclosed this in the case of Pardeep Jain (AIR 1984 S.C. 1420) thus:

"It is cultural unity—something more fundamental and enduring than any other bond which may unite the people of a country together-which has welded this country into a nation."

Therefore during the freedom struggle one Hindi slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai electrified the entire nation and united us to fight against the British. This continues to be the most powerful slogan and uniting factor. Such a feeling of unity has been expressed in many of the songs composed in Hindi and other languages. Though Vande Matram composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was the most popular song saluting the motherland another inspiring song was composed by Subramanya Bharti in Tamil. Its English rendering reads: "On Bharat Mata, You have thirty three crores of faces, But your heart is one, You speak eighteen languages, But your mind is one". This shows that languages do not divide us. They are our rich heritage and wealth. Irrespective of differences in languages we are united through a cultural bond.

Therefore during the struggle freedom we raised slogans of "Swaraj" as also "Swabhasha" and "Swadeshi" in order to revive our national identity.

Mahatma Gandhi declared emphatically that after we secure "Swaraj" there should be a swadeshi impression in every sphere of our national activity such as language, education, politics, economy and cultural values, etc.

Therefore, the major national languages were incorporates in the eighth schedule of the Constitution. English is not one of them. Hindi was selected as an official language of the union or as link language of the nation as it has been the language of the majority of the people. On the same principle when unilingual states were formed, we made laws to the effect that the language spoken by the majority of the people in that State shall be the official language of the State. The Constitution was amended and Article 350-A was incorporated making it obligatory for the State to impart primary education in mother tongue. We adopted a three language formula in national interest. However, we failed to give primacy to our languages.

English is getting such significance and primacy which it did not enjoy even during the British rule. During pre-Independence days primary education was, as a rule, imparted in the mother tongue. English was being introduced only at the fifth standard. I had my entire school education in Kannada before Independence but now even pre-primary and primary education is being imparted in English despite the decision of the Supreme Court upholding the judgement of the Karnataka High Court. The SC held that Primary education upto fourth standard should be in mother tongue and there is no right to claim primary education in English by those whose mother tongue is not English.

See the state of subordinate judiciary which mostly comes into contact with common man. Though laws have been made specifying the official language of the states as early as in 1963, the same have not been implemented effectively. As a result in several states English enjoys pre-eminence. It is highly regrettable that in the national capital Delhi English continues to be the language of the subordinate courts though as per law official language of Delhi is Hindi.

It is, however, a matter of satisfaction that Tamil Nadu has made Tamil as the sole lanauge of sobordinate courts implemented fully and recently Tamil has been made as medium of instruction in schools. This is being opposed by the pro-English lobby.

These are the results of not evolving a National Lanauge Policy earmarking the area for the use of Hindi as a common lanauge, and the area for the use of official languages of the States. Substitution of English by Indian lanauges has to be done in a planned manner, and would take some time. But there is no planning at all. See how the Britishers spread English in this country when not even a single soul knew English.

Though it was a foreign language and was imposed on us, none felt that it was an imposition or burden. Had steps been taken to implement the three language formula effectively and to make Hindi acceptable to all, just as the Britishers made English acceptable to all, we would not have been in this predicament. Though politically we are a free nation we are still suffering from mental slavery.

It is high time that national language and education policy should be reformulated, in order to give the due place to our national languages in every sphere while retaining English at higher level as it is certainly a popular language world over. English may be used to carry the message of our cultural values to the world at large as Swamy Vivekananda did.