Union home minister Rajnath Singh must take care not to allow Hindi chauvinism to further alienate large sections of India that don’t normally speak Hindi or its dialects. The promotion of Hindi as a national language isn’t a dead idea: there is a place in any society to promote local languages. But to insist on extensively using Hindi in official communications, particularly between New Delhi and states, would be to defy constitutional guarantees.
The imposition of Hindi is an old idea that lost relevance a long ago, and has little place in a shrinking world that is undergoing so much transformation. Even when it was first thought of in the Constituent Assembly, critics denounced chauvinists’ aims. T.T. Krishnamachari echoed the sentiment, saying back then: “This kind of intolerance makes us fear the strong Centre which we need, a strong Centre which is necessary, will also mean enslavement of people who do not speak the language of the Centre.” These words are relevant even today.
Given the number of officially recognised languages, it would ill behove the new government to churn out old ideas to further its votebank in the Hindi heartland. To say 75 per cent of people know or speak Hindi is to take vast liberties with the truth. As home minister, Mr Singh should be careful to trigger further divisive tendencies. Language is a means of communication, not a political tool.
