Supreme Court moved to make Hindi must in schools

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has been moved for a direction to the Centre to make study of Hindi compulsory for all the students of I-VIII standard, so that all the Indian citizens can easily communicate with each other. In his PIL, BJP member Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya said it will promote fraternity, unity and national integration, the great golden goals as set out in Preamble of the Constitution. At present, when a north Indian visits east, west or south India, he becomes a foreigner, as he cannot read, write and understand their local language and so also the citizens from those States find it difficult to communicate with person visiting from north.

The petitioner said besides the fact that Hindi is the official language as has been enunciated in the Article 343 of the Constitution, it is spoken and used in major part of the country. There are only few States where there is only regional language is spoken. He said Article 21A was inserted in the Constitution in the belief that the value of equality, social justice and democracy and the creation of a just and humane society can be achieved only through the inclusive universal elementary education to all the children aged 6-14 years. However, it is very unfortunate that study of Hindi is not compulsory for all the students of I-VIII standard.

At the time of framing and adoption of the Constitution, it was envisaged that English will continue to be used for executive, judicial and legal purposes for an initial period of 15 years i.e. till 1965 only. The period of 15 years was prescribed after detailed deliberation so that necessary arrangements could be made for smooth language transition. The Constitution makers were conscious that language transition in all the fields may not be possible by 1965. Hindi is capable of being accepted by people living in non-Hindi speaking regions but their dream is being negated by few States.

Every nation makes its national language as compulsory part of syllabus & curriculum particularly in primary education. However, in India, Hindi is not compulsory for all the students of I-VIII standard. Although, learning it is more important as the regional language can be learnt at home itself. A majority of the children of Tamil Nadu don’t know Hindi. They face many problems when they go outside the State for higher studies or search of job.  They try to manage with English, but we cannot expect a person in a grocery shop or a tea shop to know English. Hindi is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. India is known as ‘Hindustan’, which implies that majority of the Indians are Hindi speaking. Hindi was considered as the official language even before Independence, he said and prayed for a direction to make Hindi compulsory in schools upto VIII standard.