The Big Story: Tongue-tied

International Language Day on February 21 commemorates the Bengali agitation in 1952 when protestors in Dhaka, which was then part of East Pakistan, clashed with their government for imposing Urdu on them. This Urdu-Bengali discord eventually tore Pakistan apart. East Pakistan was reconstituted as an independent nation, Bangladesh, in 1971, after a freedom struggle that took lakhs of Bengali lives.

As is clear from India’s neighbourhood, language is an emotive issue. In fact, it is the most common bond for nationhood globally. Even today, linguistic communities such as the Basque people in Spain are struggling for sovereignty on the basis of language.

India, though, is a marked exception in this case and is one of the last countries today whose nationhood is not marked by language (as is its 1947 twin, Pakistan). India has 22 official languages and has used linguistic states to competently balance linguistic identity within the framework of Indian nationhood. However, a Press Information Bureau note has some alarming news for this delicate balance. The Modi government will now promote the use of Hindi in routine conversation in government offices and in North East and South India to make the language more popular.

India is a linguistic federation with a marked bias towards Hindi. India’s largest set of MPs come from states that consider themselves Hindi-speaking and with the odd exception, has been ruled by Hindi-speaking Prime Ministers. Even someone as powerful as the current prime minister dare not speak in his own mother tongue Gujarati and has to deliver speeches in Hindi.

Yet, till now the system has functioned fairly well with one exception: the Anti-Hindi Agitation of 1963. This happened when the Congress Union government under Prime Minster Lal Bahadur Shastri made Hindi the sole official language of India. A 100 Tamils died in the riots and after that the Congress never won an election in Tamil Nadu. In the face of this bitter opposition, Shashtri had to scale back his Hindi chauvinism and return to English as an official language.

Even after the lessons of Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu, though, it is mystifying that the Bharatiya Janata Party wants to impose a language of people who are quite happy functioning in their own tongues. The BJP’s Hindutva imagines a strict conception of India defined by the alliterative phrase, Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. This might be a fine formula for a traditional nation-state but for country of India’s continental size, it is a recipe for perpetual discord.

The Big Scroll
Garga Chatterjee explains why imposing Hindi on all is as bad an idea as insisting that India is a Hindu country.

Political Picks
1. Mexico backs India to be a part of the Nuclear Suppliers Group but China still has its foot in the door.
2. The Bombay High Court appeared upset with the censor board’s arbitrariness in banning the Bollywood film Udta Punjab even as Arun Jaitley promises reforms in the censor board.
3. Obama just endorsed Hillary for President. How exactly will this help Hillary, though?

Giggle

Punditry
1. In the Mint, Christpher Langer explores how in China companies give information to a few trusted analysts who pass it on to their circle of investors before it makes its way to the market.
2. In the Hindustan Times, Rajdeep Sardesai analyses the Eknath Khadse episode and its impact in Maharashtra politics.
3. In the Indian Express, C. Raja Mohan points out that PM Modi’s US visit has highlighted a new sense of purpose between New Delhi and Washington.

Don’t Miss

The Haryana protests are peaceful (for now) but Jat anger smoulders underneath.

Even more uniquely, there are attempts to recall a shared Jat history. Many speakers, including Rohtak district’s Jat Sangharsh Samiti president Ashok Bilara, brought up Sir Chhotu Ram, the most prominent colonial-era Jat leader in the territory that was then united Punjab. “Jats have always lived in peace with other communities,” Bilara said, going on to display a remarkable attempt to connect the present agitation to pre-1947 Punjab politics and give it historical depth. "We formed the Unionist party in united Punjab with the Muslims. The premier of Punjab Khizr Hayat called Chhotu Ram 'chacha', uncle even in the Assembly." Behind the stage set up for the speaker hang posters of Chhotu Ram as well as Bhagat Singh, also a Jat.