24/09/2018 For The Last Time, Hindi Is NOT The National Language Of India

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P O L I T I C S 24/06/2017 5:09 PM IST | Updated 24/06/2017 5:54 PM IST

For The Last Time, Hindi Is NOT The National

Language Of India
Setting the record straight once and for all.
By Rohini Chatterji

HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES

On Saturday morning, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the citizens of India
should make efforts to learn Hindi since it was the national language of the country.

"Hindi is our national language and it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi. It is
unfortunate that everyone is after English medium, I am against Britishers but not their
language," Naidu said. "We should learn all language, but by learning English our mindset
is also changing, this is wrong , this is against the interest of the nation."

"It is unfortunate that everyone is bent upon learning English because it guarantees
employment. Hence I want the nation to discuss, promote and learn our mother languages

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24/09/2018 For The Last Time, Hindi Is NOT The National Language Of India

more and at the same time learn Hindi as well," he added.

ANI
@ANI

Hindi rashtrabhasha hai. Hindi ke bina Bharat mein aage

badhna sambhav nahi hai: Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu
10:48 AM - Jun 24, 2017
593 501 people are talking about this

Naidu further said that the extensive use of English was detrimental to the progress of the
nation. "While learning English, we have trained our minds like English people. This is not
in the interests of the nation."

Naidu's comments come after a series of protests in Bengaluru over Hindi beign used as a
language in the Metro sign boards. Various political parties such as DMK and Janata Dal
(Secular) have also criticised the Centre for "imposing" Hindi in their states.

While Naidu seems to be a great proponent of the country learning Hindi, he has several
facts wrong. Hindi is not the national language of India. It is one of the 'official' languages
of India according to the Constitution. Clause 1 of Article 343 of the Constitution of India
states that "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script."

While he argues that the mindsets of Indians are changing because of English, the
Constitution says that English can be used as an official language. While the language

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24/09/2018 For The Last Time, Hindi Is NOT The National Language Of India

debate in India has been going on for decades, several states, especially from southern
India, have protested against the use of Hindu as the official language.

The Gujarat High Court, while hearing a PIL, had in 2010 observed that Hindi was not the
country's national language. The PIL had sought direction of the Centre and the State to
make it mandatory for print details of good to be in Hindi. But the court had observed,
"Normally, in India, majority of the people have accepted Hindi as a national language and
many people speak Hindi and write in Devanagari script but there is nothing on record to
suggest that any provision has been made or order issued declaring Hindi as a national
language of the country."

In fact, the Constitution provides for the usage of other languages as the official language
of the state. Article 345 of the Constitution states, "The Legislature of a State may by law
adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or
languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State: Provided that,
until the Legislature of the State otherwise provides by law, the English language shall
continue to be used for those official purposes within the State for which it was being
used immediately before the commencement of this Constitution."

While Naidu finds it unfortunate that people want to learn English, the Constitution also
says that states whose official language is not Hindi can have communications in English.
The Constitution also says, "Every person shall be entitled to submit a representation for
the redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a State in any of the
languages used in the Union or in the State, as the case may be."

Naidu said, "Since majority of the population speaks Hindi, it is necessity to learn Hindi,
but before that we need to learn our mother language." But Naidu may have gotten this
statement wrong as well. A majority of India does not speak Hindi.

The Census in 2001 showed that only 45% of India spoke or knew Hindi. That is less than
half of the population of the country. And only 25% had Hindi as their mother tongue.

The Eight Schedule to the Constitution of India states the official languages of India that
includes Bengali, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Sindhi, Telugu among other languages to
make 22 languages the official language of India.

Also on HuffPost India

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