Controversy over the Three-Language Policy

India's language problem has many dimensions, the most prominent of which is the ethnic or racial dimension. India is made up of people of different races such as Aryans, Dravidians, Mongols etc. One of the languages that developed as a link language between them was a mixed form of Hindi and Urdu, which was also called Hindustani during the freedom movement, but its origin was more in the states of North and West. In some places, even in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, it is used in speaking. Which is called Dakhini but it is a form of dialect. It is necessary to differentiate between script and dialect in the languages of India. In a country with more than a thousand dialects, it was a very difficult task to give the status of national language to any one language.

Nevertheless, during the freedom movement, it was decided with the consent of Mahatma Gandhi that Hindi would be the national language of India after independence because most of the people of India write or speak its various forms. Its script was Devanagari in which many dialects of India are also written. In fact, Gandhiji was more in favour of Hindustani in Devanagari script, but he was not against writing Hindustani in Urdu also. It was also recommended by the Constitution Committee of Motilal Nehru formed in 1928 and wrote that English and Hindustani should be made the official language of India, which can be written in two scripts. Therefore, during the freedom movement, there was also a majority that the script of the Indian language could be either Devanagari and Arabic script.

In the freedom movement, the most used language was Hindi language, which was not very complex or Sanskritized. At the time of implementing the Constitution, it was decided that English and Hindi would be the two official languages of India which would be used in government work. Before independence, all higher government work was done in English and Urdu was also dominant in lower level government offices and courts. Therefore, it took 15 years to bring Hindi to this level and it was said that from 26 January 1965, it would be necessary to do official work in Hindi also, especially in those states where Hindi is spoken. It was opposed in the states of South India and Eastern India, while the English Hatao Movement started in the states of North India. This movement was also taking violent form at many places.

At that time, the Prime Minister of the country was the late Prime Minister. Lal Bahadur Shastri was there, but a few months later, in the winter season, India broke out at war with Pakistan, due to which the movement cooled down, but in the second week of January 1966, Shastri died suddenly and Mrs. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister. After he became the Prime Minister, the language movement started again. Language also became an election issue in the states of North India in the 1967 general elections. India's major opposition parties were speaking in one voice in favor of removing English. In the 1967 elections, for the first time, the Congress could not form its governments in nine states and the opposition parties formed coalition governments there. At the Centre too, the Congress party got a majority in the Lok Sabha with a very small margin.

The solution to this problem was given by Mrs. Gandhi, a well-known educationist. Dr. Triguna Sen, who was the then Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, was appointed as the Education Minister of India. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1967. In 1968, Dr. Triguna Sen gave the country a three-language formula that would maintain the unity of the entire nation and also avoid North-South conflicts. Under this formula, every student in the country had to study three languages. One is the mother tongue, the second is Hindi or English and the third is a regional language. Hindi was the mother tongue of most of the students in North India. So he often opted to study Sanskrit or Urdu. Whereas, in the three-language formula, there was a provision that students from North India would study any language of the South and students from the South would learn Hindi. Both areas took the break.

It opened the way for students of southern states to study Hindi, but their regional language and mother tongue were the same. So he opted for English only. The new National Education Policy that has come at present is necessary for every student to study three languages. Among them, students from North India escape because they choose either Sanskrit or Urdu, but in the southern states, the path of promoting Hindi under the three-language formula is still open. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shri M.K. Stalin is saying that the central government is imposing Hindi on him on the pretext of this formula. The Centre has withheld funds given to the states under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and is pressuring them to teach Hindi in schools.

Stalin is raising the question that how many students in North India study any one language of the South? Let the government clarify that first. Obviously, there are very few schools in North India where Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada is taught. Stalin is also challenging which law makes it mandatory to study three languages? Education is included in the Concurrent List of India, so both the Center and the State have a say in this matter. The question is sure to arise that when students from North India do not study any Southern language, why should people from South study Hindi? But Mr. Stalin should consider that the only language that flourishes in any country is that which is related to livelihood. Today's era is not 1968. The condition of Hindi is no longer what it was in the sixties. Hindi is now being used in higher government works, so its connection with the livelihood of the new generation is increasing. It has also become a medium of getting admission in higher government services, although knowledge of English is also necessary for this. Therefore, language disputes should be examined in the light of the prevailing situation and dealt with patience.