Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks calling for 'One nation One Language' on Hindi Diwas have caused a huge uproar, evoking angry reactions from the different political parties, especially from India’s southern states. Shah had contended that Hindi was the only unifying language of the country. He also mentioned that Hindi was spoken by more people than any other language. Politicians like Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President MK Stalin, and Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan vehemently opposed any attempt to impose Hindi. However, the fact remains that India does not have any ‘national’ language as of now.

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Official language conundrum 

In 1950, Part XVII of the Constitution of India declared Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of the country along with English. It stated that English would cease to be used officially after 15 years unless the Parliament decided otherwise. However, as the deadline was fast approaching, many non-Hindi speaking states protested leading to the enaction of the Official Languages Act, 1963. This paved the way for the continuation of English as the official language beyond 1965. The extent to which the Union Government uses Hindi and English is also shaped by the Official Language Rules, 1976, and statutory instruments made by the Department of Official Language.  

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Centre vs States 

The state governments are not bound by the usage of official languages barring for communication with the Central Government. They can specify their own official languages by enacting requisite legislation. For instance, Marathi and Gujarati are the official languages of Maharashtra and Gujarat respectively. Besides this, the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution contains a list of 22 regional languages. However, it is not necessary for the states to choose an official language solely from this list.

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The Three-language formula

Moreover, to ameliorate the concerns of the non-Hindi speaking states, the Ministry of Education had evolved the three-language formula in 1968. Basically, it advocated the study of ‘English, Hindi and a modern Indian language (preferably from the southern states)’ in Hindi-speaking states. On the other hand, non-Hindi speaking states would have to learn ‘Hindi, English and the regional language’. However, states like Tamil Nadu opposed the requirement to learn Hindi.  

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