Table of Contents
What has happened?
- Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English in Indian states.
- He added that while it should not replace local languages, states using Hindi would act as a unifier.
But why this sudden statement?
- Presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the official language and this will definitely increase the importance of Hindi.
- “Now the time has come to make the Official Language an important part of the unity of the country. When citizens of States who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India,” Shah said.
- The Parliamentary Official Languages Committee was established in 1976 under section 4 of the Official Languages Act, 1963.
- To review the progress made in the use of Hindi for the official purposes of the Union and submit a report to the President making recommendations.
- It consists of 30 Members, 20 from LokSabha and 10 from RajyaSabha.
- He informed the members that now 70% of the cabinet’s agenda is prepared in Hindi.
- He said unless Hindi is made flexible by accepting words from other local languages, it will not be propagated.
3 main points
- Shah emphasised on three main points.
- Firstly, the committee is requested to hold a meeting in July for implementation of the recommendations made from 1st to 11th volumes of its report.
- Shah said the Secretary of the Official Language Committee should inform the members about the implementation of the volume-wise report in that meeting.
- Under the second point, he stressed the need to give elementary knowledge of Hindi to students up to Class 9 and pay more attention to Hindi teaching examinations.
- Under the third point, the home minister suggested to republish the Hindi dictionary by revising it, the statement said.
Sending reports to President
- On this occasion, Shah unanimously approved the sending of the 11th volume of the committee’s report to the president.
- He said the pace at which the current Official Language Committee is working has rarely been seen before.
- The home minister said sending three reports to the president in the same tenure of the committee is a joint achievement of all.
- He said after meeting with all secretaries concerned, an Implementation Committee should be constituted,
- To review the progress of implementing recommendations of the 1st to 11th volumes of the Official Language Committee report.
North eastern states
- Amit Shah said 22,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in eight northeastern states.
- Also, nine tribal communities of the Northeast have converted their dialects’ scripts to Devanagari.
- Apart from this, all the eight states of the Northeast have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class 10, the statement said.
- Several Opposition leaders on Friday said that were against the imposition on Hindi in any part of the country.
- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday fumed at Union Home Minister Amit Shah and said his statement is an act that “will hurt the unity of India” and warned the BJP not to “commit the same mistake.
Current status of Hindi
- Hindi in Devanagari script is declared as the Official Language of the Union under Article 343(1).
- While framing of Constitution, it was envisaged that English will continue to be used for executive, judicial and legal purposes for an initial period of 15 years.
- But with the Official Languages Act, 1963, a constitutional amendment allowed for the continuation of English with Hindi for indefinitely until legislation decides to change it.
- As per the Official Language Resolution of 1968, the government shall adopt a more comprehensive programme to accelerate the spread of Hindi for official use by the Union.
- The resolution also says that an annual measure of progress achieved in this regard will be tabled on both Houses of Parliament, and the same shall be sent to all the State governments as well.
Q) Which among the following statement is correct regarding languages in India?
- Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of 24 languages.
- Six languages enjoy the classical status.
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both 1 & 2
- None of the above
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