Teathat first episode of 1984 Doordarshan serial we people This is perhaps the best example to show the emptiness of the debate on the official language. It begins with an interesting discussion between the two main characters, Lallu and Nanhe.
Hindi medium student Lallu is applying for the lower grade clerk post. For his convenience, he prefers to have the Hindi version of the job application. Despite his best efforts, Lallu fails to understand the bureaucratic jargon used in this form. He requests his brother Nanhe to help him:
Lallu : What is the meaning of the undersigned of the best room? (tell me what is the meaning of the undersigned,
Little: Som wrote ‘undersigned’. (It’s written ‘undersigned’ here.)
Lallu: And what’s wrong? (What is the meaning of this in Hindi?)
Young: On Monday it is written ‘undersigned’. (written here the undersigned,
Lallu (laughing): Som say this. (What exactly does this person want to say?)
Nanhe (in perspective): He says ‘O Hindustani Lallu, if I understand in English then I am in Hindi also’. (He just wants to say: ‘Hey Indian Lallu, if you can’t understand it in English, I won’t let you understand it in Hindi either’.)
This conversation is very relevant to underline the fact that the Hindi vs English debate is meaningless. The state uses a bureaucratic language that intimidates citizens, expects them to behave in a certain way, and above all, establishes its hegemony as the supreme authority of administration.
In a way, Lallu seems to be asking three specific questions: What is it? Officer About the ‘official language’? Is it all about Hindi vs English? What kind of relationship does this official language make with the common Indians, ‘we, the people’?
What is ‘official’ about the official language?
The term official language, broadly speaking, refers to the four major forms of state communication.
before parliamentary language in which legislative action is to be taken. another, working language in which official orders are to be communicated. third, legal language in which conflicts are to be resolved. And finally, administrative language, Which is used to communicate with citizens.
However, the Indian story of the official language is a bit complicated. Colonial state in fact Invention Introduced it to establish a new language of command and order and later effective communication with native subjects.
The East India Company’s rule formally adopted English as the official language in 1835. This important step was not merely a symbolic act to establish racial supremacy. There were practical reasons that forced the company to develop a language that could be useful for administrative purposes.
This official language was very different from the language in which the cherished values of the European Enlightenment were celebrated in England. More specifically, it had two key features. First, it was based on the assumption that native Indians were inferior and backward-looking, so they would have to be adequately educated and trained. Second, the purpose of official communication was always to be defined in relation to ‘law and order’.
It is worth noting that our national movement, especially the Gandhian stream, posed a serious challenge to this notion of official language. Gandhi not only questioned the dominance of English but also argued for a polite and democratic form of political communication.
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The post-colonial story of the official language
We must remember that language was a highly controversial political issue in the late 1940s. The Hindu-Muslim communal divide had already replaced Hindi and Urdu as religious institutions. The partition of India on religious lines intensified this linguistic dispute.
The Constituent Assembly debate on the language shows that a section of the Congress, especially the Gandhians, was in favor of adopting Hindustani as the official language. On the other hand, there was a powerful lobby that wanted to keep Hindi and even Sanskrit as the language of administration. Despite these differences, there was a general consensus that future India should have its own official language.
Still, it was a simple question. English has been the language of administrative transactions and political dialogue. At that time it was practically impossible to replace English with any other national language.
The Munshi-Iyengar formula was the way to resolve this impasse. According to this formula, English was to continue as the official language for a period of fifteen years along with Hindi. It was also suggested that the Parliament should have the final say in this regard.
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Strong English and Weak Indian Languages
The reorganization of the states on linguistic lines further complicated the question. The introduction of Hindi as an official language in non-Hindi speaking states was strongly opposed and criticized, especially in South India. This was seen as a kind of linguistic dominance of the North over the South.
To deal with such complex debates, the Official Language Committee of Parliament (also known as the Pant Committee) proposed in 1955 that English be continued as an official language even after the given time limit of 15 years. should be kept. The Official Language Act 1963 was a direct result of this proposal.
This law accepted, in principle, that English should be allowed to function as the main official language, along with Hindi. It also recognized the relative inefficiency of Hindi and/or other Indian languages. For this purpose, the government was given the responsibility of developing the linguistic potential of Hindi so that it can be developed as an effective medium for official transactions.
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tone, vocabulary, jargon
The continuation of English for administrative purposes is justified on two counts—the relative inability of Hindi as an official language and the desirability of national integration, especially to respond to the anti-Hindi movement.
However, there is a deeper structural problem, which has almost been overlooked. India adopted a highly egalitarian constitution based on the idea of sovereignty of the people. At the same time, we have inherited administrative structures deeply rooted in the colonial imaginations of Indian society. This imbalance created the possibility of an inevitable conflict between the two languages of everyday politics: language of democracy And language of government,
Electoral politics expresses itself in the language of democracy. Political parties organize voters as people to claim adherence to democratic values. However, the moment the political class assumes the role of an administrator, it begins to speak in a different language: the language of governance.
Official language in this sense is the best example of this language of the official language. As an artificial language, it is the product of official English, which has inherited tone, vocabulary and articulation from colonial administrative discourse. In fact, official Hindi is equally different to people’s sensibilities and linguistic affiliations.
It seems that the official language is not yet fully democratised. And, unfortunately, no one cares about it.
Hilal Ahmed is a scholar of Political Islam and Associate Professor at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi. He tweeted @Ahmed1Hilal. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Choubey)