By Sondip Bhattacharya
For politicians it is the political dividend that matters most, rather than the development of the country. The ruling Congress party, wary of a reversal of fortunes in the forthcoming polls, has played with the sentiments of the people of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The party has effectively used the issue of classical language and Telangana statehood to cater to the gallery.
The Union Cabinet declared Odia as a classical language on the eve of the polls. Odia is no doubt a culturally rich language and one of the oldest Indian languages. But the Government while declaring it a classical language has given strange arguments which are contrary to facts. The official press release of February 20 says Odia language has “no resemblance to Sanskrit.” Linguists and scholars know very well that all the modern Indo-Aryan languages evolved primarily from Vedic Sanskrit that later evolved to Epic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit. Pali, Prakrit, Apbramsha were the transitional stages to the modern Indian languages like Bengali, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi, Marathi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Hindi et al. To say that Odia does not have any resemblance to Sanskrit is totally contrary to the facts. Further the official release says: “So far Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam have been declared as classical languages.”
This shows that the Government has not yet declared Pali or Prakrit as classical language despite the fact that these two are languages of antiquity and have volumes of rich literature. These two languages predate the arrival of Buddha and Mahavira, and are intimately associated with the religious, intellectual and cultural traditions associated with Buddhism and Jainism. Why then have these two languages not been accorded the status of classical languages? The answer is simple. Buddhists and Jains in the country do not have adequate numbers to matter in votebank politics.
The government’s action is likely to have fallout on such an emotive issue. Almost every regional language in the country, one after the other, will claim the status of Classical Language, thus diluting the concept of classical language.
But the ruling Congress party is unmindful of what is likely to happen in future as long as it is able to reap political dividends. In Odisha, the Congress has been out of power for 15 years. The leadership of the state unit has seen several changes over the years. But none of the leaders could be effective in dislodging Naveen Patnaik. Both the Congress and the BJP remain weak and ineffective in Odisha. Odisha represents 21 seats in the Lok Sabha, out of which the Biju Janata Dal bagged 14 in the last general elections, leaving 6 to Congress and one to CPI. In Odisha, the Assembly polls will synchronise with the Lok Sabha polls. In the last Assembly polls, the Congress party could secure only 27 seats in the 147-member house. Thus Congress with this emotive appeal hopes to reap some political dividend in the coming polls.
Similar is the case with Telangana statehood. The Congress being wary of losing in Andhra Pradesh supported the cause of Telangana statehood to maintain some hold in the region.
Like the issue of classical language, the Telangana statehood has opened a Pandora’s Box of demand for separate states in different parts of the country — Vidarbha from Maharashtra; Kamptapur from West Bengal and Assam; Gorkhaland from West Bengal; Bodoland, Karbi Anglong and Dima Raji from Assam. Sooner or later, Rayalaseema may call for separation from Seemandhra and the proposal for splitting Uttar Pradesh into four separate states may be on the anvil (it may also be the least problematic, as it is based on administrative reasons rather than linguistic or ethnic identity).
At present, India’s population of 124 crore people is organised into 28 states and seven Union Territories. In contrast, the US, with a population of 32 crore, is divided into 50 states. The eight crore inhabitants of Germany are governed through 16 states.
India sits at the bottom of the federal league table in terms of numbers of states and population. It has an average of over 35 million people per state. That compares to about seven million people in Brazil, six million in the US, and four million in Nigeria. Quite a few of the Indian states cover a larger area and serve a larger population than some of the developed nations. Were it to be declared an independent country, Uttar Pradesh would tie with Brazil to be the world’s fifth largest nation.
Given that there is already a shrill clamour for creation of smaller states from different parts of India, granting of statehood to Telangana is bound to spur them further. It would be more sensible to create a framework of new states rather than wait for regional demands to turn violent.
The only sensible way out can be setting up a new States Reorganisation Commission (SRC). There have long been calls for the establishment of a second SRC to take a more comprehensive look at the shape and size of India’s states. Both those who seek a thorough, dispassionate analysis of the issue and those who seek to kick difficult political decisions into the longer grass have called for a fresh exercise.
The argument advanced by opponents of Telangana that the first SRC had already completed the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines is untenable. When the linguistic states were formed, the objective was to give Indian languages and culture the institutional support they did not have under colonial rule.
Now that decades of support and nourishment have allowed Indian languages and cultures to flourish, these languages are no excuse for blocking popular aspirations. Hindi speakers are already organised into multiple states and sharing a language has not proved a hurdle in creation of the new states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh by the NDA regime.
As experience has shown, creation of smaller states is good politics and has mostly led to faster economic growth. After the first SRC was set up in 1953 and the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956, subsequent governments have addressed the demand for new states on piecemeal basis. It is time to set up a mechanism to do so after due consultation with all stakeholders and settle the issue with a degree of finality. INAV