India is a grand mosaic of races, cultures, religions, languages and much else. This also makes it difficult for any one set to dominate the whole. The nation boasts of having 22 languages as scheduled under the Constitution, with Hindi occupying a lead role and 43 per cent of the population bracketed in it. States were formed mostly on linguistic basis, but the nation adopted a three-language formula for education and other purposes in 1968, which is held in good stead. The entire South India, comprising five major states and the North-Eastern states as well as Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat communicate in their own languages. The Congress party is committed to the three-language formula, but ever since the BJP assumed power, its attempts both overt and covert are to “make” Hindi the dominant language.
The nation’s need to have a common language for communication is well-appreciated, but the three-language formula continues to have its merits; more so in a more interdependent world, where migration is the norm today and globalization the reigning theme. Hindi limits itself to some of the northern states while English is universal. Remittances by NRIs total around $150 billion or more a year, thanks to India’s educated workforce spread around the world, and who mostly communicate in English. With due regard to all these, a statement by home minister Amit Shah this week that “one would in future feel ashamed of speaking in English here,” was uncalled for and unacceptable. Shah is not a blabber-mouth. He’s a performer, unlike the prime minister who revels in public discourses. Shah’s mindset against English demonstrates a prejudice that rebels against the ground realities that demand a continued stress on English if only to enable more and more Indians to spread out, explore the world and live a better life. Tens of thousands of Indian students study and graduate from universities abroad in Medicine, MBA etc, saddled as they are with a proficiency in English. Their number keeps growing. The educated youth in India, uncomfortable as they are with what ageing, old-fashioned politicians are define, are increasingly seeking and finding a better life elsewhere. For all such, English helps.
The problem with the present crop of semi-literate leaders is that they can neither speak nor write in English. This speaks volumes about their lack of proper schooling, where the three-language formula enables all a familiarity with English. To brand it a language of the colonizers, as Shah did, is also to ignore a reality of Hindi being an Indo-Aryan language. Rather, Shah and his ilk should try learning English even at this late hour. It would do a lot of good for all in governing this nation. On the other hand, semi-literates running governments is a sad scenario. The image they project of India before the wider world is that of a regressive India. We have gone back a long way away from the Nehru era.