Regional languages flourishing in India could halt attempts to create a homogeneous India, according to Deepak Pawar, faculty, Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai.
“Development and ensuring equality of Indian languages is one of the ways to counter and challenge the Sangh Parivar’s broad project of Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan,” said Mr. Pawar, who was in Chennai recently.
In the context of Maharashtrian politics, Mr. Pawar said that it was time to move beyond the language politics propounded by the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Stating that this reform should start with the Parliament of India, Mr. Pawar said, “In our Parliament, if a member wants to speak in a language other than Hindi or English, he/she needs to get prior permission. This needs to change. Like in European parliament, we need to create a language infrastructure in our Parliament, which will ensure that non-Hindi or non-English speakers can get their voice heard. Then, the next step would be to ensure that all languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule are made official languages.”
He further said that it is possible for non-Hindi States, which have disputes among themselves – such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka or Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra – to work together in this issue.
Mr. Pawar said that regional languages should become the language of knowledge, judiciary, technology and administration. “In the longer run, English is going to jeopardise Tamil. We have to proactively push the linguistic agenda in the State legislature,” he said.