Members Only
lock close icon

Politics of Language: Hindi Imposition Claims, Furore and Tweak

The new draft education policy has triggered strong reactions from the non-Hindi speaking states.

Harsha Subramaniam, BloombergQuint
News Videos
Published:
image of school children used for representational purposes.
i
image of school children used for representational purposes.
(Photo: PTI)

advertisement

The politics of language threatens to rear its ugly head once again. The new draft education policy that had proposed a three-language policy triggered strong reactions especially from the non-Hindi speaking states who alleged an imposition of Hindi.

DMK leader MK Stalin came down heavily on the proposal. He tweeted in Tamil that imposing Hindi on Tamil Nadu would be similar to throwing stones at a beehive. Raj Thackeray's party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) too tweeted against enforcing Hindi on the state. This policy document was recommended by a nine-member committee headed by Dr Kasturirangan.

Speaking to Bloomberg Quint’s Harsha Subramaniam, Dr Kasturirangan said that children in that particular age have the capability to learn as many languages as possible.

“Between the age two and between the age eight, the development of the brain is very amenable to learning multiple languages. This is besides mother tongue, local tongue, home language. etc.”
Dr Kasturirangan

Centre Tweaks Policy Following Uproar

As a result of an outrage over the draft of national education policy that favoured teaching Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states, the Centre has tweaked its policy. Consequently, references to specific languages including Hindi have been removed but it still seeks to propound the three-language formula.

The draft, formulated by a committee headed by Dr Kasturirangan had earlier recommended a three-language formula according to which English and Hindi should be included, besides mother tongue in non-Hindi speaking states.

It further recommended the inclusion of English and one Indian language from other parts of the country in Hindi speaking regions.

The draft of National Education Policy 2019 was submitted to the Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on 31 May.

(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)

Become a Member to unlock
  • Access to all paywalled content on site
  • Ad-free experience across The Quint
  • Early previews of our Special Projects
Continue

Published: undefined

ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL FOR NEXT