LINGUISTIC STATES

LINGUISTIC STATES

Constitutional provisions are necessary for the success of federalism but these are not sufficient. If the federal experiment has succeeded in India, it is not merely because of the clearly laid out constitutional provisions. The real success of federalism in India can be attributed to the nature of democratic politics in our country. This ensured that the spirit of federalism, respect for diversity and desire for living together became shared ideals in our country. Let us look at some of the major ways in which this happened.

The creation of linguistic States was the first and a major test for democratic politics in our country. If you look at the political map of India when it began its journey as a democracy in 1947 and that of 2019, you will be surprised by the extent of the changes. Many old States have vanished and many new States have been created. Areas, boundaries, and names of the States have been changed.

In 1947, the boundaries of several old States of India were changed in order to create new States. This was done to ensure that people who spoke the same language lived in the same State. Some States were created not on the basis of language but to recognise differences based on culture, ethnicity or geography. These include States like Nagaland, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand.

When the demand for the formation of States on the basis of language was raised, some national leaders feared that it would lead to the disintegration of the country. The Central Government resisted linguistic States for some time. But the experience has shown that the formation of linguistic states has actually made the country, more united. It has also made the administration easier.

Activity:

1.   Has your village/town/city remained under the same State since Independence? If not, what was the name of the earlier State?

2.  Can you identify the names of three States in 1947 that have been changed later?

3.  Identify any three States which have been carved out of bigger States.

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

LANGUAGE POLICY

LANGUAGE POLICY

A second test for Indian federation is the language policy. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 percent of Indians. Therefore, there were many safeguards to protect other languages. Besides Hindi, there are 21 other languages recognised as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution. A candidate in an examination conducted for the Central Government positions may opt to take the examination in any of these languages. States too have their own official languages. Much of the government work takes place in the official language of the concerned State.

Unlike Sri Lanka, the leaders of our country adopted a very cautious attitude in spreading the use of Hindi. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965. However, many non- Hindi speaking States demanded that the use of English continue. In Tamil Nadu, this movement took a violent form. The Central Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes. Many critics think that this solution favoured the English- speaking elite.  Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the Government of India. Promotion does not mean that the Central Government can impose Hindi on States where people speak a different language. The flexibility shown by Indian political leaders helped our country avoid the kind of situation that Sri Lanka finds itself in

Activity:

1. Why Hindi? Why not Bangla or Telugu?

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

CENTRE- STATE RELATIONS

CENTRE- STATE RELATIONS

Restructuring the Centre-State relations is one more way in which federalism has been strengthened in practice. How the constitutional arrangements for sharing power work, in reality, depends to a large extent on how the ruling parties and leaders follow these arrangements. For a long time, the same party ruled both at the Centre and in most of the States. This meant that the State governments did not exercise their rights as autonomous federal units. As and when the ruling party at the State level was different, the parties that ruled at the Centre tried to undermine the power of the States. In those days, the Central Government would often misuse the Constitution to dismiss the State governments that were controlled by rival parties. This undermined the spirit of federalism.

All this changed significantly after 1990. This period saw the rise of regional political parties in many states of the country. This was also the beginning of the era of COALITION GOVERNMENTS at the Centre. Since no single party got a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the major national parties had to enter into an alliance with many parties including several regional parties to form a government at the Centre. This led to a new culture of power-sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments. This trend was supported by a major judgment of the Supreme Court that made it difficult for the Central Government to dismiss state governments in an arbitrary manner. Thus, federal power-sharing is more effective today than it was in the early years after the Constitution came into force.

The States Plead for More Powers

Perils of Running a Coalition Government

Here are two cartoons showing the relationship between Centre and States. Should the State go to the Centre with a begging bowl? How can the leader of a coalition keep the partners of government satisfied?

Read the following excerpts from an article by noted historian, Ramachandra Guha, that appeared in the Times of India on November 1, 2006.

Activity:

1.  Are you suggesting that regionalism is good for our democracy? Are you serious?

2.  Take the example of your own state or any other state that was affected by linguistic reorganization. Write a short note for or against the argument given by the author here on the basis of that example.

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY OF INDIA

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY OF INDIA

How many languages do we have in India? The answer depends on how one counts it. The latest information that we have is from the Census of India held in 2011. This census recorded more than 1300 distinct languages which people mentioned as their mother tongues. These languages were grouped together under some major languages. For example languages like Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Bundelkhandi, Chhattisgarhi, Rajasthani and many others were grouped together under ‘Hindi’.

A look at the enclosed table makes it clear that no one language is the mother tongue of the majority of our population.

The largest language, Hindi, is the mother tongue of only about 44 percent of Indians. If we add to that all those who knew Hindi as their second or third language, the total number was still less than 50 percent in 2011. As for English, only 0.02 percent of Indians recorded it as their mother tongue. Another 11 percent knew it as a second or third language.

Activity:

Read this table carefully, but you need not memorise it. Just do the following:

1. Make a bar or pie chart on the basis of this information.

2. Prepare a map of the linguistic diversity of India by shading the region where each of these languages is spoken on the map of India.

3. Find out about any three languages that are spoken in India but are not included in this table

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK