Hindi chauvinism has no place in a diverse nation
The Khattar government’s Hindi-only rule is exclusionary and undemocratic
The Haryana government has asked its departments, boards and corporations to conduct all official correspondence in Hindi and use English only in legal matters related to the Supreme Court and other courts. From a legal-administrative point of view, the BJP government under Manohar Lal Khattar has not done anything unique: It is only implementing the Official Language Act, 1969, which provided for the adoption of Hindi as the language to be used for official purposes in Haryana, in letter and spirit. Haryana is also not the only state to be doing this: Punjab has also implemented its version of the language Act. That the Khattar government would bring in this Act at some point of its tenure was clear when the chief minister announced last year a lifetime monthly pension of Rs 10,000 for Hindi satyagrahis imprisoned during the Hindi satyagraha launched by the Punjab Arya Pratinidhi Sabha in 1957.
Language is about political power and control. So language chauvinism often becomes a handy tool to further political agendas. At the national level too, the BJP has been trying to expand Hindi’s footprint. But it has been unsuccessful, thanks to protests by regional parties. This resistance towards Hindi chauvinism is natural since India’s states and Union Territories have been organised on linguistic lines.
But just because states were organised on linguistic lines and a particular language is widely spoken in a particular geographical area, Haryana cannot suddenly make it the only official language. The step is not just regressive but also exclusionary because every state has a major chunk of people who speak other languages. And will they be denied their rights — social, legal and economic — just because they can’t speak Hindi? That would be an assault on the constitutional rights of citizens. Mr Khattar must realise that he is the chief minister of Haryana, and not the chief minister of Hindi-speaking Haryana.