The language of the nation

Detail

Why language became a political question

• Language is normally a tool to talk. In India it became a mark of religious identity.
• From the late nineteenth century Hindi was being Sanskritised — old Sanskrit words were pushed in and Persian/Arabic words pushed out.
• At the same time Urdu was being Persianised — more Persian and Arabic words, fewer Sanskrit-derived ones.

• So the same spoken tongue was split into two "pure" written forms. Hindi got linked to Hindus, Urdu to Muslims.

• Result: by 1946 the Assembly could not treat language as a simple administrative choice. Every word carried community feeling.

Hindustani and the Gandhian ideal

• By the 1930s the Congress had already accepted Hindustani as the national language. This was a settled party position before the Assembly met, not a new 1946 idea.
• Gandhi's case for Hindustani:
• It was a blend of Hindi and Urdu — a mixed, composite language.
• It had grown rich by taking in words from many cultures and regions.
• It was the language the common people actually spoke, not a scholar's language.

• So it could unite Hindus and Muslims, and also north and south.

• Gandhi in October 1947 kept to this composite ideal even after Partition. He said that shutting oneself inside only Hindi, or only Urdu, would be "a crime against intelligence and the spirit of patriotism".

• Note the logic: for Gandhi, purifying a language was not a literary act. It was a way of cutting people off from each other.

The plea for Hindi — R.V. Dhulekar

• R.V. Dhulekar, a Congressman from the United Provinces, was the sharpest voice for Hindi.
• In an early session he demanded that Hindi be the language of constitution-making itself — that the Assembly draft the Constitution in Hindi.
• He was reminded that not every member knew Hindi.
• His reply: members who did not know Hindustani were "not worthy to be members of this Assembly. They better leave."

• The House broke into commotion. Nehru had to step in and calm members down.

• On 13 September 1949 Dhulekar spoke again and again caused a storm.

• He now wanted Hindi declared a National Language, not merely an Official Language.

• He called this "a consummation of a historic process" — meaning, in his view, the natural end-point of a long national struggle.

• The official record of that day's sitting is printed in the Constituent Assembly of India Debates, Volume IX, sitting of 13 September 1949, published by Parliament [2]. Volume IX covers the sittings running up to 18 September 1949 [3].

Key distinction to fix in memory: "National Language" suggests the language of the whole nation and of all its people. "Official Language" only means the language government uses for its paperwork. Dhulekar wanted the first. The Assembly gave the second.

The Language Committee's compromise formula

• The Assembly's Language Committee produced a formula with three parts: 1. Hindi in the Devanagari script would be the official language. 2. A gradual transition — English would continue for all official purposes for the first fifteen years. 3. Each province was free to choose a regional language for its own official work.

• The word choice was deliberate. Calling Hindi "official" and not "national" was meant to calm ruffled emotions and find a solution everyone could live with.

• Why the fifteen-year window mattered: government offices, courts and records all ran in English. A sudden switch would have paralysed administration and punished non-Hindi speakers who had built careers in English.
• The same core wording — Hindi in Devanagari script as the official language of the Union, with English continuing for fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution for all official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before — was carried into Part XVII of the Constitution [4].

The fear of domination — the voices from the south and west

• G. Durgabai (Madras) gave the House the plainest warning.
• She said the opposition in the south was very strong.
• In the south the Hindi drive was read as "a fight for effectively preventing the natural influence of other powerful languages of India on the composite culture of this nation" — that is, a move to shut out Tamil, Telugu and others from shaping national culture.
• Her own record made the warning heavy: she had herself taught Hindi in the south when Gandhi asked for it.

• She was shocked at two things: the aggressive turn the Hindi campaign had taken, and the purging of Urdu words and regional words out of Hindustani.

• Shankarrao Deo (Bombay) told Hindi supporters not to "raise my suspicions … strengthen my fears" — a Congressman and Gandhian saying the campaign was making even friends nervous.

• T.A. Ramalingam Chettiar (Madras) put the political test simply:
• Fears had to be allayed, even if those fears were not justified.
• If they were not, "there will be bitter feelings left behind".

• His rule for settling it: "mutual adjustment and no question of forcing things on people."

• The pattern to notice: the strongest objections came from Congressmen themselves, and from people who had worked for Hindi. This was not Hindi versus anti-nationals. It was an argument inside the national movement about what unity means.

How the compromise worked as constitution-making

• The Assembly did not pick a winner. It lowered the stakes of the question:
• Downgraded the label: official, not national.
• Delayed full effect: fifteen years of English.

• Decentralised the pressure: provinces choose their own language for their own work.

• This is the same method the Assembly used elsewhere — settle the principle, soften the timing, leave room for the provinces.

Prelims Hooks

• The Congress accepted Hindustani as the national language by the 1930s.
• Hindustani = a blend of Hindi and Urdu, backed by Gandhi as a composite people's language.
• Gandhi, October 1947: confining oneself to Hindi or Urdu alone would be "a crime against intelligence and the spirit of patriotism".
• Sanskritisation of Hindi and Persianisation of Urdu began in the late nineteenth century.
• R.V. Dhulekar — Congressman from the United Provinces; demanded Hindi as the language of constitution-making; told non-Hindustani speakers they "better leave"; Nehru calmed the House.
• 13 September 1949 — Dhulekar's speech demanding Hindi as a National Language, called "a consummation of a historic process"; recorded in Constituent Assembly Debates Volume IX [2][3].
• Language Committee formula = Hindi in Devanagari script as official language + English for all official purposes for fifteen years + provinces free to choose a regional language.
• Hindi was called "official", not "national", deliberately — to calm emotions.
• G. Durgabai — from Madras; had taught Hindi in the south at Gandhi's call; reported very strong southern opposition.
• Shankarrao Deo — from Bombay; "do not raise my suspicions … strengthen my fears".
• T.A. Ramalingam Chettiar — from Madras; "mutual adjustment and no question of forcing things on people".
• Part XVII of the Constitution carried the formula: Hindi in Devanagari as the Union's official language, English continuing fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution [4].

Mains Points

• Language shows how the Assembly handled conflict — by compromise, not by majority force. The Hindi bloc had the numbers but not the consent. The Committee therefore traded the symbol (dropping "national") for the substance (Hindi as official language), and bought time with a fifteen-year English window [4]. Use this as evidence that Indian federalism was built through accommodation, not imposition.
• The debate proves that "unity" was contested inside the national movement itself. Durgabai, Deo and Ramalingam Chettiar were Congress insiders; Durgabai had personally taught Hindi at Gandhi's call. Their objection was not to a national language but to the aggressive, purified Hindi that had replaced Gandhi's composite Hindustani.
• Partition reshaped the language question. Gandhi's Hindustani depended on Hindus and Muslims sharing one tongue. Once the politics of religious identity had already split Hindi from Urdu, and Partition had hardened it, the composite ideal lost its base — the Assembly chose Devanagari Hindi, and Urdu's claim shrank. Link to the wider theme of how communal politics narrowed the Assembly's options.
• Chettiar's argument — that even unjustified fears must be allayed — is a usable principle for any centre-state or majority-minority question. Legitimacy depends on perceived fairness, not only on formal correctness; ignoring fear leaves "bitter feelings" that outlive the vote. (Historically borne out: the fifteen-year deadline itself became the trigger for later anti-Hindi agitation.)