National Language of India

Why in news?

• The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a PIL seeking directions to notify Sanskrit as the national language.
• SC said that the issue was in the realm of policy, requiring constitutional amendments which entailed detailed discussion in the Parliament and not in the realm of judiciary.

Petitioners’ argument:

• The petitioner’s lawyer invoked Sanskrit as a “mother language” from which other tongues took inspiration. He repeatedly invoked oriental scholar Sir William Jones and his study of the ancient language.

Is there any national language?

• The Constitution of India has not given any language a national status.

What is the status of Hindi?

• Under Article 343 of the Constitution, the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari
• English would continue to be used for a period of 15 years.
• Official Languages Act, 1963 was passed in anticipation of the expiry of the 15-year period during which the Constitution originally allowed the use of English for official purposes.
• Article 351 provides for Union Government to promote the use of Hindi

About William Jones

• William Jones was an SC judge as well as a linguist and proposed that there is an existence of a relationship between European and Indo-Aryan languages, which he coined Indo-European.
• He established the Asiatic Society of Bengal in the year 1784.
• Jones’ was the first to suggest that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin languages had a common root.
• He also suggested that Sanskrit ‘was introduced to India by conquerors from other kingdoms in some very remote age’ displacing ‘the pure Hindi’ of north India

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements:

1. The Constitution of India has not given any language a national status

2. Article 351 provides for Union Government to promote the use of Hindi

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer