Who is Afraid of Hindi?

The sentiment of Hindi imposition in Karnataka is not yet strong within the state because of the absence of the archetype of Hindi

- Aniruddha Nagaraj

THE three-language formula was first proposed by the Kothari Commission to promote linguistic diversity and national unity, and it was soon adopted by the National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1968. When states across India adopted this policy, Tamil Nadu saw it as a covert attempt to impose Hindi on the people. Under the leadership of the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai, the state resisted the move, ultimately leading to the non-implementation of the policy there. However, similar opposition to the three-language policy was not seen in the rest of the southern states.

In 1980, after the tenure of D. Devaraj Urs, the Congress formed a government under the leadership of R. Gundu Rao in Karnataka. Under his governance, Sanskrit, rather than Kannada, was made the first language in schools there. This was seen as a threat to Kannada identity and led to the prominent movement—Gokak Chaluvali. The irony in the present context is that the same Congress party is in power in Karnataka now under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and is raising its voice against Hindi imposition by the Centre, much unlike its stance under erstwhile Chief Minister R. Gundu Rao in the 1980s. It is, therefore, important to look at the history of pro-Kannada activism to understand the change in their stance.

Gokak Chaluvali is the first major attempt at mass mobilisation around Kannada linguistic assertion to have unfolded in Karnataka in the 1980s. Due to the popular opposition to Sanskrit as the first language in schools, R. Gundu Rao formed a committee headed by the scholar and Jnanpith awardee, Vinayaka Krishna Gokak. The committee produced a report stating that Kannada should be the medium of instruction in the public and private primary schools and the first or a second language in the high schools of Karnataka. The non-implementation of the report led to the