SPEAKING OF BEING EQUAL

LANGUAGE DIVIDE

- Amarnath K. Menon

India, not Hindia'. As a war cry, that's a softer and refined version of what rang out from the same geography of dissent back in the 1960s, when it played close to a secessionist line. But in its rejection of Hindi as the national language, it is as resolute. There's another difference: this time Tamil Nadu isn't alone. The six decades in between have seen a growing awareness-and positive evaluation-of India as an incredibly rich repository of linguistic cultures. The idea that it's this richness that deserves to be conferred with an official halo, rather than the old notion of a unitary and internally colonial nation, now sits well with more and more Indians. Thus, as Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin takes the campaign for equal language rights into the rival camp, he speaks to a different India.

That's why Stalin's call for major reform to make all 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule official languages of the Union government, on par with Hindi, is resonating well beyond Tamil Nadu. Chief ministers and leaders from several non-Hindi states now echo that demand and call for abandoning the pre-eminent status given to Hindi. This spirit is firmly entrenched in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and far beyond in civil society. Twitter campaigns such as #StopHindiImposition bear witness to it, as do new federal organizations like the Campaign for Language Equality and Rights (CLEAR). Strikingly, it even strikes a chord among those bearing allegiance to neglected languages within the 'Hindi belt.