Theoretical overview
India is a multilingual country. Constitutional makers have some constitutional provisions in the Indian constitution for the protection and development of various languages. These provisions are as follows:
- Article 29 – Protection of Interests of Minorities
This article is intended to protect the interests of minority groups.
Article 29(1): This provides any section of the citizens residing in India having a distinct culture, language, or script, the right to conserve their culture, language and script.
Article 29(2): The State shall not deny admission into educational institutes maintained by it or those that receive aid from it to any person based only on race, religion, caste, language, or any of them.
- Article 30 – Right of Minorities to Establish and Administer Educational Institutions
This right is given to minorities to form and govern their own educational institutions. Article 30 is also called the “Charter of Education Rights”.
Article 30(1): All religious and linguistic minorities have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. (Read about Minority Protection in India in the linked article.)
Article 30(2): The State shall not, when granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.
- Article 120 Language to be used in Parliament
Notwithstanding anything in Part XVII, but subject to the Article 348, business in Parliament shall be transacted in Hindi or in English: Provided that the Chairman of the Council of States or Speaker of the House of the People, or Person acting as such, as the Case may be, may permit any member who cannot adequately express himself in Hindi or in English to address the House in his mother tongue
- Art 343 Official language of union
Hindi written in Devanagari script is the Official Language of the Union. The original constitution provided that for a period of 15 years from the commencement of the constitution, English will continue to be used for all official purposes of the Union. The constitution made it clear that President may, during the said period, by order authorize the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union.
Hindi is not India’s National Language. Neither is it language of communication between states & centre. Both Hindi and English are Official languages of India.
The constitution also makes it clear that even after 15 years, the Parliament by law may provide for the continued use of English for any specific purpose.
The constitution has put all authority in the hands of the central government both for formulating and implementing the language policy.
It is also special responsibility of the centre to develop and spread the official language (Hindi) of the union (art. 351)
- Official language or languages of a state
Article 345 empowers state legislature to adopt ‘any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes’ of the concerned State.
Article 346 is about the official language for communication between the states and between a state and the Union. The Article states that the “authorised” language will be used. However, if two or more states agree that their communications shall be in Hindi, then Hindi may be used.
Article 347 gives the President the power to recognise a language as an official language of a given state, provided that the President is satisfied that a substantial proportion of that state desires that the language be recognised. Such recognition can be for a part of the state or the whole state.
- Language of Supreme Court
Article 348(1) (a) states that unless Parliament by law provides otherwise, all proceedings before the Supreme Court and in every High Court shall be conducted in English.
Article 348(2) provides further that notwithstanding the provisions of Article 348(1), the Governor of a state may, with the previous consent of the President, authorise the use of Hindi or any other language used for any official purpose, in proceedings in the High Court.
States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have already authorised the use of Hindi in proceedings before their respective high courts and taking a cue, Tamil Nadu is also working in that direction – to authorise the use of Tamil before its high court.
A further provision states that nothing in this clause would apply to any judgement, decree, or order made by the High Court.
Therefore, the Constitution recognizes English as the primary language of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, with the caveat that when some other language is used in the proceedings of High Courts, judgments of the High Courts must be delivered in English.
- Article 350 A facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at the primary stage. It states that:
“It shall be the endeavour of every State and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups, and the President may issue such directions to any State as he considers necessary or proper for securing the provision of such facilities”.
- Article 351 promotion of Hindi language
“It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the 8th Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily, on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.”
Therefore, it would appear that the 8th Schedule was intended to promote the progressive use of Hindi and for the enrichment and promotion of that language.
- The Eighth Schedule
It consists of the following 22 languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution.
Sindhi language was added by the 21st Amendment Act of 1967.
Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992.
Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act of 2003 which came into force in 2004.
Classical Languages:
Currently there are six languages that enjoy the ‘Classical’ status in India:
Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).All the Classical Languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Points to remember
- India is a multilingual country.
- Constitutional makers have some constitutional provisions in the Indian constitution for the protection and development of various languages.
- Article 29 & 30 rights and protection of minority.
- Article 343 official language of union.
- Article 345 to 347 states about language of a state .
- Article 35 promotion of Hindi language .
