National Language of India
2022 SEP 3
Preliminary >
Polity > Miscellaneous > Language
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