Hindi- Unimposed

For the past week, I have been reading the archives of the Constituent Assembly which formalized the Constitution of India. 71 years ago, on 12th, 13th and 14th Sep 1949, the assembly debated the status of Indian languages and if the country needed a ‘national’ language to stay together. There were a wide array of opinions presented. Some articulated that Hindi should enjoy the status of the national language as ‘from Ramdas to Tulsidas and from Swami Dayanand to the Mahatma, all wrote in Hindi’. Others feared that adoption of Hindi and the Devnagari script would alienate the Southern states of India which had limited exposure to the language. There were enough backers for the Hindustani language which is currently the single largest spoken language in the country. Hindustani, according to Maulana Azad, was the chord of communal harmony linking the Hindu and Muslim populations of this country. There were some oddball punts like-using Romanized Hindi script or declaring Sanskrit as the national language! Why not?! Because that is what a country with a 2000 year old caste based oppression needs- A language that was mea culpa in propagating that oppression. <a href="https://runsandrants.medium.com/hindi-unimposed-54d6fc28073b">Website</a>