O
n the question of official language,
during the debates, several issues were
raised in the Constituent Assembly.
They may be classified into two, namely main
and secondary. Some members made feeble
representations for Hindustani written both
in Nagari and Persian scripts for the adoption
of the official language of the Union, while
some others advocated various options such
as Hindi in Roman script or Sanskrit or Tamil
or Bengali or Telugu. But these suggestions
were not made with any forceful arguments.
It seems that the members were satisfied with
the mere mentioning of these languages in
the Constituent Assembly. In fact the debates
centred mainly around the following two issues:- English Vs. Hindi, and
- International numerals Vs. Nagari numerals.
Further, the independent Pakistan’s
announcement of making Urdu as the official
language of that country gave a new dimension
to the debates in the Constituent Assembly
of India. The Hindi extremists and the Hindu
communalists joined together and waged
an unrelenting war, inside and outside the
Constituent Assembly, against the pragmatists
and the progressive thinkers, and finally
succeeded in driving out English by raising
nationalistic feelings and Hindustani by raising
Partition issues. The international numerals
were accepted as a compromise.
The debates, in the Constituent Assembly, on
record appear to be free and frank, detailed and
democratic. But in reality it was not so. The
most important decisions were taken not inside
the Assembly, but outside the Assembly, in the
Congress Assembly party meetings. It is true
that in the Assembly Party meetings, heated
arguments took place, sometimes leading to
walk-outs, and counter walk-outs, threatening
to split the party into two on the language issue.
But once decisions were taken in the Congress
Assembly Party, all the members had to adhere
to its decisions. Thereafter, the debate in the
Constituent Assembly was reduced to the level
of a mere formality, though each member was
allowed express his views freely. The party
discipline was virtually dictatorial and division
on this very important issue in the Constituent
Assembly, though demanded by some
members was not permitted in the fear that it
might openly split the Constituent Assembly
and send wrong signals to the country, thereby
dividing the people also.
Thus, at the end, the non-Hindi speaking
members inevitably had to yield to the
pressures exerted on them to accept Hindi.
Prof. S.K. Chatterji, a renowned linguist, and
Dr. P. Subarayan, a member of the Constituent
Assembly had identical confessions to
make eight years later: “In an atmosphere
of both success and frustration, elation and
apprehension, and of hope and fear and very
largely at the opportunity of the North-Indian
Hindi speaking members of the ConstituentThe Modern RationalistJuly 2019A. Ramasamy
Former Vice-Chancellor,
Alagappa University, Karaikudi,
Former Vice Chairman,
Higher Education Council,
Government of Tamil Nadu