Introduction "Language is the armoury of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests." Coleridge

Language is the linear expression of ideas. It is the most important aspect in the life of all beings. We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to communicate with others, to fulfil our wants and needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture. The science dealing with it is linguistics. Behaviourists like Ormrod define it as a learned behaviour involving a stimulus and a response. Language is so familiar to us that it is difficult to see how we can indulge in language planning. Most of the time we use language simply as a means of conveying our thoughts and feelings and wishes or concealing them as the case may be. But due to multiple factors like different dialects and absolute differences in language pertaining to different historical backgrounds work as a force which crops up repeatedly and some are too difficult to solve without expert advice and some call for coordination on a large scale. In India unfortunately we haven’t realised the importance of the study of linguistics and allied language psychology and language sociology. Nationalism and British Period with historical background The impact of British rule as well as the penetration of new forces did not take place at the same place throughout the country. The conditions which led to the rise of political and national consciousness matured unevenly in different parts and among different communities. The concrete issue of linguistic reorganisation made its first official appearance in the 1917 Calcutta Congress session. It was imperative for the congress under Gandhi if it had to become a mass organisation to channelize the sentiments of various nationalities and use the national language as vehicles of political communication and propaganda. But the congress never came out with concrete plans in pre independence era rather contended itself in assuaging nationality sentiments by passing resolutions and accepting the principle. In post independence era many backward or less developed minorities and linguistic groups became conscious of their rights and put forward claims for the recognition of their distinct entity.
India-a kaleidoscopic country India is a multi cultural, multi lingual country having a diverse background of each community. Every society is backed by its own historical, literary, industrial and other developments which makes them different from each other. From time immemorial it has been receptive of different cultures from every corner of the world. Shak, Huns, Pathans, Mughals, Britishers every community came here made its own influence on the culture, customs and definitely leaving behind the language. In the northernmost and central India we find the Aryan culture while in south India we have Dravidian culture while absolutely different from it in the north eastern part of India we find the influence of mongoloid culture and customs which makes it totally different from the mainstream India. India has a population of over a billion people,1652 mother tongues(1961 census),67 educational languages and an area of 3,287,580 Sqare kilometre. India is a multilingual giant. Language families found in India are Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic and Sino Tibetan. Indo-Aryan and Dravidian cover over 97% of the population. According to linguist scientist Grierson there are 179 languages to 544 dialects as found in Linguistic Survey of India 1888 and 1927.1951 census found that there are 845 languages including dialects. More than 10,000 speakers each speak 60 of these languages. Ordering to 1961 census there were found 1652 mother tongues corresponding to 193 classified languages. According to Mr. Jaipal Reddy, ex union home minister of culture, stated in the Rajya Sabha on December 13, 2004.”There are 3,372 languages in India.10,000 persons or more speak only 216 languages.”
Language and Constitution of India All major languages of India exist beyond their home territory. It has also witnessed the bilingualism and multilingualism. The de jure status of languages can be found on the basis of the constitution of India where Part XVII deals with the official languge of the union in four chapters. The main provisions dealing with the official language of the union as embodied in Articles 343 and 344 under chapter I.The provisions dealing with regional languages are provided from Articles 345-347 under chapter II.The third chapter relates with language of the supreme court, high courts etc given under articles 348-49.Special directives are given under Articles 350-351.
The decision of making Hindi as official language of India and English as the associate official language had its own history as there was huge debate over this concept. M.K.Gandhi was of the view that to have true swaraj at national a level we should have Hindi as official language. He also had the opinion that provincial language should have some status at the regional level. He wanted to have composite languages of Hindustani that should be supported by Sanskrit and Hindi. According to Dr. Ambedkar language can unite and divide people, he also held that culture can only be conserved by the language spoken by people. He was in favour of Hindi to be official language. He had the view that if one can’t accept Hindi then he can’t be a true Indian.
Some of the moderates were of the view that recognition of official language will be at national level and regional languages at regional level while English to be continued as official language as we are following it since colonial time.Pandit Nehru also accepted it.In the drafting committee having Mr. Ayyangar,Mr. Munshi and Dr.Ambedkar ,it was decided to have a balance of opinions who decided to have official language at union level.There would be recognition of script and numerals.A political compromise was reached and the formula was known as Munshi-Ayyangar formula which was initiated by Mr.Ayyangar discussed for a prolong period of three years.And the formula provided that Hindi would be the official language of India and for the period of 1950-1965 English would be associate official language and after that period English’s fate would be decided.
As provided in the constitution Art.343 Hindi in the devnagri script will be the official language of the union while Art.343(3 )English would continue to be used for another period of 15years.Under Art.344 the president is empowered to constitute an official language commission after 5 years and then to review the progress made by Hindi after 10 years. As provided in the constitutional provision and the transition period of 1950-1965 which was set up to see the development of Hindi and which was to decide the fate of English came to being by the Official language Bill of 1963 which was introduced in parliament on 13th of April 1963.The need for the introduction of the bill seems to have arisen due to the reasons like Hindi had not grown sufficiently during the last 13 years to be able to replace English after 1965 and nextly because the then existing emotional climate of the country was far from favourable to any such change over in the near future.The bill provided that English should continue to be used as associate federal language after 1965 and that ten years later a parliamentary committee was to be appointed to review the progress made by Hindi. This bill became Act in the year 1963 only later on got amended in the year 1967.The amendment bill provided for the continuance of English as the official language and the development of Hindi so that it may become the link language of India and may be adopted as the official language of the country when all states agree to it.
The whole of the country was shaken by violence of the language fanatics in almost all the important cities and towns and also by loud dialogues in parliament. Ultimately the bill was signed by the president on 10th of January 1968 and became an Act. But problem remained as many of the states did not accepted the decision of the central government. The Hindi speaking people don’t want that English should be imposed on them and the southerners are in no mood to tolerate the domination of Hindi. Now moving to the other constitutional provisions Art.345 empowers the legislature of a state to adopt as official language any one or more languages in use in that state or Hindi.Art.346 provides that official language of the union shall be the official language for communication between one state and another state,and between a state and the union.Art.347 provides that on demand the president may direct the use of language if demanded by a sizeable number of people. Art.348 provides that the language of the supreme court and the high court shall be English until the parliament by law otherwise provides.Bills,authoritative texts of Acts,bye-laws,rules and regulations etc.shall also be in English.
States in addition may use their official language/languages for this purpose but English text/texts will be authoritative.Art.349 provides that no change will be there in the language of bills,Acts,Rules,bye-laws etc which won’t be contemplated for 15 years and after that period the president must be satisfied of the need for a change. Art.350 provides for every person to submit a representation for the redress of any grievance to any officer of authority of the union or a state in any of the languages used in the union or the state,as the case may be.
Art.350A provides that every state and every local authority is directed to provide adequate facilities for the instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups. Art.350B provides that a special officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the president who is to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorties under this constitution and report to the president upon these matters at such intervals as the president may direct,and the president shall cause all such reports to be laid before each house of parliament,and sent to the governments of the states concerned. Art.351 provide that the government to promote the spread of Hindi language in such a way that “it may serve as a medim of expression for the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating the forms,style and expressions used in Hindustani and in other languages in India and by drawing for its vocabulary,primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.
Art.120 in Part V and Art.210 in part VI of the constitution vest powers in the presiding officers of the union and a state legislatures to use their discretion for allowing any member to speak in his mother tongue if he is unable to speak in the recognised official language or languages.While the VIIIth schedule today has a total of 22 languages in the list of ‘schedules languages’, In 1949 there were 14 languages,including Sanskrit,hindi and urdu.The language of the eighth schedule are more concerned with Art.345 and 351. The former empowers a State government to adopt one or more languages or Hindi for official use in the State.
Commissions on language problem
As already discussed above India is a multilingual state with so many languages but the lingual problem had its root in the year 1835 when on Macauley’s recommendations English was made the main language of study and the medium of instruction after the primary stage.This was the first application of the “divide and rule policy”.When the Britishers left India in 1947 chaos started and within huge debate Hindi was made the official language as discussed above.As English was kept as the associate official language the government had to take steps to make the position of hindi strong so too many commissions came for this on the policies to be taken for making the chaotic situation more friendly and compromising. The University Education Commission report,1950 suggested for the medium of instruction in elementary and secondary stages to be regional language and better facility to be provided for the development of hindi as federal language.
The Mudaliar Commission 1952-53 provided for the two language formula.
The B.J.Kher commission of 1955 which was set up at the end of five years of commencement of the constitution as provided in the provision of constitution,submitted its report which is a valuable document to understand the complexity of the language problem of India.
In the year 1956 three language formula was given by the Central Advisory Board of Education.According to this formula a student has to learn his mother tongue as the regional language,hindi as the national language and English as the international language.Recommendation of the Indian Education Commission 1964-66 also supported this formula.the Kothari Commission had recommended for the regional language to be the medium of instruction.Ishwarbhai Patel Committee,1977 also was of the view that recommendation of Kothari Commission be adhered to on reformulating policies on the teaching of the language.
A demand for the inclusion of English in the eighth schedule was made in meeting of the CABE(Central Advisory Board of Eduction)in early august 2004.One of the issues widely reported was the discussion on the “inclusion of English in the list of modern Indian languages.” As the conflict between the different languages spoken in every part of India,with even Hindi being different in the northern India we can’t definitely avoid the importance of English which works as a linking language and as believed considering it as a foreign language is absolutely wrong as the feeling of foreign element is in the mind. As Pt. Nehru was quoted once “All regional languages must be developed and promoted. But that did not mean that English should be discarded to do that, will amount to closing a window on the world of technology-Foreign language served as windows on it and to suppose that translations could take their place was a mistake.It was no use getting into an intellectual prison after achieving political independence.”He had reiterated time and again that “English is ours by historic necessity.”
In the above all discussion we have discussed the problem of lingual conflict in India and how time and again governments tried to bring out a solution for this.
Now we are going to concentrate on a particular state of India which is multi lingual in nature and facing the problem of lingual conflict from the very beginning and our state for study is the north eastern state of Assam having the mongoloid race but that state got a huge mixture and change from time to time.In the following paras this has been discussed.
Linguistic problem in Assam Assam we find as a multi lingual state.The relations between various linguistic groups are strained.Cultural dominance by an alien enemy has always been a factor of tensions,thus on and off situations have been created which keep language tensions alive in Assam.The existence of other communities parallel with Assamese have given fierce rise to the problem ever. The historical, socio-demographic and economic background of Assam needs to be studied in order to understand the problem in the proper perspective. The state of Assam is located in the north eastern part of Indian union a state of plains and hills. Earlier it was under the Ahom rulers of South-east Asia. Later on after Anglo-Burmese war East India company took it over and brought it under Bengal administration. Later on during Bengal division Assam was incorporated into east Bengal having muslim Bengali population.In 1912 when Britishers backed their decision of partition, Assam consisted of having Bengali muslim population of sylhet and predominantly Hindu Bengali population of Kachar.
This reconstitution of Assam bringing in Bengali speaking areas brought the language problem.Tea industry set up by Britishers brought labourers from Chhota Nagpur,Bihar,Uttar Pradesh and Madras.Another portion of immigration was of peasents of muslim Bengalis from east Bengal. They contributed to Assam’s economy but also affected its social and cultural life adversely.

Dominant Bengali Language Bengali educated people dominated the places of Assam,Bihar,Orissa,Chotanagpur and they had their dominance in language too.The Bengali language had become the medium of instruction.The social and lingual dominance had repercussions from the speakers of Assamese,Oriya and Bihari. The monopoly by newcomers from Bengal had generated ill-feeling from all corners. The conflict between Assamese speaking and Bengali speaking people had been from then which is between advanced middle class with indigenous less advanced and suppressed middle class.
At this point of juncture Assam is divided between two valleys of Assamese speaking Brahmaputra valley with 12.5 million people and the predominantly Bengali speaking Surma valley with 1.7 million people.The problem is also due to concentration of Bengali speaking people in Cachar and Goalpara areas. After independence the issue of official language and medium of instruction issues brought serious conflicts of linguistic chauvinism to the forefront. A very good analysis given by Social scientist Sandhya Barua is that often the problem of illegal immigration which is highest amongst India, refugee problem, infiltration is somehow on as an organised problem under the ruling power and the cumulative effect of this is to enhance the scope for communal,language and separationist politics.
The language problem of Bengali-Assamese has always been used as a pawn by politicians and localised opportunism is clear from the demand of CPI which put forward separate statehood for the Cachar supported by Bengali organisations.This is absolutely opportunistic politics and people are becoming prey of it.
Other Lingual conflicts Tai-Ahom language,which is spoken by only few hundred families now in Sibsagar,Golaghat,Dhemaji,Jorhat,Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur of the state is an endangered language which is now a dying language.It came with the Ahom dynasty who ruled Assam for more than six hundred years.So it was their court language.This language has its roots in the southeast Asia extending from Assam to Kwangsi and Kwangtung,to the island of Hainan,from laos and Thailand to the border of Tibet,including Yun-nan province of China.After coming to Assam this language got a shift as the Ahoms started speaking Assamese and gradually its on the verge of extinction along with the present policy of Assamese as the official language being spoken by the majority it hardly finds any speaker.So,presently the government itself is concerned regarding the conservation of this language as with its death the historical facts and many other things will die as language death is also death of knowledge.
Language Riots During the language riots between ethnic Assamese and Bengali Hindus the various tribal groups of Assam-Bodos, Karbis, Khasis, Garos,Jaintias,Mizos and Nagas together organised an All Assam Non Assamese language conference in Silchar on 2nd of July of 1961,but the Bengali Muslims who migrated from East Bengal while accepting Assamese as their language exiled their mother tongue during the crisis of Assamese language which became the official language besides English in multi ethnic Assam since the Assam Official Language Act,1960.As has been seen in the 1931 census only 31.4% people of Assam enlisted their first language as Assamese but in 1951 census it increased up to 56.7%.The percentage of Bengali speakers declined from 26.8% to 16.5% during that period.R.G.Vaghaiwalla ICS,census superintendent of Assam(1951)noted that the figures don’t fail to reflect the aggressive linguistic nationalism now prevailing in Assam,coupled with the desire of many persons among the Muslims as well as tea gardens to adopt Assamese as their mother tongue.
Language Policy of Assam Government The state of Assam has always witnessed argument and counter argument on the issue of language.The state and its governments have always been intolerant to other language speaking tribals and communities thus creating a huge rift which has later took the shape of demand for separate state. Stalwarts like Birinchi Kumar Baruah held that non-Assamese speakers are foreigners and would be legitimised only if they adopt Assamese language and culture. This arose rift in the Barak valley with Bengalis likewise Bodos of Brahmaputra valley also face linguistic suppression and forceful current of Assamisation which created irrepairable cracks between the groups.The language policy of Assam government along with the help of Assam Sahitya Sabha brought the problem to more critical stage.Bodo language which is of the tribes was introduced as a medium of instructon in the year 1963 at the Kokrajhar Govt.School but the government didn’t support the cause by providing non-bodo speaking teachers in those schools and even the books were also not provided in the bodo language.This sickened the education for bodo people who became unable to get jobs as knowing Assamese was must to get a job which was violative of Art.15 and 16 of the constitution.As these two articles also in a way provide for guarantee of right to preservation of ethnic culture,language and equal employment opportunity to all Indians. The Bodo Sahitya Sabha did a relentless struggle for getting bodo medium.All Bodo Students Union(ABSU) and other allied organisations sincerely worked for it and they succeded in the introduction of bodo medium in primary levels in the year 1963 while in the post gradution level in Guahati University introduced it in the year 1996. The imposition of Assamese language upon non-Assamese and tribals was a part of deliberate policy of Assamisation which was totally undemocratic and violative of the constitutional rights. It destroys the character of pluralism and multi-ethnic character of Assam. The result of it is more anxious ethnic groups about their identity.”With the Assamese as the official language, the tribal minorties would at once be placed at an unfair disadvantage.” The Assam Official Language Act,1960 in its section 7 states the right of the various linguistic groups for preserving their own language. The attempts of the Assam government to implement Assamese language in all sphere of life and level violated the language Act of 1960 itself. But through the amendment Act of 1985,bodo was introduced as the associate official language of kokrajhar and udalgiri subdivisions. The agitation for language identity in Barak valley was also very fierce and many laid their lives for recognition of their language i.e.bengali in the barak valley.In the year 1961 police resorted to firing on unarmed satygrahis in Silchar Railway station that left eleven people dead one among them being a women, Kamala Bhattacharjee. Incidentally she became the first language martyr of the world.In the face of massive democratic agitation aided by popular support from all over the country made the government yield to their demands.And in that year the Assam Official Language Act 170 was amended accommodating Bengali as the official language for the whole of Cachar district.But the whole district have still seen many language martyrs as government seems to be intolerant towards other languages when they made Assamese the medium of instruction in Gauhati University.
These protests culture has always been there to perhaps cherish the plural and multi-cultural fabric of the state of Assam.
Analysis
From above all discussion it is well clear that the problem of linguistic regionalism is prevailing from long back and the spark which led to this fire were Britishers who had their divide and rule policy.Bengal division in 1905 making huge differences in Bengali speaking Hindus and Muslims and difference of their dialects made major problems which later on took language fights too.The agitation of Bengalis in 1911 by quashing of the Bengal division under governor general Lord Hardinge and later became successful.But this success of the Bengalis in their linguistic unification led to be noted by other linguistic groups. Next important linguistic movement developed in south India in the telugu speaking area of Madras known historically as Andhra. Inspired from orators of Bengal,Andhra intellectuals formed Andhra Mahasabha which later on went for demand of a separate Telugu speaking state.Under the Act of 1935 only new legislatures were set up in which in 1938 became the scene of further linguistic agitation and further demands were made creation of separate Telugu,Tamil,Kannada,Malyalam provinces. This agitation took life again from the suspended animation in which it was for the independence movement but came into limeleight when constituent assembly was formed.The intellectuals didn’t want a more worse division as the country had seen in 1947 and they formed the Linguistic Provinces Commission under the chairmanship of S.K.Dhar which presented its report in 1948,who held that separate province’s demand had a huge support but in that state of national emergency everything which helps the growth of nationalism,has to go forward and everything which throws obstacles in its way has to be rejected.Later many more commissions were formed on this matter with JVP report of 1949 etc.Then in Maharshtra the demand for samyukta Maharashtra(United Maharashtra).Then in the north India Hindustani,Pahari and Punjabi languages had their own differences.These differences in India were never ending. Even in the state of Assam the problem can be blamed on the political,socio-demographic economic factors of the state.But that doesn’t empower the state government to make any such policy which in a way tortures on the lingual minorties effecting their cultural and lingual identity having the further effect on their economic development too and thus disturbing the peace of the nation.
Conclusion
In the end it can only be said being a multilingual state differences are natural but taking English as a linking language and supporting that cause if we develop the language more in the regions too then its going to make a bridge between every one.For that better administration and education system is necessary as only 2 % of Indians can speak English while rest can’t.But the assault against English in many parts of India is on but those who are agitating are not understanding the fact that actually its hurting the national unity.Assault is also against Hindi as official language in India but as M.C.Chagla,chief Minister of Bombay in 1954 had said that it was not hindi which was replacing English but the regional languages.But right now what prevailing is that linguistic regionalism stands strong in India and hindi is a weak antidote.