Examine the language policy of India …

Language policy is a safeguard to the languages. It is one of the important aspects of our Constitution. Under this policy besides Hindi, 21 other languages are recognized as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution.
Main features of India’s language policy are as follows:

1. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 percent of Indians. Therefore, there were many safeguards to protect other languages.
2.  A candidate in an examination conducted for the Central Government positions may opt to take the examination in any of these languages. States, too, have their own official languages. Much of the government work takes place in the official language of the concerned State.
3. Unlike Sri Lanka, the leaders of our country adopted a very cautious attitude in spreading the use of Hindi. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965. However, many non-Hindi-speaking States demanded that the use of English continue.
4. In Tamil Nadu, this movement took a violent form. The Central Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes.
5. Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the government of India but promotion does not mean that the central government can impose Hindi on states where people speak a different language.
   Thus, the framing of the language policy was the test for Indian federation. It inspired the confidence in different language speaking people that no language will be imposed on them. In a way, Language policy has strengthened the unity and integrity of India.