In recent days, the language debate has gained traction over a political slugfest in Uttar Pradesh, with senior party leaders wading into it.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, on a two-day visit to his constituency Rae Bareli on February 20-21, accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of attempting to prevent marginalised people from learning English, describing the language as the “biggest weapon”.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, whose government has allowed MLAs to express their views in the regional dialects or ‘sub-languages’ of Hindi, including Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, and Braj, during Assembly proceedings from the present session, has aggressively pushed the case of regional dialects by establishing academies for each of these dialects.
The language issue is also leading to a sharp war of words, with the Opposition accusing the government of indulging in divisive rhetoric by ignoring and wrongly defaming Urdu, the second official language of the State.
“People belonging to the BJP-RSS say that one should not learn the English language. Mohan Bhagwat says we should not speak in English. But the English language is a weapon. If you learn this language, you can go anywhere, be it Tamil Nadu, Japan or Mumbai, or work in any company. They want you to not learn English because they don’t want Dalits, Adivasis and the poor to go where this language is used. But English is your biggest weapon. Hindi is also important; it is not right to cut your roots. But English is also very important,” Mr. Gandhi had said, addressing a dialogue on Dalit issues at the Mool Bharatiya Hostel for Scheduled Castes (SC) students, in Rae Bareli on February 20.
Earlier, on February 18, the U.P. Assembly witnessed a heated debate over the language issue, which turned into a political slugfest, with Hindi pitted against the second official language of the State, Urdu. As soon as Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana announced that the House proceedings would be available in four regional languages — Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj, and Bundeli, as well as English — Samajwadi Party (SP) MLAs, led by the Leader of the Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey, opposed the move of allegedly “imposing English” while Urdu faced negligence.
“I oppose English being imposed upon members in the House. By promoting English you are weakening Hindi…If English is included, Urdu should also be included,” Mr. Pandey said, adding that, in the past, SP members had launched a movement against English and had been jailed for it.
The war of words turned on to Urdu, with Mr. Adityanath accusing the SP of promoting Urdu in a bid to “turn children into maulvis” and push the country towards fanaticism.
“You send your kids to English medium schools but don’t want the same facility for others. In contrast, the SP members want to promote Urdu to make the children maulvis. You people want to take the country towards (kathmulla-pan) fanaticism,” Mr. Adityanath said.
He highlighted steps taken by the U.P. government to promote Hindi dialects or sub-languages. “We are constituting academies for the promotion of these languages, which are ‘daughters’ of Hindi and should be given their due. MLAs in the State House have come from various backgrounds. Several of them don’t speak fluent Hindi but are comfortable in their mother tongue. Assembly should represent the voice of the society,” Mr. Adityanath added.
The SP charged the U.P. CM with intentionally targeting Urdu. “Mr. Adityanath comes from a particular ideological perspective, which never respected the pluralistic values and composite culture of our country. Hence he used the divisive slur on Urdu, the second official language of U.P. He forgot that Urdu is an Indian language by origin and deeply associated with the freedom struggle, [it is] the same hatred BJP-RSS have towards south Indian languages. But by these acts, they harm ideas enshrined in India’s Constitution, and disrespect the contribution of languages such as Urdu or the southern languages in making what India is today,” SP spokesperson Ameeque Jamei said.
