Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said no foreign language should be opposed in the country, attempting damage control after being roasted by academics and political opponents for saying English speakers in India would “soon feel ashamed”.
Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the Centre’s official language department in Delhi, Shah tried to clarify his stand on foreign languages and asserted that Hindi was not an adversary but a friend of all other Indian languages.
“There is no opposition to any language. There should not be any opposition to any foreign language. But there should be an urge to glorify one’s own language, there should be an urge to speak one’s own language, there should be an urge to think in one’s own language,” he said.
However, partly echoing what he had said previously, Shah said that until an Indian took pride in or spoke their own language, they could not be free of the slave mentality — thus appearing to equate the use of English to slavery.
Shah had last week called for a renewed national effort to reclaim India’s linguistic heritage and said “those who speak English in this country would soon feel ashamed”.
This prompted several linguists and academics to accuse Shah of ignorance about India’s linguistic heritage and an intent to impose Hindi through the back door. Some had argued that the government’s alleged Hindi campaign would “undo India’s longstanding linguistic
diversity”.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the anti-English narrative of the BJP-RSS was aimed at holding back the poor and ensuring they never became equals.
He had flagged how some BJP leaders sent their children to overseas universities while paying lip service to the use of local languages in higher education.
While Shah had spoken in favour of all Indian languages last week and did not mention Hindi, the BJP’s critics have long argued that any attack on English is an underhand way of promoting Hindi as the country’s sole link language.
On Thursday, the home minister said: “I sincerely believe that Hindi can’t be a virodhi (adversary) to any Indian language. Hindi is a sakhi (friend) of all Indian
languages.”
He added: “Rajbhasha Hindi and all other Indian languages together can take our programme of self-esteem to its ultimate goal.”
Shah’s comments last week had come amid a controversy over the Centre’s three-language formula for schools, which states such as Tamil Nadu have rejected as a purported effort to foist Hindi on non-Hindi-speakers “through the backdoor”.
The Centre denies the charge and insists that it wants to promote all Indian languages.
The home minister on Thursday urged all the state governments to impart medical and engineering education in their local language and said the Centre would support any initiative they take to conduct administrative business in Indian languages.
“The use of Indian languages is very important to awaken the country’s self-esteem. It’s the responsibility of all of us that Indian languages become a powerful medium to unite the country rather than divide it. Language is not just a medium of communication but the soul of a nation,” he said.
“So, the (Narendra) Modi government is determined to enrich Indian languages,” Shah added.”