There’s no requirement for people coming to Mumbai to learn Marathi — Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, RSS leader
Everyone (in Mumbai) should learn Marathi and speak the language
— Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister
Maharashtra chief minister and RSS favourite Devendra Fadnavis was on Thursday compelled to contradict a senior RSS leader as the saffron family found itself at the receiving end of a language war, ignited allegedly by its push to mainstream Hindi.
The Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) had seized on former RSS general secretary Suresh Bhayyaji Joshi’s comment that migrants to Mumbai need not learn Marathi. They sought a clarification in the Assembly.
“Do you endorse Bhayyaji Joshi’s statement?” an Opposition member asked Fadnavis.
“I haven’t heard what Bhaiyyaji said, but the language of Mumbai and Maharashtra is Marathi. Everyone should learn Marathi and speak the language,” Fadnavis told the House, according to PTI.
Joshi, addressing a public event on Wednesday in Vile Parle, Mumbai, had said: “Mumbai doesn’t have a single language. Different areas have different languages. For example, the language of Ghatkopar is Gujarati.
“Similarly, you will find fewer people speaking Hindi in Girgaon. There, you will find people speaking Marathi. There is no requirement for people coming to Mumbai to learn Marathi.”
The comments sparked a political storm in a city where the Marathi language has for decades been a symbol of cultural and political identity.
After Fadnavis’s statement, Joshi offered a clarification to the media, claiming a “misunderstanding” and speaking of a “natural expectation” that migrants to Mumbai learn to speak Marathi.
But Opposition members demanded that Joshi be booked for treason.
The controversy drew national attention as it came amid a campaign by Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin against “Hindi imposition” by the BJP-led Union government.
In a post on X on Thursday, Stalin lambasted the naming of the three new criminal laws in Hindi and Sanskrit.
“Demanding Linguistic Equality is not chauvinism. Do you want to know what Chauvinism looks like? Chauvinism is naming the three criminal laws that govern 140 crore citizens in a language that Tamils cannot even pronounce or comprehend by reading,” he wrote on X.
He said any imposition breeds enmity, adding: “Enmity threatens unity. Hence, the true chauvinists and anti-nationals are the Hindi zealots who believe their entitlement is natural but our resistance is treason.”
The context of Stalin’s salvo is the Centre’s three-language policy for schools, under which pupils are expected to learn English, their mother tongue, and another Indian language, to be decided by the state government. This third language is expected to be Hindi in non-Hindi-speaking states.
Tamil Nadu follows a two-language policy, teaching only English and Tamil, and the DMK is opposed to introducing a third language. The BJP argues that learning Hindi helps Tamils when they go outside the state.
Joshi, in his clarification to the media, said: “There is no question that the language of Mumbai and Maharashtra is Marathi…. People speaking different languages live in Mumbai as well. And so, it’s a natural expectation that they should come here and learn Marathi as well.”
He underscored that his mother tongue was Marathi but he respected the co-existence of other languages.
But an unrelenting Opposition argued it was a “Maratha vs non-Maratha” battle, obliquely targeting the Brahmin origins of the RSS veteran and Fadnavis.
Historical caste fault-lines between the Peshwas — Brahmin ministers of the Maratha empire — and the Marathas linger in the state.
“It’s not just a Marathi vs non-Marathi issue, but also a Maratha vs non-Maratha one. I dare Joshi to make such statements in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala or Bengal and come back safely,” Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray told reporters.
“The BJP has no regard for the Marathi manoos because it knows he is not going to vote for them. This is a sadist mentality.... This is a ploy to break Mumbai.”
The RSS-BJP has traditionally backed the idea of declaring Hindi as the “national language” on the ground that this would strengthen unity in a diverse country.
However, the RSS has in recent years softened its stand following the BJP’s failure to expand significantly into the southern states, mainly because of its image as a north Indian party of Hindi champions.
In 2018, the RSS passed a resolution nudging the government to formulate a policy to ensure that primary education is imparted in the child’s mother tongue or any other Indian language.
Union home minister Amit Shah has, however, continued to stress the need to popularise Hindi and suggest that people from different states communicate among themselves in Hindi and not English.
“Now the time has come to make the official language (Hindi) an important part of the unity of the country. When citizens of states who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India,” Shah said in 2022 at a meeting of the parliamentary official language committee.