The Opposition on Wednesday accused the BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra of imposing Hindi in the state through the “backdoor” after a fresh circular said that Hindi would be taught as a “general” and not a mandatory third language at the primary level.
The Fadnavis government had early this year been compelled to withdraw a circular to make Hindi a “mandatory” third language at the primary level in schools after widespread accusations of Hindi-imposition.
To counter the charges, the government on Tuesday put out a revised circular, removing the “mandatory” condition. The circular said that Hindi would be taught as a “general” third language at the primary level in Marathi- and English-medium schools. The circular extended the option of learning another Indian language in place of Hindi, underlining that at least 20 students per grade should opt for it.
The Congress, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and some Marathi language advocates promptly came out to slam the revised circular as an effort to impose Hindi on the state through the backdoor, even as chief minister Fadnavis claimed that the compulsion of learning Hindi has been removed.
“This is nothing but the BJP’s anti-Maharashtra agenda, a plot to destroy the Marathi language, Marathi identity and the Marathi people. It is clear from this that the loyalty of Fadnavis, Shinde and Ajit Pawar lies not with Maharashtra or the Marathi people but with the rulers in Delhi,” Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal said in a post on X.
Raj Thackeray posted a statement on X and accused the Fadnavis government of a “hidden agenda” to deliberately create a language divide in the state. Stating that Hindi was the state language of some northern states, he stressed that “it was wrong to force it on Maharashtra”. He appealed to schools in the state to foil the government’s agenda.
“There is no question of making Hindi compulsory. Because Hindi is not the national language…. The government’s effort to impose the language on children must be thwarted. This is not only damaging to the children but damaging to the Marathi language as well,” Raj Thackeray, who recently held a closed-door meeting with Fadnavis, said.
Amid these protests, Fadnavis defended the new circular, saying that the earlier compulsion of learning Hindi as a mandatory third language had been removed. “We had earlier made Hindi compulsory, but in the government resolution issued yesterday, that compulsion has been removed,” the chief minister told reporters in Pune.
“Any Indian language can be chosen as the third language. If there are at least 20 students, a teacher will be made available. If necessary, online education will also be facilitated,” he added, stressing the need to promote Indian languages over English. Some pro-Marathi groups termed the provision to make teachers available online an attempt to discourage the choice of a language other than Hindi.
The three-language formula proposed in the new education policy of the central government has emerged as a flash point in some southern states, particularly Tamil Nadu, with the ruling DMK firmly opposing it.
According to the new education policy, the mother tongue is mandatory, and apart from that, students would learn two other languages, one of which should be an Indian language. The DMK government in Tamil Nadu and also the Opposition in Maharashtra are insisting on sticking to the existing mother language plus English option.