Language Politics and

Conflicts
ENG 448A: Languages of South Asia

Annu Singh
Debasatwa Sarma Roy
Jyotsana Kumari
Mrinal Mandal
S. Kaartick

INTRODUCTION

Ingredients that lead to language conflicts and language as a

political concern
More than one language competing for political, economic and cultural
space.
-In India there are 18 major scheduled languages
-In Pakistan Urdu is the official language but only 7% of population have it
as their home language, being outnumbered by Punjabi, Pashto and Sindhi
speakers
There are social differences that correlate with language
-Language may be used as an identification marker for caste, class,
ethnicity
This can emerge as a potential reason for linguistic conflicts

Content
Introduction
Hindi as the official language
Linguistic Division Of Indian States
Sinhala Official Language
Language Movement in Bangladesh
Pakistan and Balochistan Issues
Conclusion

ANTI-HINDI AGITATIONS

What was Anti- Hindi Agitation?

Anti Hindi Imposition Agitations of Tamil Nadu were series of agitations
that happened in the state of Tamil Nadu during both pre and post
independence periods.
The agitation involved several mass protests, riots, student and
political movement in Tamil Nadu
The main concern was the official status of Hindi language in the state

Pre- Independence Period (1937-1950)

Indian National Congress government led by C.Rajagopalachari (Rajaji)
made Hindi compulsory in the schools of Madras presidency to
propagate Hindi in South India (1937)
E.V.Ramasamy (Periyar) and the Opposition Justice Party (later called as
Dravidar Kazhagam) opposed the move.
The agitation which involved fasts, conferences, protests,marches and
picketing that lasted for three years.
The Congress responded with a crackdown resulting in deaths and
arrest of the protestors.

 In 1939 the Congress resigned protesting the involvement of India in

WW2 and the Madras provincial government was placed under
Governors rule.
Periyar suspended the agitation and asked the governor to withdraw
the compulsory Hindi order.
In 1940 the Governor Erskine issued a press communique
withdrawing compulsory Hindi teaching and making it optional.
During 1946-1950, there were sporadic agitations against Hindi by
by Dravidar Kazhagam and Periyar.
After Independence National Congress urged all states to make Hindi
compulsory in schools and a minimum marks qualification for
promotion to higher classes.

 This led to Anti Hindi agitations characterised by strikes,

processions and black flag demonstration.
The government did not change its position and the agitation
continued. Periyar and other DK leaders were arrested.
Later in 1948 the government stopped the legal actions against
the agitators and they in turn dropped the protests.
Eventually in 1950 a compromise was made between the
government and the agitators which resulted in making Hindi
teaching optional at schools.

HINDI AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

After Independence adoption of an official language for the Indian Republic
was an hotly debated issue during the framing of the Indian Constitution.
After an exhaustive and divisive debate, Hindi was adopted as the official
language of India with English continuing as an associate official language
for a period of 15 years, after which Hindi would become the sole official
Language.
The new constitution came into effect in 26 January 1950. Efforts made by
Indian Government to make Hindi as the sole official language were not
acceptable to many non-Hindi states.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) lead the opposition
PM Jawaharlal Nehru enacted Official Language Act 1963 to ensure the
continuing the use of English beyond 1965.

 As 26 Jan 1965 day of switching over to Hindi as sole official

language approached the anti Hindi gained momentum
On 25 Jan riots broke out in Madurai, they were marked by the
act of violence, arson,looting,police firing and lathi charges.
The Congress Government called in paramilitary forces to quell
the agitations, their involvement resulted in several deaths.
The then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri assured that English would
continue to be used as official language as long as non-Hindi
speakers wanted. This assurance calmed the situation.

 DMK won the 1967 Assembly elections and Congress never

managed to recapture power in the state after that.
The Official Language Act 1967 was amended by Congress
Government headed by Indira Gandhi to guarantee indefinite
use of Hindi and English as the official languages.
There were two similar (but smaller) agitations in 1968 and
1986.

LINGUISTIC DIVISION OF STATES IN

INDIA

PRELUDE TO EMERGENCE OF LINGUISTIC STATES

Initially country was divided into administrative three main types
of state:
The nine Part A states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya
Pradesh (formerly Central Provinces and Berar), Madras,
Orissa, Punjab (formerly East Punjab), Uttar Pradesh (formerly
the United Provinces), and West Bengal.
Part B states were Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya
Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU),
Rajasthan, Saurashtra, and Travancore-Cochin.
The Part C states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Coorg, Delhi,
Himachal Pradesh, Cutch, Manipur, Tripura, and Vindhya
Pradesh.
Part D state was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

 The demand for states on linguistic basis was developed

even before India achieved independence from British rule.
The government of India was compelled by the public
opinion for division of states on linguistic basis.
Division negatived the principle of equal rights guaranteed
to all citizen.
In Telugu communist set up the slogan Andhra for Telugus.
Similarly, Marathi, Gujrat, Sikhs claimed for separate state.
In 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the
States Reorganisation Commission to reorganise the Indian
states.

CONSEQUENCES OF LINGUISTIC DIVISION OF

STATES
Regionalism - promoted local identity,created distinctiveness
among people.
Exploitation of people by Politicians -. Politicians are
promoting the spread of only particular languages through
monetary inducements. They exploit the sentiments of
people at the time of election.
Erosion of national feeling-People are much concerned about
the regional gains, than the interest of the nation. Thus
interstate boundary dispute, river dispute have become
common.

 Emergence of regional Political Parties - Linguism has

resulted in the formation of regional political parties. At the
present juncture these regional parties are playing a crucial
role in the formation of government at the centre and also at
some states.
Demand for separate states- Extreme sense of Linguism has
caused linguistic conflicts. Such conflicts are quite often
supported by politicians. E.g: Demand for a separate state
by people of north Karnataka region.
Threat to sovereignty - Linguism is posing a severe threat to
the integrity of the country. In Some states the regional
language is being used even for administrative purposes.

Language conflict in Sri Lanka

The Beginning Of Language Conflict in Sri

Lanka
Sri Lankas population was comprised of 75 percent Sinhalese
and 24 percent Tamil speakers prior to the conflict.
During the years 1830-1833 English was introduced as a medium
of instruction in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka achieved independence in 1948 from the UK
One million Indian Tamils were deprived of the right to vote in
1948 under the Ceylon Citizenship Act.
Of this, approximately 350,000 were send back to India under
the Indo-Ceylon Agreement of 1964. Over the years,
subsequent governments conferred citizenship rights to the rest.

 The emerging nationalist forces perceived that Sri Lankan

Tamils had access to a disproportionate share of power
as a consequence of educational opportunities in the colonial
period and were also disproportionately represented in the
civil administration.
Moreover, considerable mercantile interests were also
controlled by non-Sinhalese groups. These fears and concerns
were a basis for the politics of language.
As early as 1944, politicians proposed resolutions in
Parliament to declare Sinhalese the official language,
while other amendments proposed both Sinhalese and Tamil
as official languages.

Sinhala Official Language Act of 1956

Also known as Sinhala Only policy.
In 1956, S.W.R.D Bandaranaike was elected Prime Minister with a main
election promise of establishing Sinhalese as the official language of
the country
This act was passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956.
The act replaced English as the official language of Ceylon with
Sinhalese.
The act failed to give official recognition to Tamil, which had not
received official recognition before.
The Sinhalese government made Sinhala the language of
administration.

.
.

 This was because the Sinhalesewere the majority in the country

but were disadvantaged due to their inability toread / write
English.
The Tamils were required to learn the Sinhalese languagewithin 3
years or be dismissed from their employment.
This upset the Tamils a great deal as they found it difficult to
secure jobs orbe promoted
Matters worsened with rioting that resulted in deaths of over
ahundred people
In 1958, in response to the grievances of the Tamil-speaking
people Tamil was declared an official language in the Tamilmajority North and East.
The 13th Amendment in 1987 stated that the official language
of Sri Lanka is Sinhala while Tamil shall also be an official
language, with English as a link language

University Admission Criteria

As a consequence of well funded American missionary
activities, the Tamil-dominated Northern Province had
comparatively better facilities for English language and preuniversity education.
Before 1970, university admission was based on merit and
the exams heldin English. The number of Tamil and
Sinhalese students was almost equalin the more respected
medical and engineering courses.
However, theSinhalese students in the courses were not
proportionate to their numbers in thecountry.

 From 1971 onwards, a new standardization policy was

adopted, which made it compulsory for the Tamilstudents to
score higher marks than the Sinhalese students to enter the
samecourses in the university.
In 1972, the government added a district quota as a
parameter within each language
In the next four years, more schemes were put in placethat
made it difficult for Tamil youths to enter university, which
caused muchresentment between the Tamils and the
Sinhalese.
For eg.- the qualifying mark for admission to the medical
faculties was 250 (out of 400) for Tamil students, whereas it
was only 229 for the Sinhalese .
Also because of the new university admission criteria, the

 The integrity of university admissions policy was tampered

with by using ethnicity as a basis.
When the Tamils were deprived of higher education, they
were not able to find gainful employment or land prestigious
jobs. This denied them of any opportunity of improving their
social and economic status in Sri Lankan society. This made
them resent the Sinhalese.
In 1977, the language based admission policy was
abolished .
Language-based segregation was applied to institutions with
more than one language of instruction.

Ethnic Conflict and Employment

Both language and education policies have placed barriers on
employment, especially in the administrative and professional
ranks in which Tamils were at one point overrepresented.
In the private sectorwhich work in Englishemployment
opportunities for Tamils remained relatively open. As a result,
today some of the leading business ventures in the country are
Tamil-owned
However, as a result of the discrimination that has occurred in
state sector employment practices over time, there is a tendency
among many Tamils to perceive of themselves as generally
discriminated against in employment.
According to the census in 1990, Sri Lankan Tamils accounted for
5.9% of those employed in the state services.

Language Movement

What is the Language Movement?

A political movement in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) for

recognition of Bengali as the official language.
East Bengal advocated Bengali to be used in Government
affairs, medium of education, in media, currency, stamps and
maintain use of Bengali writing script.
From the mid-19th century, Urdu was promoted as the common
language for Indian Muslims by political and religious leaders.
Despite West-Pakistan having different ethnic and linguistic
groups, it proclaimed Urdu to be the sole national language of
Dominion of Pakistan in 1948.

 East Bengal being geographically non-contiguous and consisting of

primarily Bengali speaking population, displayed mass discontent.
East Bengal Assembly speaker, Dhirendranath Datta proposed to
the Pakistan legislative assembly to allow the use of Bengali for
official purposes.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan and the Muslim
league rejected the proposal and called it an attempt to divide the
Pakistani people.
In 1948, the Government attempted to prevent a possible language
conflict by suggesting the use of Bengali in Arabic script.
It was met with opposition with strikes and rallies.

A Turn to Violence
Due to rising tensions, the government outlawed public meeting
and rallies.
In 21 February 1952, students of University of Dhaka defied the law
and organised protests.
The police killed student demonstrators on that day.
Events took a violent turn soon after.
The ruling Muslim League tried to stall the passing of the legislation
of granting Bengali official status despite the high intensity of civil
unrest.
After years of protests, agitations and civil unrest, in 1956, the
Pakistani government granted official status to Bengali language .

Legacy of The Movement

This movement is a prime example where language acted as a
forerunner for political struggle in a country.
This movement catalysed the assertion of Bengali identity in
East Bengal.
The Six-Point Movement which called for greater autonomy in
East Pakistan and ending of continuous exploitation by the
West was inspired by the movement.
Subsequently it led to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, leading
to the formation of Bangladesh from East Pakistan.
In 1999, UNESCO declared 21st February as the International
Mother Language Day in recognition of the Events .
21st February is recognised as a national holiday in Bangladesh .

Pakistans Issues With Minorities

Balochistan

Balochistan is located in the South West of Pakistan and

constitutes about half of the countrys territory.
Demographically, it consists of about 3.6% of total
population of Pakistan.
It is a strategically important part of Pakistan because of
natural reserves like natural gas, oil, copper and gold.
Despite the rich resources, it continues to remain the
poorest of the four provinces of Pakistan.

The Reasons For Conflict

After the inclusion of Balochistan into the dominion of Pakistan,
the people of Balochistan felt a sense of separate identity, one
of the reasons being the presence of different linguistic minority
groups within the territory.
These linguistic groups shared a common history and culture
which gave rise to a strong sense of nationalism within the
people.
Inspired by the Language Movement in Bangladesh, nationalists
in Balochistan engaged in an armed struggle throughout the
1970s but Pakistani government successfully crushed the
movement.

Baloch Nationalism
Due to facing economic and ethnic alienation, the Baloch
nationalists waged several guerrilla wars against the government
of Pakistan.
Insurgencies have been fought in 1948, 1958-59, 1962-63, 197377, and an ongoing struggle since 2003.
The primary ideology behind these insurgencies have been
Baloch Nationalism.
Baloch Nationalism claims that Baloch people as an ethnolinguistic group are a distinct nation.
The movement propagates the view that Muslims are not a
nation and ethnic loyalty surpasses religious loyalty.

The Roots of the Movement

Baloch Nationalism stems from lingual roots.

It is concentrated in Brohi, Sulemani, and Makrani speaking areas
in Balochistan.
Sindhi (Jadgali Dialect), Saraiki (Ketrani Dialect), Rukhshani,
Dehvari, Pashto, Hazargi and Punjabi settlers dont support
Baloch Nationalism. It account for more than 60% population of
Balochistan province.
The activists demands have ranged from greater cultural,
political, economic and political rights, to political autonomy, to
outright secession and creation of an independent state of
Balochistan.

Conclusion
One notices certain common elements in the language policies of
the South Asian nations, mostly modeled after the Official
Language provisions of the Constitution of India.
These may be in favor of introducing only one language as the
official language of the nation, but its implementation would be
modulated by ground realities that demand the acceptance of
some role for the other major spoken languages.
It is important for the linguistic and religious minorities to
recognize that in a pluralistic nation there would always be some
pre-eminence given to the majority, and this is not a hindrance
for their own freedom for growth.

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Hindi_agitation_of_1937%E2%80%9340
http
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-indian-states/4668
/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_Reorganisation_Act,_1956
http://www.tamilguardian.com/content/root-causes-ethnic-conflict-sri-lanka
http
://indianexpress.com/article/research/balochistan-everything-you-need-to-k
now-about-the-province-and-its-bumpy-history
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Languages in South Asia, Braj B. Kachru, Y. Kachru