India is one of unique countries in the world that has the legacy of diversity of languages. The Constitution of India has recognized 22 official languages. Multilingualism is the way of life in India as people in different parts of the country speak more than one language from their birth and learns additional languages during their life time. Though officially there are 122 languages, Peoples Linguistic Survey of India has identified 780 languages, of which 50 are extinct in past five decades.

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Language is a manifestation of diversity of the country:

• It is the most prominent feature of India’s diversity and in past has been a major source of unrest.
• Multilingualism is the way of life in India as people in different parts of the country speak more than one language from their birth and learn additional languages during their lifetime.
• Among these three languages, Sanskrit, Tamil and Kannada have been recognised as classical language with special status and recognition by Government of India.
• The classical languages have written and oral history of more than 1000 years. In comparison to these, English is very young as it has a history of only 300 years.
• The language policy of India provides guarantee to protect the linguistic minorities. Under the Constitution provision is made for appointment of Special Officer for linguistic minority with the sole responsibilities of safeguarding the interest of language spoken by the minority groups.
• States on Linguistic basis:
  • The Division of states linguistic basis removed the major discord and disharmony among people. For ex. separation of Andhra from Madras addressed the agitation and protest by Telugu people.
  • Creation of state which are homogeneous in nature improved the functioning of the state and govt. has been able to better connect with the masses in the language in which they understand. For ex. creation of Gujarat from Bombay resulted into betterment of people. This brought satisfaction and further caused the Indian Unity.
  • It did not affect the federal structure of the India as afraid. Rather it led to creation of state regional parties which can raise their voice in the Parliament. Hence, a more cooperative federalism and participative democracy thrived epitomizing unity in diversity.
• Articles 30 and 347 of Indian Constitution provide constitutional protection to linguistic minorities and hence any fear of minority suppression alleviated upto a large extent.
• It provided opportunity to the states to protect and promote their regional language which brought satisfied cultural aspiration of masses. For ex. recent adoption of Odia language as official language by Odisha.

Language – the carrier of the caste system, cultural tyrannies and societal inequalities:

• Usage or prominence of a particular language often reflects the dominance of one community in the Indian society. For example, sanskrit, most of the times has been associated with the dominance of brahmanism in society.
• The idea of ‘purer’ forms of language and its distinction from ‘dialects’ propagates the influence of a particular caste or community which marginalises all the other ‘impure’ forms.
• There is a north-south divide mainly due to attempts of imposition of Hindi as the link-language of India. This has roots in anti-Brahmanism Dravidian movements in South India, which opposed caste based society and Hindi was also seen as a language that perpetuates a ‘backward’ culture of caste and gender oppression.
• Masses speaking regional languages often face discrimination in terms of sharing of political power, employment, economic status, etc.
• People migrating from undeveloped regions to cities face discrimination because of unfamiliar language and customs.
• Ethnic clashes and violence emerge out of complexities of linguistic and ethnic politics, thereby promoting regionalism. For eg: riots in Assam in the early 1980s, Anti-Hindi riots in southern India by ethnic Dravidians in 1965, etc.
• Linguistic diversity along with regional developmental deficit creates social inequalities which tend to produce social conflicts among different caste groups. For example, demands of reservation by Jaats, Maratha, Patels.
• While English is considered a language which is devoid of caste conscious vocabulary, it is also known as the language of educated elites and has created a new class divide. Majority of the jobs being created in India, particularly in the service sector are dominated by English language speakers.

Conclusion:

Linguistic diversity has been a critical aspect of the multiculturalism that has been the defining characteristic of India through the ages. Diversity is undoubtedly strength of our democracy. The cultural bonds need to be strengthened through enhanced and continuous mutual interaction between people of varied regions. This encourages reciprocity and secures an enriched value system of unity amongst people of different States.