'New Education Policy -2020' has presented a refurbished 3-language formula to make it palatable to Tamil Nadu. The intention though, is clearly to establish Hindi as the lingua franca of India.
Language has always been a sticky issue within the Indian union even before independence. In fact, in 1937, the Madras presidency saw massive protests against the nudge to promote Hindi throughout India. Following Independence, in the constituent assembly, language was again a hotly debated topic, with numbers equally staked in favour of and against giving Hindi precedence. By casting the deciding vote, the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly Dr. Rajendra Prasad paved the way for Hindi to become the official language of the Union. Nonetheless, to assuage the feelings of the non-Hindi speaking regions, it was agreed that English shall continue to be an associate official language of the union till 1965. For administering the provinces, it was decided to let them continue their documentations in a language of their choice in addition to one of the union's official languages.
In the 1950s, sensing the cultural danger that loomed, politics that advocated secession from the Indian union was gaining currency in the south. Notably, the most popular among such forces was the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by the charismatic Anna Durai. With DMK raising to become the primary opposition party in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly in 1962, a real secession seemed possible. Preempting such an eventuality, the parliament passed the anti-secession law, that outlawed separatist propaganda (it was very much legal to campaign for secession before that). This effectively clipped DMK's free-run and forced it to soften its stands or run the risk being banned. Subsequently, Anna Durai compromised, stating that "Although the reasons secession are still very much alive, we are giving up the secessionist agenda for now". Notably, even today, many Tamil Nadu politicians vouch for the revocation of the anti-secessionist law, although secessionist propaganda has effectively ceased in the state.
It is in this background that the deadline for retiring English as an associate official language was nearing, and once again, the south erupted. The July of 1965 was particularly volatile with over 200 people dying due to self-immolation. Rallies marched towards union government offices/institutions to deface the Hindi alphabet in hoardings and railway traffic was also considerably blockaded. In Tamil Nadu, these incidences are remembered as the "Mozhi Por" (language War). Sensing the mood, then Prime Minister L.B.Shastri declared that as long as non-Hindi speaking regions desire so, English shall continue as the associate official language for the Union Government and that the states can continue using their own regional languages for their businesses, a status that hasn't changed since.
The next round of trouble around the language question rose when the subject of 'Education' was moved from the state list to the concurrent list. This was done by the Indira Gandhi government, through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, which was passed in 1975 (during the emergency). While the original constitution envisioned state governments as the sole authority to administer laws in educational matters, the 42nd amendment gave the union government power to legislate on the same. Using these provisions, various union governments have been legislating to govern schools, colleges and vocational institutions from time to time. While parliamentary oversight facilitated many good centrally sponsored educational reforms like the RTE Act, it also opened the door for nudging Hindi into schools all over India.
In the 1970s, for promoting Hindi, a 3-language formula was commissioned nationwide. The Hindi speaking regions had to teach Hindi, English and an additional language of their choice in all their schools, while the non-Hindi regions had to teach, Hindi, English and the state's official language. When this was furthered, unlike the intense protest against mandating Hindi within the state government institutions, all southern states except Tamil Nadu received it with minimal resistance. Tamil Nadu on the contrast stood its ground and refused plainly to entertain the language formula. Hence, an exemption was given and till date TN has a 2-language formula in place. TN students are thus mandated to choose only one additional language apart from English (any additional 3rd language is a choice that the schools / education boards can make). Thus, technically, Tamil Nadu is the only state in India where a student can graduate high-school without learning the state's official language. Nonetheless, despite the multiple gaps in the current format of the 2-language policy, it has largely served its intended purpose since the late 1970s.
When the coalition era kicked in at the union level in the late 1980s, there was little appetite to disturb the settled language question and the issue remained dormant for over 3 decades. Now, with a Hindi-Hindu centric BJP in power with a brute majority, the language battle has been reopened. The latest innovation that has been added to the 3-language policy is that the mandate for Hindi has been removed and that students can choose any 2 Indian languages of their choice apart from English. While this might look fair on the surface, what is being left unsaid is the structure of the current Indian polity, which effectively makes the choice of 3rd language as Hindi by default. With the other southern states already having capitulated to the 3-language policy in the 1970s, it is thus a tweak made specifically to penetrate Hindi into the hostile Tamil Nadu terrain. To mobilize support, the pro-BJP fringe within TN have been stating that 3-language policy will facilitate students in north India to take up Tamil as a 3rd language. While this is theoretically possible, it is blatantly misleading, because the 3rd language of choice in the Hindi belt is Sanskrit by default.
The current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palanichamy literally owes his seat to BJP's hard armed meddling into the affairs of his party, the AIADMK, as it saw chaos after the demise of Ms.Jayalalitha. Considering the context of his rise, he was tip-towing the BJP line on most issues thus far. But on the language question, sensing popular sentiment, even he has unambiguously stated that he is opposed to the new 3-language policy. If I were to go by the subsequent reactions of the BJP leadership, it is unlikely that they will push further on this, and the 2-language policy in TN is here to stay for now.
Nonetheless, the language question is still broadly open and won't reach closure until all Indian languages are accorded equal status in all union government institutions and functionalities. Here, the question is not one of learning an additional language, but one of political equality. In fact, despite years of schooling in Hindi, my Malayali friends are lesser fluent in Hindi than I, who picked up the language on the go quite swiftly when I went up north for my college years. If there is anybody who needs to be lectured on learning a new language, it is the ones who relocate and demand that the locals of that region learn their language to facilitate their convenience.
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