The Government of India was confronted by similar violence and political mobilisation when it came to deciding which language would be the national language. Ambedkar confessed that at the time of the discussion of the draft constitution, no article proved more controversial than the one that dealt with Hindi as the national language. The very thought provoked outrage among non-Hindi speakers, particularly Tamil speakers who tended to regard Hindi as a latecomer on the linguistic scene, compared with Tamil which is an ancient, classical language. Moreover, to accord status to one language as the national language would be to give speakers of that language an unfair advantage in educational and employment opportunities, and to correspondingly disadvantage non-speakers of the language.

Confrontation was pre-empted by postponing the implementation of Hindi as the national language till 1965. But by 1963 the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu assumed appalling proportions. Sections of the Constitution were publicly set on fire, and student unions and political parties joined the massive protests against the decision to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking populations. January 26 1965, the day when the switch to Hindi was to be implemented, was marked by public mourning, hoisting of black flags, rioting, police firing, killings, and self-immolation. The central government had no option except to assure states that Hindi would not be imposed, and that they could continue to use English for official purposes. Further, the major languages of India, which are listed in the Eighth Schedule, are treated as official languages. The original Eighth Schedule contained 14 languages, now it contains 22 languages.

... contd.