🚀 go-pugleaf

In news:bgcgk4$ndng5$1@ID-192964.news.uni-berlin.de,
Thomas M. Goethe <goethe11@lycos.com> wrote these words:

| "Rod Speed" <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote in message
| news:bgbp43$lvgua$1@ID-69072.news.uni-berlin.de...
||
|||
||| Though there have been pushes to switch to Hindi,
||
|| It was always the official language since independance.
||
||| that change
||
|| There is no change with the official language.
|
|     There are actual several official languages if I recall
| correctly. Just did some research on a local Hindu Temple and was on
| a web page that listed the official languages. Hindi and Tamil are
| apparently the two major ones.

By coicidence I was helping one of my grandchildren do some research on
this subject recently, so had the information at hand.

From http://www.indianchild.com/linguistic_states_india.htm

"As drafted, the constitution provided that Hindi and English were to be
the languages of communication for the central government until 1965,
when the switch to Hindi was mandated. The Official Languages Act of
1963, pursuing this mandate, said that Hindi would become the sole
official national language in 1965. English, however, would continue as
an "associate additional official language." After ten years, a
parlia-mentary committee was to consider the situation and whether the
status of English should continue if the knowledge of Hindi among
peoples of other native languages had not progressed sufficiently. The
act, however, was ambiguous about whether Hindi could be imposed on
unwilling states by 1975. In 1964 the Ministry of Home Affairs requested
all central ministries to state their progress on the switch to Hindi
and their plans for the period after the transition date in 1965. The
news of this directive led to massive riots and self-immolations in
Tamil Nadu in late 1964 and early 1965, leading the central government,
then run by the Congress (see Glossary), to back away from its stand. A
conference of Congress leaders, cabinet ministers, and chief ministers
of all the states was held in New Delhi in June 1965. Non-Hindi-speaking
states were assured that Hindi would not be imposed as the sole language
of communication between the central government and the states as long
as even one state objected. In addition any of the Scheduled Languages
could be used in taking examinations for entry into the central
government services."

Further on, and interestingly the article has this to say

"Only around 3 percent of the population (about 28 million people in
1995) is truly fluent in both English and an Indian language. By
necessity, a substantial minority are able to speak two Indian
languages; even in the so-called linguistic states, there are minorities
who do not speak the official language as their native tongue and must
therefore learn it as a second language. Many tribal people are
bilingual. Rural-urban migrants are frequently bilingual in the regional
standard language as well as in their village dialect. In Bombay, for
example, many migrants speak Hindi or Marathi in addition to their
native tongue. Religious celebrations, popular festivals, and political
meetings are typically carried on in the regional language, which may be
unintelligible to many attendees. Bilingualism in India, however, is
inextricably linked to social context. South Asia's long history of
foreign rule has fostered what Clarence Maloney terms "the linguistic
flight of the elite." Language--either Sanskrit, Persian, or
English--has formed a barrier to advancement that only a few have been
fortunate enough to overcome."

http://rajbhasha.nic.in/dolruleseng.htm gives the full text of the
relevant Act, including which language is to be used, and when.

-- 
Cheers
Oldus Fartus.