Govt backs down, removes Hindi compulsory clause

The government has quietly removed a contentious portion in the draft national education policy which recommended making Hindi compulsory in non-Hindi speaking states under a three-language formula for school education.

The move comes in the face of a firestorm of protest that erupted in southern India where the imposition of Hindi and fears of domination by the north has been a touchy subject over the decades. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has struggled to make its presence felt in large parts of southern India, where its message of Hindi-Hindu-Hindutva does not resonate as much as it does in the north.

The revised version of the draft policy, uploaded on the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry website, now simply stipulates that the three-language formula will need to be implemented in its spirit throughout the country, promoting multilingual communicative abilities for a multilingual country.

Screenshot of the original recommendation (P 4.5.9) on three language formula.

Screenshot of the recommendation in the revised version of the draft policy (P 4.5.9).

The original draft policy had stipulated, "In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one of the three languages they are studying may do so in grade 6, so long as the study of three languages by students in the Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages from other parts of India, while the study of languages by students in non-Hindi speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English."

Officials in the ministry clarified the contentious recommendation on three-language formula "was never meant" to be part of the document, though it is unclear how an error crept into something so central to the policy document.

"Hence, the said paragraph has been removed from the draft policy and uploaded on the ministry's website for public comment and feedback,” they added.

This comes a day after M K Sridhar, a senior academician from Karnataka who was a key member of the national education policy drafting committee under former Isro chairman K Kasturirangan, clarified to DH on Sunday that a wrong paragraph had crept into the draft while the committee was compiling the old versions of the policy.

Kasturirangan himself muddied the waters in an interview to the Times of India, saying, "If there is any misreading of the manuscript, I will look into it and make appropriate corrections."

After the government removed the contentious recommendation from the draft policy, DMK president M K Stalin said it showed that late party patriarch M Karunanidhi was still "living".

"At a time when we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Thalaivar (leader) Kalaignar (late Karunanidhi), the Central government withdrawing the Hindi compulsory subject clause shows that Kalaignar is living," he tweeted.

Stalin also called for guarding "Mother Tamil" always, thwarting attempts for the "hegemonic imposition" of Hindi.

Coming out in support of the southern states, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that while priority must be given to regional languages, there should be a freedom of choice of language.

"You cannot control everything. Every state has a separate character and separate language. We must show respect to every regional language. Importance must be given to the mother tongue and then to other languages," she said.

Though the contentious portion from the draft policy has been removed, it still has the suggestion for a "better implementation" of the three-language formula in certain states, particularly the non-Hindi speaking ones.

"It must be better implemented in certain states, particularly Hindi-speaking states. For the purposes of national integration, schools in Hindi-speaking areas should also offer and teach Indian languages from other parts of India," it says.

This would help raise the status of all Indian languages, the teachers of such languages, and the literature of such languages, and would open positions and increase opportunities for language teachers across the country, it says.

REVISED DRAFT NEP - FULL DOCUMENT