Hindi Day: Many leaders clashed over Hindi in the Constituent Assembly, most spoke in English, know why Hindi could not become the national language

There was a heated debate in the Constituent Assembly

This is the story of 13 September 1949… when the debate on the official language of India started in the Constituent Assembly. This debate was going on under the supervision of the Constituent Assembly Chairman Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar, a member of the assembly, strongly advocated making Hindi the official language. But a member named Frank Anthony opposed it and cited the difficulties in understanding Hindi. Apart from this, members of the states of South India also opposed making Hindi the official language and asked for time for this, but no direct result came out.

Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar advocated for Hindi

Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar said in front of the assembly, 'Sir, if Hindi is made the official language of the country, no one will be happier than me.' He reminded that when he started addressing the assembly, he spoke in Hindi. Many members opposed Dhulekar. After this, Dhulekar further said, 'I want to remind the assembly that when I started speaking, the language was Hindi. But I had to face opposition.' He insisted that Hindi should be given the status of official language. In any debate or discussion, only Hindi should be recognized. As an Indian, he has every right to speak in his mother tongue Hindi.' Dhulekar further said, 'As a citizen and son of the country, I have the right to speak in Hindi.' He strengthened his argument by saying, 'The matter has progressed and today I feel that Hindi in Devanagari script has become the official language of the country.

Many members objected

Many members were openly opposing Dhulekar. The members who came in protest said that this decision should not be taken now. But Dhulekar continued to put forward his arguments. He said, 'When some members said not now but I want to say that this is the truth. This is part of a long historical process. It has taken years and centuries.' He gave the example of Tulsidas and Swami Vivekananda. He said, 'I can say that Swami Ramdas wrote in Hindi. Tulsidas wrote in Hindi. And after this, modern saint Swami Dayanand also wrote in Hindi. He was a Gujarati but he wrote in Hindi. Why did he write in Hindi? Because Hindi was the national language of the country.' Apart from this, citing Mahatma Gandhi, he said that when the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi came to the Congress, he spoke in Hindi instead of English.

'Hindi cannot be called an official language'

HR Gurev Reddy of Mysore stood up to oppose Dhulekar in front of the Constituent Assembly. He asked, can't we call it the official language? To this Dhulekar insisted, 'I call it the official language and the national language. Your opinion may be different. You may be from another country but I am from India. I am unable to understand why it cannot be the national language. Now that we are nationalists, we can say that Hindi is the national language. You can call it the official language.'

When many members protested

Another member objected to Dhulekar's statement and said that we are not bound to accept your decision. Dhulekar replied that some people are saying that they cannot learn Hindi. I want to ask which is your official language in the world? Giving the example of Russia, he said, 'I was once told that when our ambassador to Russia submitted some documents in English, Russia refused to accept it. They said it should be written in our language. It is Russia that thinks about its language.'

The issue of making Sanskrit the national language was raised

This debate was stopped by the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Rajendra Prasad, and he demanded the approval of Hindi in Devanagari script. After this, another member of the assembly, Pandit Lakshmikant Mishra put forward his point. He proposed to make Sanskrit the official language. Mishra said, “Let me tell you that when the country became independent, it should have an official language which is also the national language. And if there is such a language, it is Sanskrit.” Some members agreed with him, while some opposed it.

What arguments were given against Hindi?

After this, Frank Anthony put forward his views. He discussed Hindi and English in detail. He said that there was a lot of discussion on Hindi in the meeting. He said that he has lived among Hindi-speaking people but the reality is that if you write the Constitution in Hindi, how many people will be able to understand it. I tried to read and understand the Hindi translation but could not succeed in it. I do not understand how Hindi's development will stop if it does not become the national language. I want to say that everyone should believe that there should be a national language. My mother tongue is English. But I know that English cannot be the national language of this country for many reasons.

National Language Debate English

After this, A Krishnaswamy Iyer of Madras said that in this assembly there are either Hindi speaking members or non-Hindi speaking members. Sarangdhar Das of Odisha said that speakers from non-Hindi speaking states should get more opportunities. Only Hindi speaking people should not get a chance to express their views. An interesting thing about this debate on the national language was that most of the speakers were speaking in English. The Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was also giving instructions in English. It was an irony that the advocacy for making Hindi the official language was also being done in English.

The debate on the national language began on September 12 and lasted for two days. However, this debate did not yield any result. In the end, President Dr. Rajendra Prasad gave his speech. He said that the decision of the Constituent Assembly on the subject of language should be accepted by the whole country. There should be no right to incite sentiments for the language. After this debate, Hindi could never become the national language.