Dr.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
ACADEMIC SESSION: 2014 2015


FOUNDATION OF LAW
PROJECT
ON
Provision of language in the India constitution


SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
MR. MANWENDRA KUMAR TIWARI GAURAV KRISHNA
ASST.PROFESSOR (LAW) ROLL NO. -61 SEC-A

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me to complete this project. I
extend my sincere acknowledgements to Mr. Manwendra Kumar Tiwari Sir who mentored
me in completing Provision of language in the Indian constitution as my project topic. I
am deeply indebted to him whose help and stimulating suggestion helped me in choosing
this topic.
I would like to thank Honble Vice Chancellor sir for providing our institute with all the
facilities which are required for the completion of this project. I will also remain highly
indebted to the librarian for providing the requisite research material.













TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION..........................................................................04
NEED FOR A NATIONAL LANGUAGE.........................................04
DISTINCTION BETWEEN A NATIONAL LANGUAGE AND AN
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE.........................................................................05
LANGUAGES WITH OFFICIAL STATUS IN INDIA............................09.
ARTICLES RELATED TO LANGUAGE IN THE INDIAN
CONSTITUTION.......................................................................................07
PROVISON RELATING TO EIGTH SCHEDULE................................13
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................15
BIBLIOGRAPHY16









Introduction
India is an abode of more than 1652 mother tongues spread over a vast geographic space. It is
a composite entity, a bundle of mother tongues. The Census of India enumerates the mother
tongues and before releasing the population tables relating to language, rationalizes or groups
mother tongues into groups called languages.
1

With over 900 million people and more than one thousand languages, India is certainly one of
the multilingual nations in the world today. It is home to the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian
language families, two of the world's largest. Languages of the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-
Burman language families are also spoken in India, though by relatively few people
compared to speakers of the other two families. This multitude of languages reflects India's
lengthy and diverse history. During the last few thousand years the Indian sub-continent has
been both united under various empires as well as fragmented into many small kingdoms.
This has helped spread many common linguistic features among Indian languages without
allowing any particular language to become overwhelmingly dominant. Having attained
independence from the British in 1947, Indian leaders choose Hindi as the official
language of India in the hope that it would facilitate regional communication and encourage
national unity. They were aware of many of the difficulties inherent with instating a single
language in India's multilingual environment, and they accordingly laid out a clear timeline
and plan for introducing Hindi and phasing English out. Despite this planning, Hindi and
English today still share their status as official languages. This is due to many unseen
obstacles in addition to tactical errors made by some of the promoters of Hindi. These errors
led to forceful counteractions by groups who felt that Hindi was being imposed upon them.
This situation offers an interesting case for the analysis of political and social aspects of
language planning and promotion. I was first introduced to the language issue in 1993, when
I formed several friendships with some Indian students at the University of Toledo. Though I
had learned a fair amount of Indian philosophy while I was growing up, I was nonetheless
quite ignorant of modern Indian life and national structure.



1
The Evolution of Language Laws in Post-Independence India
A Monograph B. Mallikarjun Ph.D.
file:///C:/Users/hp1/Downloads/mallikarjunlanguagemonographfinal.pdf
Need for a national language
It was imperative, to achieve the unity and integrity of the nation envisaged in the preamble ,
that the constitution makers should declare one language as the national language of India.
Indias problem has been and is, rather one of sub-national sentiment and sub national
competition ,which often takes the form of linguistic rivalries . in the assembly , these
rivalries had not assumed their present proportion or many of their present guises ; they are
expressed as resistance to the linguistic chauvinism of another sub-national group the Hindi
speakers who came unfortunately to be presented by group of extremists. The language
provisions of the constitution were designed in a typically Indian fashion to meet such a
situation . assembly members believed that India should ideally have an indigenous national
language . Hindi was named for the role . yet , for Hindi to be in practice as the national
language was impossible , for the only language in national use was English . constitution
makes clear what the national ideal is , and then realistically , compromises laying down how
the nation is function , linguistically speaking , until the ideal is achieved . more than this , as
the furious controversy among the members testifies , the assembly was unable to do . yet the
language provisions are not just an unhappy compromise ; they have a more positive side .
they show that the large majority of the assembly believed that the use of many Indian
languages and of English compatible with national unity and with the evolution of nation
spirit.
2


DISTINCTION BETWEEN A NATIONAL LANGUAGE AND AN
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE.
Quite simply, a national language is that which enjoys use throughout an entire nation in the
political, social, and cultural realms. It also functions as a national symbol. An official
language is one which is used for the operations of the government. In a word, national
languages are symbolic and official languages are pragmatic. It is not uncommon for a
national language to also be an official language, but it is less likely that an official language
will be a national one as well.
I have used these two terms somewhat interchangeably in reference to the status of Hindi thus
far in the report. This is due to the ambiguity which India itself seems to have about whether

2
DURGA DAS BASU commentary on the Indian constitution of India 8
th
edition 2011
Hindi is the national language or the official language, or both. Technically, according to the
Constitution of India, Hindi is only the official language. In actuality, it seems that
Indian leaders at the time of independence thought of Hindi more as the national language.
According to Das Gupta (1970, p.36), If the framers of the Constitution of India took care to
choose one single "official language," the status of this category has not always come out
clearly in the political and social deliberations in India. A good deal of semantic confusion
has persisted from the very first demands for national language during the early phase of
nationalist struggle. A lack of appreciation of the complexity governing the question of a
national language in a multilingual society can be discerned in the speeches and writing of the
leaders and intellectuals during this phase of Indian nationalism. These leaders rarely drew a
distinction between the categories of common language, national language, and official
language. They tended to use these as interchangeable categories.

Languages with official status in India
The Constitution of India designates a bilingual approach for official language of the
Government of India employing usage of Hindi written in the Devanagari script, as well as
English. Hindi and English find everyday use for important official purposes such as
parliamentary proceedings, judiciary, communications between the Central Government and
a State Government. States within India have the liberty and powers to specify their own
official language(s) through legislation and therefore there are more than 20 officially
recognized languages in India, including English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu,Tamil, Kannada,
Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi etc. The number of native Hindi speakers range
between 14.5 to 24.5% in total Indian population, however, other dialects of Hindi termed as
Hindi languages are spoken by nearly 45% percent of Indians, mostly accounted from the
states falling under the Hindi belt. In comparison to Hindi, other Indian languages are not far
behind and are spoken by around 10% or less of the population. English continues to be used
for some official purposes, by the Government of India in conjunction with Hindi, the
number of English speakers within India has grown significantly in Indiato nearly 20%.
States specify their own official language(s) through legislation. The section of the
Constitution of India dealing with official languages therefore includes detailed provisions
which deal not just with the languages used for the official purposes of the union, but also
with the languages that are to be used for the official purposes of each state and union
territory in the country, and the languages that are to be used for communication between the
union and the states inter se.
During the British Raj, English was used for purposes at the federal level. The Indian
constitution adopted in 1950 envisaged that Hindi would be gradually phased in to replace
English over a fifteen-year period, but gave Parliament the power to, by law, provide for the
continued use of English even thereafter. Plans to make Hindi the sole official language of
the Republic met with resistance in some parts of the country. Hindi continues to be used
today, in combination with other (at the central level and in some states) State official
languages at the state level.
The legal framework governing the use of languages for official purpose currently includes
the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963, Official Languages (Use for Official
Purpose of the Union) Rules, 1976, and various state laws, as well as rules and regulations
made by the central government and the states.
3



Articles related to language in the Indian constitution-
Article 120: Language to be used in Parliament
(1) Notwithstanding anything in part XVII, but subject to the provisions of article 348,
business in Parliament shall be transacted in Hindi or in English:
Provided that the Chairman of the Council of States or Speaker of the House of the People, or
person acting as such, as the case may be, may permit any member who cannot adequately
express himself in Hindi or in English to address the House in his mother-tongue.
(2) Unless Parliament by law otherwise provides, this article shall, after the expiration of a
period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, have effect as if the
words or in English were omitted there from
i
.
Article 210: Language to be used in the Legislature

3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status_in_India
(1) Notwithstanding anything in part XVII, but subject to the provisions of article 348,
business in the Legislature of a State shall be transacted in the official language or languages
of the State or in Hindi or in English
Provided that the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly or Chairman of the Legislative
Council, or person acting as such, as the case may be, may permit any member who cannot
adequately express himself in any of the languages aforesaid to address the House in his
mother-tongue.
(2) Unless the Legislature of the State by law otherwise provides, this article shall, after the
expiration of a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, have
effect as if the words or in English were omitted there from : Provided that in relation to the
Legislatures of the States of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura this clause
shall have effect as if for the words
fifteen years occurring therein, the words twenty-five years were substituted: Provided
further that in relation to the Legislature of the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and
Mizoram, this clause shall have effect as if for the words fifteen years occurring therein,
the words forty years were substituted.
Article 343. Official language of the Union-
(1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devnagari script. The form of
numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of
Indian numerals.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the
commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the
official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such
commencement
Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the
Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devnagari form of numerals in
addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the
Union.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in this article, Parliament may be law provide for the use, after
the said period of fifteen years, of-
(a) the English language, or
(b) the Devnagari form of numerals,
for such purposes as may be specified in the law.
4


Article 344. Commission and Committee of Parliament on official language-
(1) The President shall, at the expiration of five years from the commencement of this
Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, by order
constitute a Commission which shall consist of a Chairman and such other members
representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule as the President may
appoint, and the order shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission.
(2) It shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to-
(a) the progressive use of the Hindi language for the official purposes of the Union;
(b) restrictions on the use of the English language for all or any of the official purposes of the
Union;
(c) the language to be used for all or any of the purposes mentioned in article 348;
(d) the form of numerals to be used for any one or more specified purposes of the Union;
(e) any other matter referred to the Commission by the President as regards the official
language of the Union and the language for communication between the Union and a State or
between one State and another and their use.
(3) In making their recommendations under clause (2), the Commission shall have due regard
to the industrial, cultural and scientific advancement of India, and the just claims and the
interests of persons belonging to the non-Hindi speaking areas in regard to Council of States
to be elected respectively by the members of the House of the People and the members of the

4
Union of india v. Murasoli maran , AIR 1977 SC 225
Council of States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of
the single transferable vote.
(5) It shall be the duty of the Committee to examine the recommendations of the Commission
constituted under clause (1) and to report to the President their opinion thereon.
(6) Notwithstanding anything in article 343, the President may, after consideration of the
report referred to in clause (5), issue directions in accordance with the whole or any part of
that report.
5

REGIONAL LANGUAGES
Article 345. Official language or languages of a State-
subject to the provisions of articles 346 and 347, the legislature of a State may by law adopt
any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the Language or Languages
to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State: Provided that, until the
Legislature of the State otherwise provides by law, the English language shall continue to be
used for those official purposes within the State for which it was being used immediately
before the commencement of this Constitution.
Article 346. Official languages for Communication between one State and
another or between a State and the Union
-The language for the time being authorised for use in the Union for official purposes shall be
the official language for communication between one State and another State and between a
State and the Union : Provided that if two or more States agree that the Hindi language
should be the official language for communication between such States, that language may be
used for such communication.
Article 347. Special provision relating to language spoken by a section of the
population of a State-
On a demand being made in that behalf the President may, if he is satisfied that a substantial
proportion of the population of a State desire the use of any language spoken by them to be

5
DURGA DAS BASU commentary on the Indian constitution of India 8
th
edition 2011
recognised by that state, direct that such language shall also be officially recognised
throughout that State or any part thereof for such purpose as he may specify.

LANGUAGE OF THE SUPREME COURT, HIGH COURTS.
Article 348. Language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High Courts
and for Acts, Bills, etc.- (1) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this
Part, until Parliament by law otherwise provides-
(a) All proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High Court,
(b) the authoritative texts-
(i) of all Bills to be introduced or amendments thereto to be moved in either House of
Parliament or in the House or either House of the Legislature of a State.
(ii) Of all Acts passed by Parliament or the Legislature of a State and of all Ordinances
promulgated by the President or the Governor of a State, and
(iii) Of all orders, rules, regulations and bye-laws issued under this Constitution or under any
law made by Parliament or the Legislature of a State, shall be in the English language.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in sub-clause(a) of clause(1), the Governor of a State may, with
the previous consent of the President, authorise the use of the Hindi language, or any other
language used for any official purposes of the State, in proceedings in the High Court having
its principal seat in that State:
Provided that nothing in this clause shall apply to any judgment, decree or order passed or
made by such High Court.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in sub-clause(b) of clause(1), where the Legislature of a State
has prescribed any language other than the English language for use in Bills introduced in, or
Acts passed by, the Legislature of the State or in Ordinances promulgated by the Governor of
the State or in any order, rule, regulation or bye-law referred to in paragraph (iii) of that sub-
clause, a translation of the same in the English language published under the authority of the
Governor of the State in the Official Gazette of that State shall be deemed to be the
authoritative text thereof in the English language under this article.

article -349. special procedure for enactment certain law relating to language-
During the period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, no Bill or
amendment making provision for the language to be used for any of the purposes mentioned
in clause (1) of article 348 shall be introduced or moved in either House of Parliament
without the previous sanction of the President, and the President shall not give his sanction to
the introduction of any such Bill or the moving of any such amendment except after he has
taken into consideration the recommendations of the Commission constituted under clause(1)
of article 344 and the report of the Committee constituted under clause(4) of that article.

SPECIAL DIRECTIVES

Article 350. Language to be used in representations for redress of grievances-
Every person shall be entitled to submit a representation for the redress of any
grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a State in any of the languages
used in the Union or in the State, as the case may be.
Article 350A. Facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at the primary stage
It shall be the endeavor of every State and of every local authority within the State to
provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of
education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups; and the President may
issue such directions to any State as he considers necessary or proper for securing
the provision of such facilities
Article 350B. Special Officer for linguistic minorities-

(1) There shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Special officer to investigate all matters relating to the
safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under this Constitution and report to the
President upon those matters at such intervals as the President may direct, and the
president shall cause all such reports to be laid before each House of Parliament and
sent to the Government of the States concerned.

Article 351. Directive for development of the Hindi language- It shall be the duty
of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may
serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of
India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius,
the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of
India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or
desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other
languages.


PROVISIONS RELATING TO EIGHTH SCHEDULE

The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in articles 344(1) and 351
of the Constitution. Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the
President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution and
thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, which shall consist of a
Chairman and such other members representing the different languages specified in the
Eighth Schedule to make recommendations to the President for the progressive use of Hindi
for official purposes of the Union. Article 351 of the Constitution provides that it shall be the
duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may
serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to
secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and
expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth
Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily, on
Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages. It would thus appear that the Eighth Schedule
was intended to promote the progressing use of Hindi and for the enrichment and promotion
of that language.
List of languages in the Eighth Schedule
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of the following
22 languages:-

(1) Assamese (2) Bengali(3) Gujarati,
(4) Hindi (5) Kannada(6) Kashmiri,
(7) Konkani (8) Malayalam (9) Manipuri
(10) Marathi (11) Nepali (12) Oriya,
(13) Punjabi (14) Sanskrit(15)Sindhi
(16) Tamil (17) Telugu (18) Urdu
(19) Bodo, (20) Santhali (21) Maithili
(22) Dogri.

Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution.
Sindhi language was added in 1967. Thereafter three more languages viz.,
Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in 1992.Subsequently Bodo, Dogri, Maithili
and Santhali were added in 2004. Demand for more languages for inclusion in the Eighth
Schedule At present, there are demands for inclusion of 38 more languages in the Eighth
Schedule to the Constitution. These are:- (1) Angika, (2) Banjara, (3) Bazika, (4) Bhojpuri,
(5) Bhoti,
(6) Bhotia, (7) Bundelkhandi (8) Chhattisgarhi, (9) Dhatki, (10) English, (11)Garhwali
(Pahari), (12) Gondi, (13) Gujjar/Gujjari (14) Ho, (15) Kachachhi, (16) Kamtapuri, (17)
Karbi, (18) Khasi, (19) Kodava (Coorg), (20)KokBarak, (21) Kumaoni (Pahari), (22) Kurak,
(23) Kurmali, (24) Lepcha, (25)Limbu, (26) Mizo (Lushai), (27) Magahi, (28) Mundari, (29)
Nagpuri, (30)Nicobarese, (31) Pahari (Himachali), (32) Pali, (33) Rajasthani, (34)
Sambalpuri/Kosali, (35) Shaurseni (Prakrit), (36) Siraiki, (37) Tenyidi and (38) Tulu.

Procedural requirement for inclusion of languages
in the Eighth Schedule A Committee was set up in September,2003 under the Chairmanship
of Shri Sitakant Mohapatra to evolve a set of objective criteria for inclusion of more
languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The Committee submitted its report in
2004. The report of the Committee is under consideration in consultation with the concerned
Minorities/Departments of the Central Government. A decision on the pending demand for
inclusion of languages in the Eighth Schedule will be taken, inter-alia, in the light of the
recommendations of the Committee and Governments decision thereon. However, no time
frame can be fixed for consideration of the demands for inclusion of more languages in
Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.



CONCLUSION
In pursuance of the Parliament Resolution of Jan 18, 1968 adopted by both houses of the
Parliament the Department of Education of the Government of India has to take steps for the
full development of these languages in collaboration with the state governments .The
development of the languages of the Eighth Schedule to become effective means of
communicating modern knowledge as desired in the Constitution and the Official Language
Resolution needs to be assessed. Though precise assessment is needed, it is not possible
without quantified research in each language. If and when language development parameters
are evolved like human development index one can quantify the language development. In
the context of majority and minority relations the official recognition of a language in India is
at Union level, State level and inclusion in Schedule VIII . But this Schedule is used for the
purposes for which it was not intended.

















BIBLIOGRAPHY


DURGA DAS BASU-COMMENTARY ON CONSTITUTION 8
TH
EDITION 2011
DURGA DAS BASU INTRODUCTION OF CONSTITUTION OF INDIA


The EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE LAWS IN POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA
A MONOGRAPH B. MALLIKARJUN Ph.D.
file:///C:/Users/hp1/Downloads/mallikarjunlanguagemonographfinal.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status_in_India