Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent clarion call to make Hindi and other indigenous languages “so strong that we do not need to take the help of a foreign language by 2047” and that he loves Hindi language more than his mother tongue Gujarati has come as a shock to people of non-Hindi speaking states. The context of Mr Shah’s remarks may, make them officially and politically correct as he was addressing the ‘All India Official Language Conference’ in Varanasi (Akhil Bharatiya Rajbhash Sammelan), where it is customary for the Home Minister to reiterate the Government of India’s push for greater use of Hindi language as per the Constitution. However, implied in Mr Shah’s remarks is a veiled imposition of Hindi as the sole official language of the Indian Union, relegating the other 21 languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution. There are also demands for inclusion of 38 more languages spoken in different parts of India to be included in the eighth schedule. And Mr Shah’s reported remarks that the country should not have to depend on a foreign language by 2047 is a major cause for concern as it seems to be directed against continuing with English as the official associate language both at the Union and the States. The timeline suggested by Mr Shah is equally disconcerting as there is a proposal to include English also in the eighth schedule. The Home Minister has sugar-coated his plea for making the use of Hindi stronger in Government by saying that though his mother tongue is Gujarati, he loves Hindi more. “We need to strengthen our Rajbhasha. There is no conflict between Hindi and all our local languages. Hindi is a friend (Sakee) of all indigenous languages. India’s prosperity lies in the of our Indian languages.” Prima facie, these arguments look attractive, but are repugnant to the enormous varieties of languages and dialects other than Hindi. As the Tamil Daily ‘Murasoli’ pointed out in its recent Editorial, that this is a strategic argument by the Home Minister to push for making Hindi as the sole official language of India. It clearly goes against the spirit of linguistic and cultural pluralism. Mr Shah’s views may be understandable if he had said “I respect Hindi as much as I respect my mother tongue Gujarati; but what he had uttered is totally political,” the paper observed....