Page 10 - EducationWorld May 2022

Editorial

TIME FOR UNAMBIGUOUS MESSAGE FROM PMO police, judiciary, and the professions,
needs to disabuse itself of the notion
that anti-minorityism will consoli-
T’S SURPRISING THAT THE PRIME min- 12 states. Nor is blatant minorityism date the Hindu vote behind it. The
ister and top BJP leadership seem restricted to fringe hindutva groups. steady descent of Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Iunaware that the rising tide of hate In early April, the BJP government of Uganda among other nations into
speeches and demonising of the coun- Madhya Pradesh demolished shops chaos and disorder should awaken it
try’s 220 million-strong Muslim mi- and homes of Muslim youth who al- to the reality that peace, harmony and
nority by BJP’s affiliated sangh pari- legedly stone-pelted a procession dur- fraternity are the prerequisites of na-
var and hindutva fringe groups could ing the Hindu festival of Ram Navami. tional socio-economic development.
derail the economy, limping back to There’s no shortage of evidence In particular, it’s time for the prime
normalcy after two years of serious that domestic and foreign investment minister Narendra Modi to speak up
pandemic disruption. They need to flows dry up in conflict zones that suf- and crack down on hindutva fringe
bear in mind that in fiscal 2020-21, fer frequent law and order breakdown. groups brazenly indulging in anti-
the country’s GDP contracted by an Investment famines exacerbate unem- minority rhetoric and violence, to es-
unprecedented 7.6 percent and de- ployment, spur inflation, reduce gov- tablish rule of law. The Constitution of
spite a low base grew by 8.9 percent ernment tax revenue flows, feed civil India guarantees minority rights and
in 2021-22. Nor is a big bounce back unrest and fan violence. Neighbouring several sections of the Indian Penal
likely in the current year. The World Pakistan which persecutes its Hindu, Code provide for punishment of indi-
Bank’s latest estimate forecasts 8 per- Shia and Baloch minorities, Sri Lanka viduals making incendiary speeches
cent against its earlier forecast of 9.2 which alienated its Tamil minority, and perpetrating sectarian violence.
percent for 2022-23. Uganda which exiled its Asians in the To stem India’s accelerating slide
Despite this grim scenario, holy 1970s, have all destroyed their econo- into majoritarian and anti-national
men in dharm sansads are openly mies by practicing crude majoritarian- communalism, hate-speech dis-
threatening violence against Muslims, ism. seminators and vigilantes need to be
proscribing the hijab (headscarve) in In the circumstances, the BJP lead- speedily arrested, tried and sentenced
classrooms, evicting Muslim vendors ership that is deaf to hate rhetoric under due process. An unambiguous
from temple premises and pressing for and blind to vigilantism and violence message that India is a country ruled
ban on halal meat in Karnataka un- against India’s Muslim and other mi- by law in which minority rights are re-
der the benevolent watch of the ruling norities who are woefully underrep- spected, should come from the prime
BJP government at the Centre and in resented in legislatures, civil service, minister’s office.

HISTORY LESSON FOR HON’BLE HOME MINISTER and the southern states, especially
Tamil Nadu, were — and remain —
averse to teaching and learning Hindi.
VIDENTLY, UNION HOME MINISTER Earlier at the time when the Consti- It is this ambiguous arrangement
Amit Shah is not a student of tution of India was promulgated and that Amit Shah has attempted to dis-
Ehistory. If he was, he wouldn’t endorsed by Parliament (1950), it was turb with gratuitous advice to states
have advised chief ministers of India’s declared that Hindi in the Devanagiri to use Hindi and attempting to re-
28 states and eight Union territories script “shall be” the official language impose it as the national language
to adopt Hindi as the medium of in- of the country after 15 years. In the even as during the past six decades,
ter-state communication, as he did interregnum, English “shall continue English has evolved into the national
while addressing the 37th meeting of to be used for all official purposes to and global language of commerce and
the Parliamentary Official Language the Union”. However in 1965, when industry, and India’s upper judiciary.
Committee on April 7. Since he is un- Hindi was declared the official lan- The Hon’ble minister should bear
likely to engage in scholarly pursuits guage, there was stiff opposition in mind that similar attempts at lan-
to make good his academic deficit, this countrywide, especially in southern guage chauvinism in neighbouring
short editorial may serve the useful India and particularly in Tamil Nadu countries have proved disastrous. Sri
purpose of enlightenment. which threatened to secede from the Lanka’s 1960s declaration of Sinhalese
The first historical truth that the Indian Union. Therefore, the status as the sole national language alienat-
Hon’ble minister should recall is that quo, i.e, continued use of English for ed its Tamil minority and resulted in
in 1956, following public protests and inter-state communication has been a ten-year civil war which destroyed
demonstrations in several southern maintained for the past 57 years. the economy. Similarly, Pakistan’s
states, perhaps ill-advisedly, a States Meanwhile the three-languages imposition of Punjabi/Urdu resulted
Reorganisation Committee (SRC) formula starting from 1950, under in partition and establishment of Ban-
recommended redrawing inter-state which all in-school children would gladesh. The plain truth is that Eng-
boundary lines on the basis of domi- start learning the state language, Hin- lish/Inglish has transformed into the
nant language. The SRC report was di and any other language including language of upward socio-economic
accepted by the Centre, and state gov- English, proved a non-starter because mobility in contemporary India. The
ernments were permitted to develop the general populace of Hindi speak- minister would be well-advised to
their dominant languages for educa- ing northern states showed no interest divert his attention to more pressing
tion and administrative purposes. in learning a third Indian language, matters.

10 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2022