Cover Story: Language Imperialism/West Bengal

West Bengal: Pushback against attempts of Hindi imposition likely

The BJP’s debacle in West Bengal in the 2021 Assembly election is also proof that any attempt to impose Hindi will face stiff resistance in the State.

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

Cover Story: Language Imperialism/ Tripura

Tripura: Concerns over Centre's proposal to impose Devanagari script for Kokborok

Tribal protests against the Central government’s proposal to impose the Devanagari script for Kokborok, the language most of the tribal people speak,

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

Cover Story: Language Imperialism/Tamil Nadu

A history of resistance: Tamil Nadu's struggle against Hindi imposition

Political parties across the spectrum oppose the imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu. Anti-Hindi struggle in the State dates back to pre-Independence da

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Cover Story: Language Imperialism

Recognising territorial links to languages essential for Indian federalism

Territorial identification and recognition of languages has been an integral part of the federal structure of post-independence India. Policymakers an

fl03north-east1

Cover Story: Language imposition and North-East India

Centre's aggressive push for Hindi as North-East India's 'link language' threatens to expose ethnic fault lines

The Central government’s efforts to push Hindi as the link language has the potential to expose linguistic fault lines in the north-eastern region whe

Sushanta Talukdar

India: A linguistic civilisation

Unlike Europe, the speakers of hundreds of different languages in India agreed to belong to a single nation because the Constitution promised them fre

Cover Story: Pasha Bhai

Dakhni Urdu rapper Pasha Bhai's quest for selfhood in Bengaluru

Pasha Bhai’s journey from the Muslim ghetto of Neelasandra to the posh clubs of Bengaluru is as much a story about his art as about Dakhni Urdu, the l

VIKHAR AHMED SAYEED

More stories from Lead Story

Lingua franca?: Controversy over Hindi puts focus on linguistic plurality

A controversy surrounding the promotion of Hindi as a link language brings the issue of linguistic plurality back into the limelight.

Ramesh Chakrapani

At Kul Hind Mushaira, an Urdu and Hindi poetry symposium in Maharashtra’s Thane district in December 2018. It was organised by the Al Hind Mushaira, which represents Urdu poets. Thousands were in attendance to hear some 45 poets read out their poems.

The curious case of Urdu

But if Urdu was invented as late as the 17th century, how does one account for the its use in the compositions of Amir Khusrau, an Indo-Persian Sufi p

Audrey Truschke.

Audrey Truschke: ‘Attempts to impose Hindi not new’

Interview with Audrey Truschke, author and activist.

In a classroom of a school in Ajmer, Rajasthan. What NEP 2020, like most earlier policies, does not appreciate is the fact that each child arrives in school with her unique verbal repertoire and all classes are by default multilingual with a diversity of languages and language varieties represented in them.

Language in education: There's power in multilingualism

To address the issue of language in education, we first need to abandon the elite concept of a ‘pure and standard’ language. All languages are equally

Rama Kant Agnihotri

At a protest by pro-Kannada activists against the imposition of Hindi in banks and Central government offices, in Bengaluru on September 14, 2021. In recent years, Karnataka and the North-Eastern region have seen strident protests against the Centre’s attempts to establish Hindi as the primary language of communication.

Linguistic imperialism: BJP pronouncements on promoting Hindi spark outrage

The BJP’s periodic pronouncements on making Hindi the single national language are proof of its inability to understand that India’s enormous linguist

T.K. Rajalakshmi