Language

 As the Lok Sabha took up for discussion the Health Security Se National Security Cess Bill, 2025 opposition members raised questions about the nomenclature of the legislation and said it attempted to “inject a certain linguistic flavour into what should be a neutral statutory title” asked why the it sought to merge health and national security into a single cess, and deepen the fiscal imbalance between the Centre and states. 

During the debate in the Lok Sabha, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP T. Sumathy raised questions about the “linguistic hybrid” name of the bill. https://thewire.in/government/linguistic-hybrid-oppn-questions-health-security-se-national-security-cess-bill-nam 

“Why this linguistic hybrid?  Why this attempt to inject a certain cultural or linguistic flavour into what should be a neutral statutory title. This is not mere pedantry,” she said.

by Sravasti Dasgupta

05/12/2025

Language plays a foundational role in shaping social interactions and enabling access to economic opportunities through education, employment, and access to public services. However, languages differ widely in terms of structure and composition, even within the same geographic areas, and these differences can create barriers to communication and integration. These barriers are significant for migrants, in particular, as their native language often varies from the dominant language of the place in which they reside.

https://thewire.in/health/language-impacts-the-health-of-women-and-children-barrier 

For migrants, the more distinct their native tongue is from the dominant language of the region in which they reside, the greater the costs they face in achieving socioeconomic integration.

In our study (Jayakumar and Sharma 2025), we examine the consequences of linguistic barriers on access to healthcare and, consequently, on health outcomes.

by Advaith Jayakumar and Anisha Sharma

12/11/2025

Language has been one of the most persistent and thorny challenges to India’s federalism. It split the Constituent Assembly, provoked fierce anti-Hindi agitations in the 1960s, and continues to inflame feelings today as shown by the rejection of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s three-language formula by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Far from being resolved, the language question smoulders beneath the surface of the national discourse.

https://thewire.in/law/one-nation-many-tongues-indias-unfinished-language-debate 

The issue is not just about language, but about the core democratic principles of equality, federal balance and cultural freedom.

A century ago, George Abraham Grierson’s monumental Linguistic Survey of India catalogued 179 languages and 544 dialects. Today, Ethnologue, a respected global database, lists 454 living languages in India — 424 indigenous and 30 non-indigenous. The People’s Linguistic Survey of India (2010–12), directed by eminent linguist Prof. G.N. Devy, found 780 languages.

NEP 2020 treats languages as cultural pursuits, ignoring their practical value in the job market. It reveals its ideological bias by dedicating more discussion to Sanskrit – a language with limited career opportunities – than English. At a time when countries across the world are actively promoting English education to enhance global competitiveness, NEP 2020 neither recognises its pivotal role nor makes any serious effort to improve English proficiency in India. Beyond English, languages like French, German, Spanish and Mandarin offer far greater career opportunities worldwide than Hindi and Sanskrit. By limiting foreign language choices to just one (invariably English), NEP 2020 undermines the only real benefit of learning a third language, namely, better job prospects.

by K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty

As per the 2011 census, the percentage of people capable of speaking English in India was 10.67 per cent of the country's total population. https://www.rediff.com/news/column/why-so-much-hatred-for-english/20250721.htm 

It puzzles sometimes why much bigger numbers of people, comfortably entrenched in the ecosystems of their language, feel annoyed by India's 10 per cent capable of speaking English.

One reason is that in India, the English-speaking lot is sometimes labelled an elite group because one's knowledge of English, has much to do with the type of school or college one went to and the quality of education received.

Add to it, the perception in the political Right that this club of English-speaking types has a disproportionate role in the criticism the Right-Wing faces periodically despite it parking itself with the majority as defined by religion, community and a settled lifestyle with emphasis on making money.

When I was in school and college, a Western perspective was seen as providing awareness of a larger world and motivating us to shed many of our social shackles.

That has since regressed and it is largely thanks to narratives manufactured to counter what was seen as Western education robbing Indians of the capacity to be proud of their culture and heritage.

The Right-Wing has been active in this regard.

I have felt that the political Right views English through the same prism as it views Communists and individualists (both of who they disapprove of).

I have also felt that the dislike the Right-Wing has for the said two groups is carried on to the English language for its role as purveyor of western ideas / values and the education and perspective it signifies.

by SHYAM G MENON

21/07/2025