The language we speak and what we call our mother tongue is integral to our identities. In electoral politics, public representatives typically present themselves as spokes persons for not only a caste or community but also a language. Post-independence, Sardar Patel and our inspiring makers of modern India, carved out Indian states on linguistic and cultural similarities. The State Reorganisation Act, 1956 — a landmark legislation, which entailed the much-loved idea of ‘unity in diversity’, respecting each other’s linguistic identity, and securing unique native and vernacular languages. At the same time, we had to accept that in any given state of India, there will be a multilingual culture, and peaceful co-existence which was imperative to the state’s development and growth. But what has become perilous is racial profiling and cultural chauvinism.
The recent targeting of migrant workers who are Bengali speaking across the country in the garb of identifying illegal migrants is glaring. Legitimate citizens are targeted, owing to their language. Religion too, is mixed in this cocktail of racial profiling. In the Census, we are entitled to specify our mother tongue; however, there are instances where hiding one’s mother language becomes a compulsion due to the language war in states like Assam. Recently Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma is on record saying that “writing Bengali as mother tongue in the Census will reveal number of ‘foreigners’ in Assam” — a dangerous form of racism and exclusion perpetrated by someone who took the oath of the Constitution of India. A state with a history of a massive language and anti-foreigners agitation returned to normalcy owed to a prolonged negotiation to strike a fine balance between all communities now stands to lose that equilibrium.
Linguistic minorities are a class of subgroups who often struggle to keep their culture alive in the face of domination. The narrative of every Bengali is a suspected Bangladeshi in the recent developments in Odisha and Delhi of targeting the Bengali-speaking population as illegal migrants is textbook case of a Government policy that is tantamount to discrimination and persecution. A plethora of instances have been documented in which Bengali-speaking migrant workers residing outside Bengal for employment purposes have faced targeted actions. Bengalis of Northeastern states live in fear of unequal rights vis-a-vis tribal aspirations and their right to work and earn a living in these states has increasingly become hazardous.
Bengal is a state where lakhs come from neighbouring states and live there to earn a living with respect and safety. Bhabanipur, where CM Mamata Banerjee contested and won has considerable numbers of non-Bengalis who propelled her to victory in the bye-election. Mamata Banerjee has often called it “Mini-India” referring to the unique feature of the Indian populace of electing a leader, who may not speak the same language as them. This is how diversity binds this great nation together.
Without assimilation, there cannot be a strong nation where the movement of people across states to settle and work is a right. Every state has the right to protect its language as per laws. The Official Languages Act, 1963 is available to all state Governments and it is not unusual to have more than one official language. In Assam, Bengali serves as the official language in the three districts of Barak Valley, a designation resulting from a public movement in 1961 following the selection of Assamese as the state language. Thirteen individuals lost their lives as a result of police firing, and subsequently, the Shastri formula was implemented, designating Bengali as the official language in the Barak Valley. Similarly, Bodo is another language recognised in Bodoland in Assam. While legal ways are available to all Governments, it is radicalism that is becoming a threat. Bengali is the seventh most spoken language in the world. It has a unique distinction of being spoken in another country too, which should be a matter of pride but is turning into a matter of fear and concern given the recent trend.
No citizen is in favour of illegal migration as we lose our legitimate entitlements to the country’s resources to outsiders. However, the language of a citizen cannot determine their status as a citizen and language can’t make one a suspect. Such an exercise will only alienate people, and oppression will lead to unrest. A country carefully stitched together after independence was a herculean task of our forefathers and its undoing will only push us into chaos.
The language movement in India was a 28-year-long struggle for non-Hindi language areas of Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The current wave of assertion and preservation of linguistic identities and cultural norms, is this time, a pushback against racial profiling and imposition of monolithic ideas of One India, One This One India, One That — propagated by the BJP to impose uniformity in a diverse nation. There is a very fine line between asserting cultural identity with mutual respect for other native languages and chauvinism leading to exclusionary policies by the state, beginning with racial profiling.
This second phase of language movement is a direct result of BJP’s divisive politics between ‘Hindi speakers’ and ‘non-Hindi’ speakers. This bigoted attitude to enforce cultural nationalism wrapped into the age-old ideological agenda of the Sangh Parivar — Hindi, Hindutva and Hindustan. Recently Home Minister Amit Shah said that ‘English speakers would soon be ashamed’ — clearly, BJP’s discriminatory agenda is not just relegated to native Indian languages, but to any language other than what they want to impose. Any regime that resorts to division to rule is indirectly accepting that they cannot unite and rule. Unity cannot mean uniformity in our great nation and anyone who insists on it is doing a disservice to our Constitution and our values.
(Sushmita Dev is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, All India Trinamool Congress)
