In a big country like India, the question about language had arisen since independence. In a country of many states and hundreds of languages, it was a very difficult task to advance any one language. A few days ago Bollywood star Ajay Devgan ( Ajay Devgn )A war broke out between the big star of South cinema, Kichcha Sudeep, over the language. Tu-Tu-Main-I is not a matter of language. There was a similar view in the debate on language in the Constituent Assembly. Actually, South Star Sudeep had said in an interview that Hindi is not our national language. After his statement, Ajay Devgan had targeted him by tweeting. Tagging Kichcha Sudeep on Twitter, Ajay Devgan wrote, ‘Kiccha Sudeep, my brother, according to you if Hindi is not our national language then why do you release your mother tongue movies by dubbing in Hindi? Hindi was, is and always will be our mother tongue and national language. Jan Gan Man.’ Well, we will tell you further in this article about the recent debate that when there was a debate on the language in the Constituent Assembly, how many arguments were put forward. Finally Hindi was recognized as the official language and Devanagari as the script.

The debate started like this On September 13, 1949, the debate of the Constituent Assembly began under the supervision of the President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. The great freedom fighter Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar first started the debate. Dhulekar was speaking on behalf of United Provinces. Keeping his point, he had said that sir, if Hindi is made the official language of the country, then no one will be more happy than me. I want to remind the gathering that when I started speaking, that language was Hindi. But I had to face opposition. He had said in the meeting that Hindi language should be given the status of official language. If there is any issue in any debate etc., then Hindi should be considered valid there also. As a citizen and son of the country, I have the right to speak in Hindi. Today I feel that Hindi in Devanagari script has become the official language of the country.

On this some members said – not now.

Referring to Tulsidas and Swami Dayanand, Dhulekar again said that when some members said that not now but I want to say that this is the fact. It is part of a long historical process. It has taken years and centuries. I can say that Swami Ramdas wrote in Hindi. Tulsidas wrote in Hindi. And after this the modern saint Swami Dayanand also wrote in Hindi. He was Gujarati but he wrote in Hindi. Why did he write in Hindi? Because Hindi was the national language of the country. I will say again that our Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, when he came to Congress, spoke in Hindi instead of English. Hindi has become a universal language and is growing. This is the strength of our national language.

Reddy interrupted, On this statement of Dhulekar, HR Gureva Reddy of Mysore State said that can’t we call it an official language? To this Dhulekar said that I call it the official language and the national language. Even if you have a different opinion than this. You belong to another nation but I belong to the Indian nation. I do not understand why it cannot be the national language. Now that we are nationalists, we can say that Hindi is the national language. You call it the official language.

Protest again, Amidst this statement of Dhulekar, another member said that but we are not bound to accept your decision. To this Dhulekar said that some people are saying that he cannot learn Hindi. I want to ask then what is your official language in the world? I was told once that when our ambassador to Russia submitted some papers in English language, Russia refused to accept it. He said that it should be written in our language. It is Russia that thinks about its language. Dhulekar was then asked by President Rajendra Prasad to finish his talk. To this Dhulekar asked that Hindi be approved as a Devanagari script.

Mitra advocated Sanskrit

After Dhulekar’s statement, a member of Pandit Laxmikant Miksha (West Bengal-General) started speaking. He said that let me tell that when the country became independent then it should have an official language which should also be the national language. And if there is any such language, it is Sanskrit. On this some members said no, no and some members said yes, yes. He said that I do not want to quarrel with people who say that Hindi should be the official language. He said that I propose that in place of Hindi as an official language, Sanskrit should be given its status. In his speech, Mitra strongly advocated for Sanskrit and ignored Hindi.

Frank Anthony fiercely debated Hindi-English

Anthony discussed Hindi at length. He said that he has lived amongst Hindi speaking people but one fact is that if you write the constitution in Hindi then how many Hindi speaking people will understand it. I tried many times to read and understand the translation of Hindi but could not succeed in it. I do not understand that if Hindi does not become the national language then how its growth will stop. I want to say that everyone should believe that there must be a national language. my native language is English. Because I am an Indian and my mother tongue is English. Even though I say that English is my mother tongue and it is Indian language, but I know that English cannot be the national language of this country due to many reasons.

The members of non-Hindi speaking states had made a big demand

Madras-General K. A. Krishnaswamy Iyer had said that the Speaker, your chosen speaker is either Hindi speaking or non-Hindi speaking. On this, Sarangdhar Das of Odisha state said that Speaker Sir, I want to advise that speakers from non-Hindi speaking provinces should get more opportunities. Only Hindi speaking people should not get a chance to express themselves.

The debate was on Hindi language, but all the speakers spoke in English.

The strangest thing found during this debate was that all the speakers, whether they were speaking in favor of Hindi, were speaking in opposition to it, all were speaking in English only. President Dr. Rajendra Prasad himself was also giving directions in English. The debate was fierce, all the people argued fiercely about their respective languages. The debate which started on 12 September 1949 at 4 pm continued for two days and ended on 14 September 1949. There was no direct result in this debate. After this the President Dr. Prasad gave his speech in English. He said that the decision of the Constituent Assembly on the subject of tha language should be accepted by the whole country. The language should not have its own to provoke feelings. In fact, the provinces of North India were demanding to make Hindi the national language, while the people of the South did not agree with it.

Sudeep and Devgan did the same

Now the question arises whether Devgan and Sudeep were doing the same debate on the Constituent Assembly? All the things that have been written above have been said during the debate of the Constituent Assembly. That is, people of different states have their own opinion about the language. Sudeep also expressed his opinion and so did Devgan. It is of course that the ongoing conflict over language continues. Just like it happened in the Constituent Assembly meeting. Hindi was given the status of an official language in the Constituent Assembly meeting. According to Article 343, the official language of the Union shall be Hindi and the script Devanagari, the form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.

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