The Hindu : New Delhi News : Resentment over status of Rajasthani language

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Resentment over status of Rajasthani language

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, FEB. 7. A section of academicians, authors and social activists here have called upon members of the Rajasthan Assembly to withdraw a resolution adopted during the previous Congress regime supporting the inclusion of Rajasthani language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and announced that they would organise a massive demonstration at the Assembly during the current session on the issue.

The activists, who met under the banner of the Nagrik Parishad here on Sunday, alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched to impose Marwari dialect of western Rajasthan in the garb of Rajasthani language on the entire State. The Assembly had passed the resolution in August 2003 calling for giving constitutional status to Rajasthani.

The Nagrik Parishad's president, Satyanarain Singh, and convenor, Satyavrat Samvedi, said the imposition of the so-called Rajasthani language would weaken the status of Hindi as the national language and create resentment among the people speaking the dialects such as Brijbhasha, Malwi, Dhundhari, Mewari, Hadoti, Wagdi and Shekhawati.

"Getting constitutional recognition for Rajasthani will in fact lead to disintegration of the State, as Marwari will get precedence over all other dialects. Those speaking Marwari would have an advantage over others in education, competitive examinations and employment," Mr. Samvedi, an Arya Samaj leader, said.

Surendra Upadhyay, former Head of the Hindi Department in Rajasthan University, warned that the imposition of Marwari would spark large-scale linguistic riots and pointed out that an agitation against the proposed move had started in the Brij region of eastern Rajasthan.

Justice I.S. Israni, former Judge of the Rajasthan High Court, said the refugees who had migrated during Partition had joined the mainstream by acquiring fluency in Hindi, which was recognised as the State language. Those speaking Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu would be at a disadvantage if Marwari was imposed on them.

The speakers regretted that the campaign for getting constitutional recognition for Rajasthani had started in Jodhpur, which was the first Riyasat in erstwhile Rajputana to declare Hindi as its State language inspired by the founder of Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand Saraswati. It was also pointed out that Hindi was the unifying bond for Rajasthan where each region had its distinct dialect.

Those who attended the gathering included the Sarvodaya leader, Ramballabh Agrawal; Sanskrit scholar, Subhash Vedalankar; scientist, T.N. Bharadwaj; and litterateur, Narendra Sharma Kusum. The speakers, besides supporting the holding of a demonstration at the Assembly, underlined the need to evolve a consensus in the society at large in favour of withdrawal of the Assembly's resolution.

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