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`Imposition of Marwari may foment language riots'

Special Correspondent

`Unemployed youth will be the biggest victims'

JAIPUR: Activists associated with a movement opposing an Assembly resolution seeking Constitutional status for Rajasthani language have warned that imposition of Marwari in the garb of Rajasthani would foment language riots in the State and weaken the position of Hindi as the official language.

The Rajasthani Bhasha Sankalp Virodhi Samiti held a day-long convention here over the weekend to protest against the proposed inclusion of Rajasthani in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, while pointing out that a number of a dialects in the desert State could not be uniformly treated as a single language.

The movement's working president, Arya Samaj leader Satyavrat Samvedi, told reporters after the convention that the State Public Service Commission's recent decision to include Marwari questions in the competitive examination for appointment of teachers had harmed the prospects of thousands of candidates speaking other dialects.

Mr. Samvedi pointed out that Marwari was restricted to only 15 per cent of the State's population living in western Rajasthan and its imposition on people speaking Hadoti, Mewari, Malwi, Wagdi, Brijbhasha, Dhundhari, Urdu, Sindhi and Shekhawati dialects was unjustified.

Samiti's president and former Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly Giriraj Prasad Tiwari said the adoption of Marwari as official language of the State would require all people to learn the dialect, which would "play havoc with poor people who have no resources for higher education'': "The unemployed youth of non-Marwari areas will be the biggest victims of this folly,'' he added.

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