The recent language debate seems to revolve around a few slightly outdated political controversies: The forced imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking communities, especially in the southern states, and the representation of Urdu as an alien language in the predominantly Hindustani-speaking region of north India. The Tamil-Hindi conflict and the Urdu-Hindi controversy are not entirely new. These politically sensitive issues have been shaping the discourse of national integration for a long time.

The present debate, however, has a newness of a different kind. The Union government has taken a slightly complex, and in a way, politically safe position. There is certainly a clear reference to the “unity of nation” argument to reject the claims made by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin about the imposition of Hindi. However, a conscious attempt is made to underplay the linguistic divide between Hindi and other Indian languages, especially Tamil. In fact, official initiatives such as Kashi Tamil Sangamam are being highlighted to underline the commitment of the Union government towards non-Hindi-speaking Indian cultures. Hindi, in this schema, is not overemphasised as the ultimate marker of national unity.

On the other hand, there is a strong argument that Hindi has finally arrived as the unquestionable hegemonic national as well as official language. The rise of Hindutva as the dominant narrative of Indian politics and the electoral success of the BJP in recent years validates this line of thinking. The old secular assertion........

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