The Constitution embodies certain special directives with a view to safeguarding the interests of linguistic minorities. Thus, under Article 350 every person is entitled to submit a representation for the redress of any grievance to any officer or authority of the Union or a State in any of the languages used in the Union or in the State as the case may be.

In addition, there are two special directives which have been incorporated as a result of the recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission through the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution in 1956. According to these:

(1) It shall be the endeavour of every State and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups. The President is empowered to issue such directions to any State as he considers necessary for securing the provision of such facilities.

(2) The President will appoint a Special Officer for linguistic minorities. It is the duty of this Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution and report regularly to the President. The reports of the Special Officer are to be laid before each House of Parliament and sent to the Government of the State concerned.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The Constitution also embodies a directive for the development and enrichment of the Hindi language with a view to making it serve as a real medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India. Such enrichment may be secured by drawing primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.

According to the Language Commission, “other languages” means all other languages and not necessarily the languages of India specified in the Constitution. Hence, in the process of development and enrichment of the Hindi language there is no inhibition as to drawing from any language including the English language.

The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution specifies eighteen languages. Originally there were only fifteen languages in the Schedule. But the Seventy-first Amendment of the Constitution (1992) added three more languages, namely, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali. A later Amendment 2 in 2003 added four more languages namely, Bodo, Maithlli Dogri and Santhali.