On this day in 1949 Hindi was adopted as the official language of our Constituent Assembly. This decision was ratified by the Constitution of India which came into effect on January 26, 1950. The Devanagri script of Hindi was adopted as our official language under Article 343.
Soon after this declaration non-Hindi speaking states were given a 15-year grace period, till 1965, to make the complete switch over to Hindi. It was believed that Hindi would become the sole working language of the Central Government and the State governments were expected to communicate with the Centre only in Hindi.
On the contrary, the decision to use Hindi as the official language was met with widespread agitation and anti-Hindi protest by the non-Hindi speaking states, especially Tamil Nadu. DMK leader C N Annadurai wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, protesting against the imposition of Hindi across India. Nehru, being sensitive to the sentiments of the people of the South, mooted the Official Languages Act which was eventually passed in 1963. The Act provided that English ‘may’ still be used along with Hindi for official communication.
However, leaders in favour of Hindi such as Morarji Desai, Gulzarilal Nanda and Lal Bahadhur Shastri were determined to make Hindi the sole official language of India. This triggered a massive anti-Hindi protest in the South during the months of January and February, as the grace period came to an end. Hindi proponents were burnt in effigies, students boycotted classes and Hindi signboards were removed or destroyed. Apart from these protests two men in Tamil Nadu committed suicide protesting the forceful conversion to Hindi.
The Centre was alarmed at the scale and the intensity of the protests and realised that the unity of the country was in peril. Shastri soon declared that Nehru’s words would be honoured and English would be used as long as the people wanted. He added that the states would be free to use English in all transactions and communication with the Centre, with other states and within itself.
Though English has continued to be used as the official language for an indefinite period, it is Hindi which is still cherished as the national language. Every year September 14 is observed as Hindi Day throughout India.