In the face of growing political turbulence surrounding the move to make Hindi a compulsory subject for students in Classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English medium schools across Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has reacted sharply with a categorical denial of any imposition. To him, there is no requirement to impose Hindi and only Marathi is mandatory in the state's curriculum.
Clarifying the position of the government, Fadnavis clarified, "Hindi has not been made compulsory in lieu of Marathi. Only Marathi is compulsory. But the New Education Policy has provided the chance to study three languages. Study of three languages is compulsory. There is a provision that out of these three languages, two should be Indian. So, we have made Marathi compulsory among the two Indian languages. What is the other language? So if you learn any Indian language, you have to learn Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati or whatever. You can't learn anything beyond these.
He explained that the steering committee overseeing the implementation of the policy suggested Hindi as the third language due to the availability of qualified teachers for it. Of course, the steering committee in its report did say if we retain Hindi as the third language, then we have teachers at hand for that. So we will not need additional teachers. If other languages are retained, then teachers are not available; that is what the committee recommends. There is no encroachment anywhere on this," he said.
Talking more on language choices, the Chief Minister reiterated that students who wanted to learn a language other than Hindi would be allowed to do so. "If anyone wishes to learn a language other than Hindi, we will give them complete permission to learn it. Because such permission has been granted by the New Education Policy.". But if there are more than 20 students, a teacher can be given to them, but if there are less than that, then the language will have to be taught online or otherwise. Such teachers are also present in our border areas, and there is a bilingual system. But it is not correct to say that there is an effort to impose Hindi. Only Marathi will be made mandatory in Maharashtra. There will be no other compulsion.
From a wider cultural perspective, Fadnavis said, "I am amazed that we resist Indian languages like Hindi and extol the virtues of English. We bear English on our shoulders. We should also consider why we perceive that English is near and Indian languages are distant."
Even after the clarification, political resistance to the policy has grown. The Uddhav Thackeray group of the Shiv Sena has promised to oppose any move to make Hindi mandatory. Likewise, Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena threatened an inevitable agitation if the decision is not rescinded.
Top leaders in Congress have blamed the ruling party for trying to water down Marathi identity, heritage, and linguistic pride in the backdoor by pushing Hindi. Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, however, has warned against undermining the position of Marathi under the guise of introducing the New Education Policy.
Joining the chorus of denunciation, the state language consultation committee also advised going back on the step. Committee chairperson Laxmikant Deshmukh said that he was alarmed the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) did not use the panel's inputs before pursuing the Hindi suggestion.
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