Many Languages, One Union

And the Union's promotion duty is drafted federally. Article 351 tells the Union to develop Hindi by ASSIMILATING the forms, style and expressions of Hindustani and of the other Eighth Schedule languages and by drawing on Sanskrit and other languages, which is a direction to build a common language out of the parts rather than to replace them.

How the structure reflects cultural diversity

The Eighth Schedule recognises twenty-two languages and has been amended four times to add more: Sindhi in 1967, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali in 1992, and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali in 2003. A list that grows is an admission that the recognition is of a fact rather than a grant.

Article 29(1) protects a distinct language, script OR culture, so a community with a distinct script but a shared language, or a distinct culture but a shared language, is protected.

Article 350 lets a person address the State in their own language, which treats the citizen's language rather than the government's as the starting point.

And article 347 recognises that a State's boundaries do not contain its languages. A substantial linguistic population inside a State can obtain official recognition there by Presidential direction.

The three-language formula

What it is. A policy, not a law: it originated in the National Policy on Education of 1968 and has been restated since, most recently in the National Education Policy 2020. Its normal form is that a student in a Hindi-speaking State learns Hindi, English and a modern Indian language preferably from the south; and a student in a non-Hindi State learns the regional language, Hindi and English.

Its legal status. It is executive policy, so it binds a school only through the conditions of affiliation or recognition, and it has never been enacted. That is why litigation about it is litigation about a policy decision rather than about a statute.

Its main difficulty in practice. It has been implemented asymmetrically, the southern language rarely being taught in the Hindi States, so a policy designed as an exchange has operated as a one-way requirement. That is the criticism to state, and it is a fair one.

And the case that fixes its limit. Usha Mehta v. State of Maharashtra upheld a State's power to make the regional language a compulsory subject even for a linguistic minority's schools, and it is worked in [The Medium of Instruction].

The classical languages

A separate administrative recognition, and not a constitutional one. Since 2004 the Union has conferred classical-language status on a number of languages, beginning with Tamil, on criteria of antiquity, an independent literary tradition and a body of ancient literature.

What it does. It carries funding for study and for centres of excellence. It confers no official status and no right, and it is not the Eighth Schedule.

Why it belongs in an answer. It shows the same pattern as the rest of the topic: recognition is given at the level appropriate to what is being recognised, and cultural recognition is kept separate from official status.

A worked example

A speaker of a language recognised in the Eighth Schedule but not adopted by any State asks what the Constitution does for them.

At the Union level. Their language is represented on the Commission under article 344(1) and is one of those from which Hindi is to be enriched under article 351. They may address any officer or authority of the Union in it under article 350.

At the State level. If a substantial proportion of the State's population desire it, the President may direct its official recognition there under article 347.

In education. If they are a linguistic minority in the State, article 350A requires the State to endeavour to provide facilities for primary instruction in the mother tongue, article 29(1) protects their right to conserve the language and script, and article 30(1) gives them the right to establish and administer their own institutions.

And what the Constitution does not give them. Any right that their language be an official language of any government, and any right to be taught in it beyond the primary stage.

That last line is the honest limit, and an answer that gives it is stronger than one that recites only the protections.

What this does NOT mean

It does not mean every language is equal in law. Hindi has article 351, English has section 3, the Eighth Schedule languages have article 344(1), and the rest have article 347 and articles 29 and 350.

It does not mean the three-language formula is legally binding. It is policy, and it reaches a school through recognition or affiliation.

And it does not mean the structure is free of conflict. The medium-of-instruction litigation and the arguments about the language of recruitment are the structure under strain, and they are the subject of the next chapters.

Quick revision

Four levels: the Union, Hindi and English; the State, article 345; between them, article 346 with the provisos to section 3(1) of the Act; below the State, article 347 and articles 350 to 350B. Federal features: no imposition downward or upward; a statutory veto for every non-Hindi State legislature in section 3(5); and article 351's duty to enrich Hindi by assimilating the other languages. Diversity features: an Eighth Schedule that has grown from fourteen to twenty-two, amended in 1967, 1992 and 2003; article 29(1)'s protection of language, script or culture; article 350's right to petition in one's own language; article 347's recognition of a language within a State. The three-language formula is POLICY, from 1968 and restated in 2020, and is criticised for asymmetrical implementation. Classical-language status is administrative and confers no official status.

Test yourself

1. Describe the four levels of the Indian language settlement. The Union, where Hindi is the official language and English continues under the Act; the State, which adopts its own under article 345; the relation between them, governed by article 346 and the provisos to section 3(1); and the level below the State, where article 347 permits Presidential recognition of a language and articles 350 to 350B protect the individual and the linguistic minority.

2. Give three ways the settlement is federal. No language is imposed downward, since a State's choice under article 345 is its own; none is imposed upward, since article 346 makes both meet in the Union's language; and section 3(5) of the Act gives every non-Hindi State legislature a veto over the discontinuance of English.

3. How has the Eighth Schedule reflected cultural diversity over time? It has grown from fourteen languages to twenty-two: Sindhi added in 1967, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali in 1992, and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali in 2003, which shows recognition following a fact rather than conferring a status.

4. What is the three-language formula and what is its legal status? A policy under which a student in a Hindi State learns Hindi, English and a modern Indian language preferably from the south, and a student in a non-Hindi State learns the regional language, Hindi and English. It is executive policy from 1968, restated in 2020, not a statute, and it reaches a school through recognition or affiliation.

5. What does the Constitution NOT give a speaker of an Eighth Schedule language? Any right that the language be an official language of any government, and any right to be educated in it beyond the primary stage. What it gives is representation on the article 344(1) Commission, enrichment of Hindi from it under article 351, the right to petition in it under article 350, possible recognition under article 347, and the protections of articles 29, 30 and 350A.