Maharashtra govt retreats as state panel chief opposes mandatory Hindi from Class 1

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government is backing down from its plan to introduce Hindi as a mandatory subject from Class 1, following staunch opposition from political leaders and educationists, including the head of the state’s own language advisory panel.

Speaking to mediapersons in Pune on Sunday, the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the government will revise its policy to allow students to pick a language other than Hindi as the third language. The announcement came after Laxmikant Deshmukh, president of the state Language Advisory Committee under the Marathi Language Department, wrote a letter to the CM, criticising the new language education scheme.

The State Curriculum Framework - School Education (SCF-SE), released last year in pursuance of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation, provided for teaching Hindi as the third mandatory language from Class 1 - Marathi and English being the other two compulsory languages - in English and Marathi medium schools. The students in other medium schools would study their language of instruction in place of Hindi. Currently, Hindi is introduced in the state’s schools in class 5 as a mandatory subject. The government reiterated the plan in a directive published last week.

The decision also drew sharp reactions from various quarters, with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray calling the new scheme an attempt to impose Hindi on the state.

Maharashtra Hindi Imposition: ‘Consider learning capacity’

Deshmukh, who wrote to Fadnavis after consulting other members of the committee, was more critical about adding an additional subject and language during early years of education.

He pointed out that the plan is at odds with not only the earlier education reforms such as the Radhakrishnan and Kothari Commissions, but also the NEP 2020, which, while advocating a three-language policy, recommends that the third language be added at the middle stage (Class 6).

The former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer also highlighted that the state’s own curriculum framework for the foundational stage (pre-school to Class 2) lacks any provision for a third language at this level.

“The government doesn’t seem to have seriously considered the learning capacity, child psychology and the burden on children’s minds while making Hindi compulsory. It’s wrong to impose Hindi on students, while they are still learning their first natural language. While the state did introduce mandatory English from 2001, it was accepted as a pre-requiste for higher education by the parents, and had the approval of the Language Advisory Committee,” reads the letter from Deshmukh.

Compulsory Hindi can cause ‘cultural harm’

The panel head also called attention to the “linguistic and cultural harm” supposedly caused by Hindi in the state. “Hindi isn’t a language of employment, prestige or knowledge. The North Indians should instead learn Marathi or Dravidian languages. It’s not acceptable that while North Indian states adopt a single or two-language policy, while others adopt Hindi as the third language,” he said.

Meanwhile, a number of linguistic and teacher bodies have also floated an online petition addressed to the school education minister Dadaji Bhuse, echoing the issues raised by Deshmukh. “Today, there’s a need for popularising Marathi, instead of Hindi. The large number of Hindi speakers migrating to Maharashtra should learn Marathi. The state doesn’t need Hindi literacy at all. The adverse impact of Hindi language is evident in Marathi cinema, theatre and other cultural avenues. There’s no need to further enhance its importance,” reads the petition.

Hindi teachers available: Maharashtra CM

Fadnavis, while clarifying that he didn’t read Deshmukh’s letter, said that Hindi was picked as the third language due to the availability of teachers to teach the subject.

“Hindi hasn't been made compulsory in place of Marathi. Marathi is still mandatory. But under the new education policy, it's necessary to learn three languages, two of which need to be Indian ones... The [steering] committee [to prepare the SCF], in its report, recommended that Hindi be the other Indian language as we have the teachers to teach it. We don't have teachers for other languages such as Malayalam, Kannada and Gujarati,” he said.

“We believe - and will now take a decision - that if anyone wants to learn a third language other than Hindi, they should be able to do so, as envisaged by NEP. But we would be able to provide an additional teacher only if there are at least 20 students for it. Otherwise, we will have to teach it online or through any other means. There can be a different mechanism for the state's border areas, as there are teachers available for these languages and they also have a bilingual education tradition,” Devendra Fadnavis added.

Fadnavis asserted that the government isn’t seeking to “impose” Hindi, while questioning why people are opposing an Indian language like Hindi while hyping up English.