Language Policy in Independent India

Even before India gained its independence in 1947, there were attempts to evolve a policy that would be more suitable to the needs of a self-governing India than that which was in effect in the British Raj, i.e. a policy that favored English. Some of the developments that had to be taken into consideration were such factors as the following:

• Gandhi's recommendation to replace English with Hindustani (not Hindi, not Urdu);
• Congress Party's language policy favoring Hindi (not Hindustani) and the first protests about this in the 1930's;
• The fragmentary hegemony of British India and the incomplete control of the territory, especially the `Princely States';
• The feeling in some non-Hindi areas that Delhi was `not our country' and Hindi `not our language';
• The pressure to reorganize the patchwork of states and principalities into linguistically-based states, beginning with the movement for a Telugu-speaking state (Andhra Pradesh) in 1953, leading to the appointment of the States Reorganization Commission, which delivered its recommendations in 1955.