Question

Language has always played an imperative role in uniting the country. Explain the statement in the context of challenge of nation building in India after independence.

Answer 1

1. After independence and partition, our leaders felt that carving out states on the basis of language might lead to disruption and disintegration. It was also felt that this would draw attention away from other social and economic challenges that the country faced.
2. The formation of Andhra Pradesh spurred the struggle for making other states on linguistic lines in other parts of the country.
3. These struggles forced the Central Government to appoint a States Reorganization Commission in 1953 to look into the question of redrawing the boundaries of states. The Commission, in its report, accepted that the boundaries of the state should reflect the boundaries of different languages.
4. Linguistic states and the movements for the formation of these states changed the nature of democratic politics and leadership in some basic ways.
5. The path to politics and power was now open to people other than the small English-speaking elite.
6. The Linguistic Reorganization also gave some uniform basis to the drawing of state boundaries. It strengthened national unity. Above all, the linguistic states underlined the acceptance of the principle of diversity.