Hindi gains ground via a demographic shift
The HinduWhen the Centre launched its NIPUN Bharat scheme to improve foundational literacy and numeracy among primary school students in July 2021, participants from non-Hindi speaking States complained that they were the ones left feeling illiterate as they could not understand either the speeches, nor the PowerPoint presentations on the scheme, all made in formal Hindi. “Fertility rates are higher among the poor and among women with less education, who comprise a higher share of Hindi speakers,” said Centre for Policy Research senior fellow Partha Mukhopadhyay, who noted that the ten States with the highest share of Hindi speakers grew from 41.9% of India’s population in 1971 to 46.5% by 2011. An analysis by The Hindu of the bilingualism and trilingualism data gathered for the first time in 2011 shows that 16% of Nagaland’s population said Hindi was among their top three spoken language choices, only half of the 33% who chose English. Faced with political pushback from non-Hindi speaking States, the Centre had also amended the draft of the National Education Policy to ensure that Hindi is not imposed as a compulsory language choice for school students.
History of this topic
Hindi should become third language in the south for economic advantages it provides, not through patronage or propaganda
Firstpost
Nagaland is the most diverse state in India, language-wise
Live Mint
Where are the Sanskrit speakers?
The HinduDiscover Related