Row over language turns violent in India’s richest state

For weeks, a battle over language and identity has been raging in India’s richest state, Maharashtra.

The row began in April after the Maharashtra government made it compulsory for state-run primary schools to teach Hindi as a third language, apart from English and Marathi (the state’s dominant language). This, it said, was in line with a federal policy which mandates that children be taught three languages in school.

The National Education Policy (NEP), introduced in 1968, aims to promote and regulate education in India and the government updates it occasionally. The latest iteration of the policy, introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government five years ago, is being implemented in stages and has run into controversy earlier.

The Maharashtra government’s decision met fierce opposition from civil society groups, language activists and opposition leaders who accused it of trying to impose Hindi – predominantly spoken in northern and central Indian states – in the state.

Language is a sensitive issue in India where many states, including Maharashtra, were formed on linguistic lines after independence. The local language is often intrinsically linked to regional pride and identity, and any change to the status quo can be perceived as a threat. For instance, last year, Kannada-language activists in Bengaluru, often called India’s Silicon Valley, held protests demanding that billboards be written in the local language and not just English.

But the uneasiness is especially high when it comes to Hindi, the most-spoken language in India. Over the years, steps by various federal governments to promote Hindi have fuelled fears within non-Hindi speaking states that the local culture will be diluted. These worries have been exacerbated by high migration from less-developed Hindi-speaking states to other parts of India, especially the south, in search of jobs.

Abhay Deshpande, a political analyst, says that these anxieties have increased after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. Top leaders of the BJP – the party is stronger in Hindi-speaking states – have often courted controversy by making remarks about privileging Hindi.

As tensions rose in Maharashtra, the state government – ruled by a BJP-led coalition – revoked its decision and appointed a committee to re-examine the three-language policy. But the controversy refuses to die down.

The row comes months ahead of the long-overdue municipal polls which are set to be held in the state, including in Mumbai city, home to India’s richest municipal corporation. It has sparked a political slugfest between the ruling coalition and opposition parties, with each side accusing the other of playing political games.

There have also been reports of violence against non-Marathi speakers in the state.

In April, two women in Thane district were allegedly assaulted in their residential complex after they said “excuse me” to a man who insisted they speak to him in Marathi.

The same month, a security guard in Mumbai was allegedly beaten up by workers from the opposition Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) – a nativist party known for its aggressive brand of politics – after he said that he did not know Marathi.

In May, a couple in Mumbai reportedly refused to pay a delivery agent after he declined to speak in Marathi. Last week, a shocking video showing a shop owner being assaulted, allegedly by MNS workers, for not speaking Marathi went viral on social media, sparking outrage.

While the issue seems to have increased societal divisions, it has also brought together two political rivals almost two decades after they parted ways.

Last week, Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the local opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) party and Raj Thackeray, leader of the MNS – the son and nephew, respectively, of Bal Thackeray, patriarch of the erstwhile Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party that gained popularity in Maharashtra in the 1960s with its nativist politics – held a joint rally to oppose alleged Hindi imposition.

While the strength of the truce remains to be seen, experts say that the optics of the cousins putting aside differences to “protect Marathi pride” could help their prospects in the upcoming municipal elections.

“The issue of Marathi language and culture is close to peoples’ hearts,” says Prashant Dixit, a former political journalist who has reported on the state for over two decades. “It is an emotive issue, especially for people living in Mumbai, and it has been so since the 1960s,” he adds.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the erstwhile Shiv Sena, under the leadership of Bal Thackeray, conducted aggressive campaigns against people who had migrated to Mumbai from southern states, accusing them of taking up jobs that should have gone to locals.

In the decades after that, migration patterns changed and the party turned its ire towards people from northern states who were migrating to the city in search of economic opportunities. The party blamed migrants from states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for taking away jobs.

These tensions look set to continue. According to data from India’s last census, there was a 40% increase in Mumbai city’s Hindi-speaking population between 2001 and 2011.

These Marathi-centric agitations have earlier resonated with voters, especially in Mumbai, and some believe that it could help the Thackeray cousins in the municipal elections as well.

However, many have criticised this approach.

An editorial in the Indian Express newspaper titled ‘Slap In Mumbai’s Face’ argued that politics centred around linguistic identity was “deeply troubling” and that its parochialism lent itself to violence, something that “should have no place in India’s most industrialised state”.

Mr Dixit agrees – he thinks that any support garnered by aggressive language agitations is likely to be short-lived.

“People want their leaders to deliver on their promises and focus on real progress, in the form of better jobs and policies, so that life is better for everyone,” he says.