ARTICLE 343

Article 343 of said Indian Constitution of 1949,

The Union’s primary language would be Hindi utilizing the Devanagari script. The international version of Indian numbers shall be utilized for administrative purposes by the Union.

 Regardless of the clause, the English communication shall keep being utilised for all administrative purposes of said Union for a duration of 15 years from the start of this Constitution: Provided, however, that the presidency may, by order, authorize the use of Hindi in additional to English & Devanagari numbers in place of the global version of Indian figures for either of the president’s official purposes during the specified term. Despite anything else in this clause, House may, by legislation, legislate for use by the English languages or the Devanagari version of numbers well after the fifteen-year term for such reasons as when the law may specify.

INDIA’S OFFICIAL LANGUAGE 

The primary language of a Union remains Hindi using Devanagari script, according to Article 343 of said Indian Constitution, with official usage of English continuing for 15 years after 1947. Later, the Official Languages Law of 1963, a new amendment, permitted English to coexist with Hindi inside the Indian government forever unless legislation decided otherwise. The “international version of Indian numbers,” also known as Numerals for most English-speaking nations, are the type of numbers to use for formal Union purposes. Contrary to popular opinion, Hindi is indeed not India’s national language; the Indian Constitution doesn’t really recognize any languages as an official language. 

India contains 122 main languages & 1599 minor languages, according to the 2001 Census of India. Figures from those other sources, on either hand, varied, owing to discrepancies in the definitions of the words “language” & “dialect.” According to the 2001 Census, there were 30 languages spoken by over 1,000,000 native speakers plus 122 languages recognized by much more than 10,000 persons. Persian & English, contacting languages, had played a significant role in India’s history. During in the Mughal dynasty in India, Persian was indeed the court language. It ruled as an official language for decades, until the arrival of the British.

The Indian Constitution’s Eighth Schedule contains 22 languages that have been designated as scheduled languages and given governmental recognition, prestige, and promotion. Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu were also designated as classical languages by the Indian government. 

In India, English is still a widely spoken language. It is utilised in higher education and by the Indian government in specific regions. Hindi is the most widely spoken primary official language today, and it is the main language across much of Northern and Central India. However, complaints have been made about the imposition of Hindi in South India, particularly in the states like Tamil Nadu & Karnataka. Other non-Hindi areas, including as Maharashtra, Bengal, Assamese, Punjab, and others, have begun to express reservations regarding Hindi. Bengali is indeed the country’s second-largest spoken recognized language, with a large number of speakers inside the country’s eastern & north-eastern areas.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE ACT, 1963

Official languages act helps us in knowing our official or legal language that will be used in parliament for undertaking business, legal motive of the union, and for different occasions in high court. Official languages act passed in 1963 termed ‘Hindi’ as the official language of India. It also stated that English should be used as a method of communication among those states and Union which does not acquired Hindi as their legal language.

CONCLUSION 

Part 17 of India’s constitution (Articles 343 to 351) contains detailed regulations regarding the Republic of India’s official language. Articles 343 & 344 of a Indian Constitution include the most important provisions concerning the Union’s official language.

The inclusion of Hindi as that of the official language inside the Draft Article was a significant concession towards the Assembly’s “Hindi speaking members.” Democrats were, however, dissatisfied with provision, criticising it, strategizing outside of Assembly, and proposing revisions. For starters, they reasoned if the Devanagari language was accepted, then why doesn’t the Devanagari numeric system as well? Secondly, they felt concerned that now the Draft Article left too much space for English language to be replaced by Hindi; they expected it to end much sooner.