Language - Ramachandra Guha

Language is a fundamental element of human beings. India is united because of linguistic states; Pakistan was divided because Jinnah imposed Urdu on Bengali speaking Pakistanis. Sri Lanka experienced decades unending savage of the civil war because the Sinhala majority imposed their language on Tamils of the north. The Tamils of North are as proud of their language as our Tamils. They haven’t given the freedom to have a state in their own language, those are the time there were debates and today no debate.

In my view, the two greatest achievements of independent India are first, regular, free and fair elections and second, linguistic pluralism. You do not have to unite citizens on one language, you can unite them on a shared set of values like democracy, equality of all castes, genders, economic growth….. you can unite them on values and you don’t need to unite them in a single language.

-Ramachandra Guha