In the next clause I require a similar provision to be made for the national language. I am equally strong on the subject that once we have got over this initial hurdle, once we have been able to fix upon a national language, within the given period of ten years,–and I think that period is sufficiently long for this purpose,–every member should be expected to know, or be able to read and write and express himself in the national language. Once again, the basic logic is the same in this case as in the former, viz., that people should be able to express themselves in some common medium of speech that is understood by all their fellow members. It must therefore be made a categorical requirement that, not only we must have a national Language which is, so to say, a statutory provision more often broken than observed, but it should be a living force, so that in this House or its successor, or in the Parliament, we should be able to exchange in our own language all the thoughts, in all the fineness and technicality that such legal documents require. I think, therefore, that no further argument is necessary to support the provision of such a positive qualification from those who aspire to hold high offices in the country that I have enumerated or described in my amendment in the first governing clause.
