In this matter of scripts and languages I say that the Government of the Union should follow an enlightened policy, similar to that being followed in the U.S.S.R. There they did not countenance the idea of imposing the Russian language or script on the other linguistic minorities. They called such imposition by the name of Russian Chauvinism. I do not want Devanagri Chauvinism to be countenanced in this country also. In the U.S.S.R. there were languages without scripts. They went out of the way to provide scripts for them. They did not provide the Russian script but they provided the Latin script. Similarly in India there are languages without scripts. The Konkani language which is spoken by the honourable Father De’Souza, an eminent member of the House, is without a script. Tulu is another spoken language without a script and I think many of the Adivasi languages are without scripts and for each of these languages the Government should provide the alphabet. This clause should be interpreted rather liberally and we should provide scripts for languages without scripts, in which case I have no objection if the Devanagri script is provided for such languages. But to say that we will provide Tamil, for instance, with the Devanagri script is something understandable and inconceivable; and what is the object with which such a proposition is propounded? The object is to achieve inter-provincial unity. Instead of achieving inter-provincial unity I know such a step will hamper it. So it is necessary, when we are going to evolve or decide upon a common All-India language for governmental and administrative purposes, we should not aggravate the situation by saying anything about the script or by speaking of the abolition of the various provincial scripts. By trying to preserve and conserve and advance the provincial scripts and languages we will, I think, evolve greater national solidarity and unification. Sir, I commend this clause for the acceptance of the House.
