The creation of a linguistic state was me first and major test for democratic politics in our country". Justify the statement.
Ans. The language policy given by our Constitution is a safeguard for the languages .of our country. Under this policy, besides Hindi, there are 21 other languages recognised as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution. Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any language. Hindi was identified as the official language. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965.
However, many non-Hindi speaking states demanded that the use of English must continue. So, the Central Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes. All the states have their own official languages besides Hindi. After independence, the boundaries of several old states of India were changed in order to create new states.
It ensured that people who spoke the same language lived in the same state. The Central Government resisted linguistic states for sometime. States like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab were created on the basis of languages.
This has shown that the formation of linguistic states has actually made the country more united. It has also made administration easier. The 'language policy’ has strengthened the unity and integrity of India.