Hindi imposition in India - In numbers - and why it must be opposed
India is a multilingual country that speaks over 1650 languages, each of them representing unique cultures and traditions. Twenty-two of these languages are official languages while 6 of them have been elevated to the status of a classical language (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia and Sanskrit). India is a central polity. It has a central government that runs the show while each state in the country has a say in some of these things. India achieved independence from the British in 1947. English was the official language during the British Raj. During the early 20th century, when the Indian independence movement gained momentum, Gandhi wanted to unite the country, which was then fragmented as princely states, against the British. He felt Hindustani language could do it. With Nehru's support, he was able to convince the Indian National Congress (INC) to back Hindustani and the INC obeyed them. It switched from English to Hindi to conduct all its proceedings in 1925. Since