Context
To commemorate Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, the government launched the Bhasha Sangam Initiative for schools, Bhasha Sangam Mobile App and Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Quiz App.
- Rashtriya Ekta Diwas is celebrated on October 31 every year to mark the birth anniversary of Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
About Bhasha Sangam
- Bhasha Sangam is an initiative of the Ministry of Education under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, to teach basic sentences of everyday usage in 22 Indian languages.
- The idea is that people should acquire basic conversational skills in an Indian language other than their mother tongue.
- Initiatives launched under Bhasha Sangam:
- An initiative for school children that is being made available on DIKSHA, ePathshala, and through 22 booklets
- Bhasha Sangam Mobile App developed in collaboration with myGov, by a start-up called Multibhashi
- A Mobile App based quiz with over 10,000 questions on states of India developed by Nazara Technologies through the Innovation Cell of this Ministry
Language provisions in the Constitution
- The Constitution adopted in 1950 stipulated that English and Hindi would be used for the Union's official business for a period of fifteen years.
- After that time, Hindi was supposed to become the sole official language of the Union.
- It proved impossible to replace English with Hindi, however, because of strong opposition from the southern states, where Dravidian languages were spoken.
- They felt that the federal government was trying to impose Hindi across the country, including the south, and preferred to continue using English, which they found more "acceptable" because, unlike Hindi, it was not associated with any particular ethnic group.
- Later, the Official Languages Act legally established Hindi and English as the languages used in Congress, while leaving states and territories free to choose their own official languages.
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