You’d think the citizens of a country with a population of 1.17 billion people, who between them speak more than 1,600 languages and dialects, would understood that language is about communication, not identity. Yet, time and again in India, fissures over regional identities reveal in sometimes ugly ways how far the country is from achieving this ideal.
In November last year, newly-elected Maharashtra state legislator Abu Azmi was assaulted by members of the right-wing Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for insisting on taking his oath in Hindi. MNS chief Raj Thackeray, the now-estranged nephew of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, had earlier written to all 288 state legislators of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, urging them to take their oath in Marathi. Azmi was slapped, pushed and punched by MNS politicians when he rose to take his oath in Hindi—hooliganism in the country’s high offices that was broadcast live on TV for the nation to see.
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