Bill runs the risk of falling between two stools

s the State government following its nose on the draft Bill to cement Malayalam as the language for all official purposes and communications is a question that bothers language liberals.

Following differences over certain clauses, the Cabinet recently returned the draft legislation proposed by the Assembly Committee on Official Language for further fine-tuning, but the government has been urged to exercise extreme caution while passing such a piece of law — for fear that it could foment language fanaticism.

“The Bill should have adequate provisions to protect the Constitutional rights of the linguistic minorities in Kasaragod, Idukki, and Palakkad districts. It would otherwise lead to widespread resentment in places such as Manjeswaram taluk where Kannada and Tulu are the lingua franca of a large population,” cautions P. Karunakaran, MP, representing Kasaragod.

One of the recommendations of the P. Prabhakaran Commission that recommended measures to address the backwardness of the region is the creation of a special cell to translate into Kannada government rules and regulations.

M.A. Baby, during whose term as Culture Minister the programme to obtain classical status for Malayalam (which it got recently) was launched, castigates the government for inexorably delaying the legislation. He urges the government to circulate the draft legislation among eminent litterateurs and language scholars and incorporate amendments suggested by them before presenting it in the Assembly.

Writer T. Padmanabhan is elated about the Bill and believes initial roadblocks and resistance could be overcome with proper long-term planning. “Agreed that ours is a multilingual society, but the question is whether we should give principal position to our mother tongue. Of course, it is not an easy task, but not impossible,” he says, warning of any further delay as suicidal.

Culture Minister K.C. Joseph, however, dispels fears insisting that the law would be ‘sober’ and well-meaning though the Bill is modelled on a similar law in force in Tamil Nadu.

Assurance

“We will make sure that the interests of the community of non-resident Keralites and those of linguistic minorities are protected,” he asserts. However, there is opacity about its impact on school education in Kerala. “Government schools witnessing a fall in the number of divisions due to diminishing student strength are already demanding English medium. So, we are at a loss to include anything about school education in the Bill,” he says.

Lawyer and commentator Kaleeswaram Raj puts the issue in perspective, maintaining that the question of language straddles questions of ethnic and cultural identities, self-assertion, and personal choices. However, legally, there is absolutely no impediment to someone learning a different tongue.

“There are umpteen countries where even science is learnt in their local lingo. It’s possible. Meanwhile, nothing is stopping anyone from learning English. Taking a broad view of it, I would support the Bill, as right now, we have caught between two stools,” he says.

The Bill should have adequate provisions to protect the Constitutional rights of the linguistic minorities.

P. Karunakaran,Kasaragod MP