Activists spearheading a movement for making Rajasthani the State’s official language has raised the demand for the introduction of a Bill on the subject in the ongoing Budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly. The Rajasthani Yuva Samiti, which is leading the movement, has pointed to the benefits associated with the recognition of the language for growth, social harmony, and employment.
Successive governments in the State have been requesting the Centre to incorporate Rajasthani in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, while the State Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution in 2003 for this. In his letter addressed to the Prime Minister in 2019, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot referred to the Sitakant Mohapatra Committee’s recommendation in this regard.
Last week, hundreds of members of the Rajasthani Yuva Samiti reached the temple of Govind Dev, considered the capital city’s deity, and submitted a memorandum seeking “divine blessings” for their movement. The group’s national advisor Rajveer Singh Chalkoi said the activists had sent across a political message to the Congress government for considering the issue with the seriousness it deserved.
“The government thinks that there is no one it is answerable to. We wanted to tell them that the real power vests in Jaipur’s deity, to whom we gave our memorandum,” Mr. Chalkoi said. He said nothing stopped the State government from exercising its powers under Article 345 of the Constitution to adopt the use of Rajasthani for official purposes.
Several State governments have provided official language status to their languages through the legislative route. The Samiti members, supported by social media influencers and student leaders from several universities and colleges, pointed out that the lack of recognition as an official language had deprived youths of job opportunities which could be created with the use of Rajasthani in administration, official communication, research and education.
The ruling party’s chief whip Mahesh Joshi reached the temple and accepted the memorandum from the activists. Mr. Joshi assured the Samiti’s members of speedy positive action in the matter.
Programmes titled ‘Mayad Bhasa’ (mother tongue) have been organised in all districts over the last two months and a campaign was started on Twitter with the hashtag ‘Rajasthani Mange Rajbhasha’, which trended on top. Linguistic experts consider Rajasthani as one of the richest languages in the country as its dialects are spoken in different regions of the State.
