UP Hindi Sahitya Sammelan Case: Urdu as Second Official Language

Urdu as an official language in UP is a demand rooted directly in the Constituent Assembly's language debates, and its constitutional route runs through Article 345, which lets a state legislature adopt languages for state purposes beyond the Union's official language, Hindi. The dispute over UP recognising Urdu alongside Hindi is often remembered through the shorthand "Hindi Sahitya Sammelan case," but its real foundations lie in Part XVII of the Constitution and in arguments Constituent Assembly members made about Urdu's place in the very state where it took shape.

The Language Question Before the Constituent Assembly

When the Constituent Assembly debated the language provisions in 1949, the sharpest disagreements were not only about which language should serve the Union but about what would happen to Urdu, a language several members described as having been "born and bred" in India rather than imported. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, representing the United Provinces, argued that Hindustani written in both the Devanagari and Urdu scripts best reflected the country's composite culture, and that the Congress itself had earlier accepted this two-script formula. He contended that adopting Hindi alone, without any accommodation for Urdu, failed a language that had developed specifically in U.P. and that fairness demanded Urdu be given official recognition at least in its place of origin.

Maulana Hasrat Mohani pressed a more pointed version of this grievance from the floor of the Assembly, stating that the UP Government of the time discriminated against Urdu, that official registration documents were required to be prepared in Hindi only, and that Urdu-speaking minorities were being denied education in their mother tongue. He argued that education ought to be treated as a concurrent subject partly so that such disputes over the medium of instruction and official use would not be settled unilaterally by one state government.

Others disagreed. Dr. Raghu Vira argued that Hindi's literary tradition, spanning Rajputana, Avadhi, Braj and Bhojpuri writing, was far wider than Urdu's narrower Delhi-Meerut base, so the two could not be equated. Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra even proposed Sanskrit instead of Hindi, reasoning that a language tied to no single province would cause less regional friction. These positions were never reconciled inside the Assembly; instead, the Constitution left room for future adjustment by giving the Union and the states separate, defined powers over language.

Article 343: Hindi as the Union's Official Language

Article 343 makes Hindi in Devanagari script the official language of the Union, with the international form of Indian numerals used for official purposes. Recognising that the transition could not happen overnight, the article allowed English to continue for all official purposes of the Union for a period of fifteen years from the Constitution's commencement in 1950, that is, until 1965. During this transition, the President could authorise additional use of Hindi and Devanagari numerals alongside English, and Article 343(3) further empowers Parliament to extend English's use, or the international numeral form, by law even after the fifteen-year period ends.

Article 344: The Official Language Commission

Article 344 provides for periodic institutional review of the language question. The President is required to constitute a Commission at the end of five years from the Constitution's commencement, and again after ten years, consisting of a Chairman and members representing the different languages listed in the Eighth Schedule. This Commission's duty is to recommend to the President on the progressive use of Hindi for Union official purposes, on any restrictions to be placed on English, and on related language matters. A Parliamentary Committee examines these recommendations, which is how the language question has continued to be revisited well beyond the Constituent Assembly.

Article 345: Where the States Come In

The constitutional basis for a state recognising a language such as Urdu for its own official purposes lies in Article 345. It permits a State Legislature to adopt, by law, either Hindi or any one or more of the languages in use in that state for the state's official purposes. Until the legislature makes such a law, English continues to be used for state official purposes as it was before the Constitution commenced. This is a distinct and separate power from Article 343: while the Union's official language is fixed as Hindi, a state is free to choose its own official language or languages based on what is actually spoken and used within its borders. Article 346 separately governs the language to be used for communication between the Union and a state, or between one state and another, providing that the language authorised for the Union's official purposes serves this role unless two or more states agree to use Hindi between themselves.

The Eighth Schedule and Urdu's Status

Urdu is one of the twenty-two languages listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, alongside Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil and Telugu. Article 344 gives representatives of these scheduled languages a seat on the Official Language Commission, and Article 351 places a duty on the Union to promote the spread of Hindi while drawing on the vocabulary of Hindustani and other languages listed in the Eighth Schedule. Inclusion in the Eighth Schedule does not by itself make a language an official language of any particular state; that recognition still has to come through the state's own legislative action under Article 345, which is precisely the mechanism through which Urdu's claim to official status in Uttar Pradesh has had to be pursued.

The grievance Hasrat Mohani raised -- that Urdu speakers in UP faced official documents available only in Hindi -- reflects the practical stakes behind Article 345, since a state's choice of official language shapes its records and its administrative dealings with citizens. Because Eighth Schedule status alone does not confer state-level official recognition, Urdu's standing in UP has depended entirely on the state legislature choosing to exercise the discretion Article 345 gives it.

Table: Key Official Language Provisions

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• Article 343 fixes Hindi in Devanagari script as the Union's official language; the 15-year English transition ran from 1950 to 1965.
• Article 345, not Article 343, is the provision that lets a state adopt its own official language(s).
• Urdu is one of the 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule, referenced in Articles 344(1) and 351.

Mains

• Analyse how Articles 343 to 346 balance the Union's linguistic uniformity with the states' linguistic diversity.
• Discuss the Constituent Assembly's Hindi-Hindustani-Urdu debate as a lens on India's approach to composite culture and minority language rights.

FAQ

Q1. Which constitutional article allows a state to recognise a language like Urdu for official use? Article 345 allows a State Legislature to adopt, by law, Hindi or any one or more languages in use in the state for its official purposes.

Q2. Is Urdu listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution? Yes. Urdu is one of the twenty-two languages specified in the Eighth Schedule, referenced under Articles 344(1) and 351.

Q3. Did the Constituent Assembly debate Urdu's status in UP specifically? Yes. Members including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Maulana Hasrat Mohani argued that Urdu, having developed in the United Provinces, deserved official recognition there, and Mohani specifically raised concerns about Hindi-only official documents in UP.

Q4. Does inclusion in the Eighth Schedule automatically make a language a state's official language? No. Eighth Schedule status gives a language recognition and representation on bodies like the Official Language Commission, but a state must still separately adopt it as an official language through legislation under Article 345.

Q5. How long did English continue as the Union's sole official language after 1950? Article 343(2) continued English for all Union official purposes for fifteen years from the Constitution's commencement, that is, until 1965, with Parliament empowered to extend it further by law.

Quick Revision

• Article 343: Hindi (Devanagari script) is the Union's official language; English continued till 1965.
• Article 344: Presidential Commission (5 years) and Parliamentary Committee review Hindi's progressive use.
• Article 345: States may adopt Hindi or any language(s) in use locally for state official purposes -- the basis for a state recognising a second official language.
• Article 346: Union's official language used for Union-state and inter-state communication, unless states agree on Hindi between themselves.
• Eighth Schedule: 22 languages, including Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit.
• Constituent Assembly members Azad and Hasrat Mohani specifically argued for Urdu's official recognition in UP as its place of origin.

Sources

• The Constitution of India, Part XVII (Articles 343-351) and the Eighth Schedule -- https://legislative.gov.in
• Constituent Assembly Debates, Volume on the language provisions (1949) -- https://www.constitutionofindia.net

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) -- the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) -- authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India -- Bare Act -- the official text.