Identify the correct statements.
A. By the 1930s, the Congress had accepted that Hindustani ought to be the national language.
B. Durgabai wanted Hindi to be declared as the national language.
C. Mahatma Gandhi retained his faith in the composite character Hindustani.
D. Each province was to be allowed to choose one of the regional languages for official work within the region.
E. R.V. Dhulekar was against Hindi being used as the language in Constitution making.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
1. A, C, D only
2. A, D, E only
3. B, D, A only
4. B, A, C only

1

The correct answer is option 1- 1 (A, C, D only)

Therefore the correct statements are:

A. By the 1930s, the Congress had accepted that Hindustani ought to be the national language.
C. Mahatma Gandhi retained his faith in the composite character Hindustani.
D. Each province was to be allowed to choose one of the regional languages for official work within the region.

Statements B and E are wrong:

Durgabai informed the House that the opposition in the south against Hindi was very strong: “The opponents feel perhaps justly that this propaganda for Hindi cuts at the very root of the provincial languages ...” Yet, she along with many others had obeyed the call of Mahatma Gandhi and carried on Hindi propaganda in the south, braved resistance, started schools and conducted classes in Hindi. “Now what is the result of it all?” asked Durgabai. “I am shocked to see this agitation against the enthusiasm with which we took to Hindi in the early years of the century.” She had accepted Hindustani as the language of the people, but now that language was being changed, words from Urdu and other regional languages were being taken out. Any move that eroded the inclusive and composite character of Hindustani, she felt, was bound to create anxieties and fears amongst different language groups.

In one of the earliest sessions of the Constituent Assembly, R. V. Dhulekar, a Congressman from the United Provinces, made an aggressive plea that Hindi be used as the language of constitution-making. When told that not everyone in the Assembly knew the language, Dhulekar retorted: “People who are present in this House to fashion a constitution for India and do not know Hindustani are not worthy to be members of this Assembly. They better leave.” As the House broke up in commotion over these remarks, Dhulekar proceeded with his speech in Hindi.

By the 1930s, the Congress had accepted that Hindustani ought to be the national language. Mahatma Gandhi felt that everyone should speak in a language that common people could easily understand. Hindustani – a blend of Hindi and Urdu – was a popular language of a large section of the people of India, and it was a composite language enriched by the interaction of diverse cultures. Over the years it had incorporated words and terms from very many different sources, and was therefore understood by people from various regions. This multi-cultural language, Mahatma Gandhi thought, would be the ideal language of communication between diverse communities: it could unify Hindus and Muslims, and people of the north and the south.

On 12 September 1947, Dhulekar’s speech on the language of the nation once again sparked off a huge storm. By now the Language Committee of the Constituent Assembly had produced its report and had thought of a compromise formula to resolve the deadlock between those who advocated Hindi as the national language and those who opposed it. It had decided, but not yet formally declared, that Hindi in the Devanagari script would be the official language, but the transition to Hindi would be gradual. For the first fifteen years, English would continue to be used for all official purposes. Each province was to be allowed to choose one of the regional languages for official work within the province. By referring to Hindi as the official rather that the national language, the Language Committee of the Constituent Assembly hoped to placate ruffled emotions and arrive at a solution that would be acceptable to all. Dhulekar did not like such an attitude of reconciliation. He wanted Hindi to be declared not an Official Language, but a National Language. He attacked those who protested that Hindi was being forced on the nation, and mocked at those who said, in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, that Hindustani rather than Hindi ought to be the national language.