Official Languages Act, 1963
| Official Languages Act, 1963 | |
|---|---|
| Parliament of India | |
| |
| Citation | Act No. 19 of 1963 |
| Assented to | 1963-05-10 |
| Status: In force | |
The Official Languages Act, 1963 is an act of the Parliament of India which designates which of the official languages of India are the language of government.
History
[edit]The act was passed to pre-empt protests in certain southern states, such as Tamil Nadu, where there was significant opposition to the "imposition" of Hindi.[1]
The act was amended in 1967 under the Indira Gandhi administration.[2]
Provision
[edit]The act provide for the languages which might be used for the official purposes of the union.[3] The act effectively made English a permanent official language of India, notwithstanding the constitution limiting this to the 15 years after 1950.[3] The act effectively made the government of India bilingual.[4]
The act establishes the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language and section 4 of the act states that its remit is to review the progress made in using Hindi for the official purposes of Union and submit a report.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Neelakantan, Anand (2025-03-02). "There is more to India than Hindi". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 2025-04-26. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
- ^ Singh, Mahendra Prasad; Dhussa, Ramesh Chandra (2020), Brunn, Stanley D.; Kehrein, Roland (eds.), "Reorganization of States and the Politics of Official Languages in India", Handbook of the Changing World Language Map, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1509–1524, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02438-3_85, ISBN 978-3-030-02438-3, retrieved 2025-04-26
- ^ a b Patra, Atul Chandra (1968). "Multilingual Legislation". Journal of the Indian Law Institute. 10 (4): 661–686. ISSN 0019-5731.
- ^ Mandavkar, Pavan (2023). "Role of Languages in National Education System of India". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4609001. ISSN 1556-5068.
- ^ Brittas, John (2022-11-23). "The notional case for a national language". Deccan Herald. Archived from the original on 2022-11-24. Retrieved 2025-04-26.