Why West Bengal is largely at peace with 3-language formula

"This is not Bangladesh…You are in India…West Bengal is a part of India, you must be learning Hindi," a woman snapped at her co-passenger for speaking in her mother tongue Bengali on a Kolkata metro train last November.

The video of the contentious Hindi-versus-Bengali skirmish carried out on a busy metro went viral, sparking a social media controversy.

This was followed by another viral video in December — a Hindi-speaking metro employee at a booking counter of the Howrah station appeared to get miffed at a commuter inquiring about the fare in Bengali. The row escalated when others joined the commuter in confronting the booking clerk.

Metro authorities, however, dismissed the allegation after an internal inquiry.

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Unanimity over 3-language formula

Such Hindi-Bangla language tussles are no longer isolated occurrences in the public space. However, they have yet to dominate the state’s political narratives, which are currently woven largely around Bengali sub-nationalism and Hindu majoritarianism.

The broad political unanimity over the three-language formula outlined in the West Bengal State Education Policy, 2023, aligning with similar language preferences mandated in the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, is a pointer to the political exigency.

The aversion of political parties in Bengal to get involved in the language war stem from two major factors, Anasua Roychowdhury, who teaches Bangla in the Kolkata-based Rammohan College, told The Federal.

The linguistic demography of the state’s electorates, and the positioning of English, traditionally, as a principal challenger to Bangla, according to her, are dissuading political parties from exploiting the simmering tensions between Hindi- and Bangla-speaking proponents.

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'The necessary evil'

Political commentator and author Amal Sarkar concurs with this view. English is seen as a necessary evil even as it has been identified as a threat to Bangla, he told The Federal.

This dichotomy was demonstrated when the erstwhile Left Front government in the state did a volte-face in 2004, he pointed out.

“They reintroduced the teaching of English in the primary stages in government and government-aided schools two decades after it had abolished it on the ground that children should be taught only in their mother tongue in the primary level,” he recalled.

Incumbent Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, while she was in the Opposition, never missed an opportunity to target the Left government’s “No-English” policy. It had put the state’s youth in a disadvantageous position in the job market, she had claimed.

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Linguistic heterogeneity

Mamata's government was later exposed to another complexity behind the language push, particularly in a multilingual aspirational society.

The TMC government’s decision in 2017 to make Bengali a compulsory subject from Classes 1 to 10 in the state triggered a record 104-day strike in the Darjeeling hills to demand a separate Gorkhaland state.

"The Bengali sub-nationalism that has been politically pitted against the Hindutva of BJP-RSS combine is the synthesis of various languages and cultures in the state,” Sarkar said.

The linguistic heterogeneity is manifested in the multiplicity of the state’s official languages. Apart from English and Bangla, the state’s official languages also include Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Ol-Chiki, Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi, Kurmali, Odia, Gurmukhi and Telugu.

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Multiple mother tongues

Per the Census report of 2011, there are 202 mother tongues spoken in West Bengal.

Barring Bangla, no language, though, is spoken by more than 5 per cent of the total population. The various linguistic groups have their respective pockets of dominance, making them integral to the state’s larger fabric.

For instance, Nepali is spoken by only 1.27 per cent of the state’s total population, but in the Darjeeling hills, it is the predominant language. Apart from three assembly seats of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong in the hills, Nepali-speaking electorates are also an important decisive factor in 12 constituencies in the state’s Dooars region.

Similarly, Santhali or the Ol-Chiki (script of the Santhali language), Kurmali and other Adivasi languages are spoken by around 3 per cent of the population. But people who speak these languages form the dominant group in the state’s Jangalmahal area comprising forest and hill regions of West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia. The region accounts for 35 assembly seats.

Hindi-speakers constitute 5 per cent of the state’s population, but they are the predominant groups in many parts of North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, South 24 Parganas and West Burdwan districts, making them an important electoral group.

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Bengal's 3-language formula

Considering the importance of these linguistic groups in the making of Bengal and learning from its 2017 misadventure with Bangla, the TMC government adopted the three-language formula in the State Education Policy unveiled in September 2023.

It mandates that the primary language of instruction will align with the school's medium, with Bengali for Bangla-medium schools, English for English-medium schools, Nepali for Nepali-medium school, Ol-Chiki for Ol-Chiki -medium schools, Hindi for Hindi-medium schools, and so on.

The second language can either be English (in schools not primarily using English) or any language distinct from the first language. The third language can be any language other than the first and second languages.

Sum up the sentiments of the ruling party, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur told The Federal, “Bengal respects all languages spoken in the state and the three-language formula enables students to learn regional and national languages. We must respect every language and also give every regional language its importance.”