As the world celebrated International Mother's Language Day with grit and compassion on Tuesday, a pressing concern was presented before the central government of India and the Rajasthani state government. The issue of officially recognizing the Rajasthani language by amending the eighth schedule of the Constitution remains unsolved years after it was proposed. On the occasion of International Mother's Language Day, a debate was organized in Rajasthan, which witnessed the active participation of many influential persons from the Rajasthani community.
Prem Bhandari, who is the chairman of the Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA), took part in the debate, in which he strongly expressed his desire to see the Rajasthani language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. There are currently 22 official languages covered under the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution.
On the fitting occasion of International Mother's Language Day, which promotes linguistic and cultural diversity, multilingualism, and the preservation and protection of all languages, Bhandari, on behalf of crores of Rajasthani-speaking people, expressed two primary demands:
- Rajasthan state government should accept the language as the "Raj Bhasha."
- Centre must include Rajasthani language in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution.
The demand to officially recognize Rajasthani language is growing louder by the day. Even the youth of the state are now standing up for the cause. Youth icon Ravinder Singh Bhati has taken up this matter, along with Pankaj Ojha, VP at Deutsche Bank, from Florida, both of whom participated in the debate held in Rajasthan on the occasion of International Mother's Language Day. NRRI (Non-Rajasthani Resident Indians) were hopeful that Ashok Gehlot in his budget must have included the status of Raj Bhasha, but nothing happened.
"I'm very hopeful that along with the international Rajasthani community and the youth icon and his team, we will make sure Raj Bhasha status should be given to the [Rajasthani] language by the current state government. We are very hopeful that Honourable PM Narendra Modiji will definitely give us that status and Rajasthani language will be included in the eighth schedule," Bhandari told International Business Times.
Efforts to recognise Rajasthani language not new
On the occasion, Bhandari recalled the 2003 international Rajasthan convention in New York, in which Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot attended along with his cabinet colleagues, bureaucrats. It was at that convention, a memorandum was given to the Chief Minister by the then-President of RANA KK Mehta and Dr. Shashi Shah, and requested Gehlot that Rajasthani language, spoken by 6 crore people back then, be included in the eighth schedule of Indian constitution.
In less than two months after the convention on August 25, 2003, CM Gehlot passed a unanimous resolution in the Rajasthan assembly on the last day of the session that Rajasthani language must be recognized and requested the Centre to incorporate the language in the officially recognized list of languages. But nothing has sadly changed since. It's been 20 years.
Bhandari pointed out how during elections, all national parties put in their manifesto that they will give the Rajasthani language recognized, but nothing has happened.
In 2011, Bhandari even led a delegation to then-president Pratibha Patel in this regard, part of which were former Union minister and currently the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankad; Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Chairman of Akhil Bhartiya Pravasi Mahasangh; Raj K Purohit, Vice Chancellor of Jai Nayakan Vyas University; Prof BS Rajpurohit, Chancellor of Jodhpur National University; Kamal Mehta, State General Secretary of "Sangharsh Samiti"; Dr Rajendra Barhat, Prof Kalyan Singh Shekhawat; and others.
"We were given false promises and nothing happened. Even after that, on many occasions, as the international convenor of Bharatiya Rajasthani Bhasha Manyata Sangharsh Samiti, I organised many programs internationally to put pressure on central government to include Rajasthani language in the eighth schedule of Indian constitution," Bhandari noted.
