Vice President Jha's Oath in Hindi: Response to Hindi in Nepal

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Vice President Jha's Oath in Hindi: Response to Hindi in Nepal Vice President Jha’s Oath in Hindi: Response to Hindi in Nepal - Alaka Atreya Chudal उपरापित परमानद झाले अतरम संवधान, २०६३ Vice President Paramananda Jha had taken the oath ूित बफादार रहने र ूचिलत कानुनको अधीनमा रह of office for being obedient to the interim मुलुक र जनताको सोझो िचताई काम गन शपथ constitution 2063 and working for the benefit of the िलँदा हद भाषामा िलनभयोु तर जुन बदबाटु people in Hindi; however from the very time he took शपथ िलन शु गनुभयो यहंबाट संवधान उलंघन the oath he has violated the constitution. गन काय भएको छ । - Madhav Kumar Basnet1 Paramananda Jha is the first ever Vice President of the Republic of Nepal and a retired judge of the supreme court of Nepal. He is affiliated to the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum. The forum, which had decided to promote the languages of Tarai under its linguistic strategy2 had surprised audiences who were watching the live broadcast in television, when their leader took the oath of office and secrecy in Hindi language in July 2008 by spontaneously translating the words of the president Ram Baran Yadav. According to the interim constitution of Nepal (which was in force at the time ), the President and Vice President could only take the oath in the Nepali language. Taking oath in languages other than Nepali was said to be a violation of the constitution, on which basis some Nepalese had pressed charges against him in the courts. When the Supreme Court asked him for an explanation, he told the press that he had no knowledge of Nepali. The Supreme Court did not recognize the oath of office and asked VP Jha to take the oath again in Nepali within a week, however Paramamanda Jha did not agree to do so and consequently the post of Vice President was vacant for six months. When a meeting of the Constituent Assembly approved mother tongues and national languages as the official languages for the President and Vice President to take the oath, in February 2009 Jha finally took the oath of office in his mother tongue Maithili and in Nepali. 1 http://www.kantipuronline.com/konepalinews.php?nid=154902 (accessed on 1/5/20 0 9 04:16 PM) Unless otherwise stated, all the translation from Nepali to English are mine. 2 It is stated in the election manifesto of Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum (signed on 2nd Chaitra 2064 B.S.) that Madhes is the land of Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Marvadi and Panjabi language speakers. And in terms of linguistic rights, it declares a demand for a three-language policy in Tarai a) Mother Tongue b) Nepali and Hindi and c) English as the constitutional language of Nepal, which has to be used in both administration and education. 1 VP Jha’s oath taking raised the question of linguistic rights, however, only Nepali, Maithili and Hindi languages where the subject of this discourse. Nepali, being the long-time national or official language of Nepal obviously stood in the front line of the debate. Maithili was also in focus as the mother tongue of VP Jha and the language spoken by the second largest sector of the population after Nepali in the country. Hindi in this discourse appeared in the role of opposition. VP Jha and his party argued for the recognition of Hindi because in their opinion Hindi is the appropriate link language in Tarai, yet with its strong Indian identity, Hindi could not win the battle and VP Jha had to take the oath for a second time. This paper presents the background to the linguistic struggle focusing on Hindi and presents the response to it in Nepal, which will be followed by an analysis of media discourse relating to the issue of VP Jha’s oath in Hindi. The study will show the reasons for taking the oath in Hindi as stemming from Madheshi regional politics since Madheshi leaders have chosen this language to unite the different linguistic and ethnic groups of Tarai and also to give Tarai a distinct identity. Introduction Every society in the world is characterized by at least some degree of diversity. During the past century, language and religion have been among the major symbols of group identity in South Asia. Language and religion have been used to broaden the identities of people in south Asian countries and to challenge the power of existing political units (Brass1974:3). Taking the perspective of Nepal, its linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity is remarkable; despite its small size, Nepal accommodates an amazing cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. Nepal’s ethnic and religious diversity is coupled with its linguistic plurality (Yadava 2003). On the Nepali political scene, the ethnic groups as minorities and their language as the subject of development have formed the agenda of political argument but religious discrimination in Nepali society has not been the critical issue in political discourse. During the Panchayat system, linguistic and cultural diversity was controlled by declaring a single national language ‘Nepali’ and national religion ‘Hindu’, as Nepal was announced to be the only Hindu kingdom in the world according to the 1962 constitution (Whelpton 2005(b):184); however, the restoration of democracy has changed the face of Nepal since 1990 when the new constitution defined the country as “Bahujatiya” (multiethnic) and “Bahubhashik” (multilingual). With this announcement other languages than Nepali were given due attention nationwide for the first time in the history of modern Nepal. (Nawa: 2004:261). Moreover the announcement that recognized minority languages as ‘national languages’ (Rastriya Bhasha) and the right given to communities to operate primary schools in their own languages was a positive step, however the government did not have any obligation to provide funding for such education (Whelpton 2005 (b):117). 2 According to these developments, languages spoken as the mother tongues by communities in various parts of Nepal also achieved high status in the country as national languages for the first time in 1990. Furthermore, the announcement that all the mother tongues spoken in Nepal were the “Rastra Bhasha” by the interim constitution (2063 B. S.) has given equal status to every native language spoken in Nepal, whereas previously Nepali was the only “Rastra Bhasha” or national language 3. Though local languages were already recognized for use by the local administrative offices according to the interim constitution, the backlash against VP Jha’s taking the oath of office and secrecy in Hindi has once again strengthened the position of the mother tongues, as all have now gained the status of official oath-taking languages for both the President and Vice President. The result might have proved supportive for the 92 languages identified as being spoken as mother tongues in Nepal according to the 2001 census (Yadav 2003), however nationalistic sentiments are raised by the fear of a possible increase in the Hindi mother tongue population in the ongoing (at the time of writing this paper) population census. This paper aims to outline and study the discourse on language issues in the various newspapers and online blogs published since the first oath of office taken in Hindi by Paramananda Jha. The media discourse has raised questions such as: why has Hindi been targeted by the public? What motivated Vice President Jha to take his oath of office in Hindi? Why do Tarai leaders always raise objections where Hindi is concerned? This paper will try to answer these questions, which will illuminate the concept of Madheshi regionalism as the motivating factor behind the politics of Hindi language in Nepal. Furthermore the Nepali (linguistic) nationalism created during the movement against Ranas as the symbol of Nepali nationalism has a strong influence among the Nepalese (mainly hill-dwelling) who cannot tolerate the idea of any other language taking over the dominant position of Nepali. The 2001 census has figures for 92 languages and a number of unnamed languages. The Tarai contains significant language groups including Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi and Tharu languages, whereas hilly regions also accommodate languages such as Rai, Limbu, Magar, Newari, etc. Nepali has been developed as the lingua franca of Nepal as a whole, however the leaders of the Tarai region have been trying to develop Hindi in Tarai for the same role as Nepali in Nepal. Although Nepali is the dominant language in the government, the Tarai languages Maithili, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Tharu compete with Nepali to be the dominant vernacular. Cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity has endured in Nepal for many centuries but the demand for rights on the basis of culture, ethnic group and linguistic affiliation is very recent. The success of the ‘People’s Movement’ in 1990 led to a great increase in ethnic activism in the 3 Interim constitution 2063 B.S. 3 country as different groups arose assuming the right to speak for their own language, culture and a greater share in economic resources. The studies of ethnic groups in Nepal reveals that people identify themselves not only by their racial origin and religion, but also as separate ethnic groups on the basis of language and region. Different ethnic organizations were already established and intellectuals from the different ethnic communities had also set up the Nepal Mother-Tongue Council (Nepali Matribhasa Parishad) in 1985 to press for education in their own languages. Nevertheless, the Panchayat system had controlled it since the outset.4 In the case of Tarai, the people of Tarai have united on a regional basis to protest the discrimination against them by high-caste Hindus5 of the hill regions who dominate the power structures of Nepal (Dastider1995:23).
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