Assam Sahitya Sabha Criticises Move of Making Hindi As Compulsory Subject

Guwahti: Reacting over the move to make Hindi a compulsory subjetc till class 10 in North-Eastern states, the Assam Sahitya Sabha (ASS) has criticised the same and asked the government to concentrate on conserving and promoting indigenous laguages.

''If Hindi is made compulsory, the future of indigenous languages and Assamese as a link language will be endangered,'' ASS secretary-general Jadav Chandra Sharma said in an official statement.

He also said that Sabha had been demanding the state government the inclusion of Assamese in CBSE and English medium schools, but no progress has been made in this regard so far.

On April 7, 2022, the Union Minister of Home Affairs (MHA) said that all eight North-Eastern states have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to class X.

''22,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight states of the North East. Also, nine tribal communities of the North East have converted their dialects' scripts to Devanagari. Apart from this, all the eight states of the North East have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class X,'' he added.

However, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday clarified that the state government has not received any direction in this regard.

"Forget about compulsory, Assam government has not even received a letter asking Hindi to be made an optional subject in the schools. Amit Shah's statement has been misinterpreted," Sarma said.

He further said that the state government has planned to introduce a language policy that would focus on teaching at least four languages to the students of the state.

Meanwhile, opposition parties in the state have demanded the withdrawal of the decision, which it said is against the interests of the people of the region.

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