Two languages

That the MNS goons who roughed up Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi in the Maharashtra assembly need to be dealt with sternly is obvious. That they were wrong it is perfectly legal to take the oath in Hindi is equally so. But to these two charges add a third: hypocrisy. It turns out that this party of chest-thumping Marathi-only chauvinists do not subscribe to their own rhetoric. Eight of the MNSs 13 MLAs send their children to English-medium schools and colleges. The daughter of chauvinist-in-chief Raj Thackeray studies in an English-language school; and it is more than a little intriguing that when faced with the option of learning Marathi,his son chose a foreign language.

Much of our colonial legacy is complicated. But English is no longer considered an alien tongue and is perceived to be a tool of empowerment. Which is why when some state governments,such as West Bengals,limited instruction in English in government primary schools,they denied a generation of children a valuable tool,restricting opportunities to the privately educated. Bengals decision may not have been entirely akin to Thackerays regional chauvinism,but the no-English policy ultimately came apart under popular criticism.

Some MNS officials justify this double standard by saying that they have no problem with English and they merely want Marathi to be the language at official functions like oath-swearing. This is disingenuous: their linguistic chauvinism is a key ingredient of the MNSs exclusionary politics. The anti-Hindi sentiment is clearly driven less by a fear about Marathi and more by a desire to stoke anxiety about immigrants. The doublespeak of MNS legislators should serve as a caution to other stakeholders in Maharashtras politics about the consequences that could follow if they do not put up a more robust defence of the freedoms and aspirations of Mumbais diverse residents.