Why Ambedkar Demanded “One State, One Language”
Why Ambedkar Demanded “One State, One Language”: An Overview of His “Thoughts on Linguistic States” Ranjana Sarkar In the early 1950s, the issue of nation-building posed the Indian government with several challenges. The first and foremost challenge that had to be addressed was reshaping the notion of “India” – a country that had earned its independence from the British but had faced Partition in the process and was yet to become structurally a fully functional and democratic nation that it aspired to be. The first step taken in this direction was the decision of reorganising the state boundaries. Soon after the independence, the Congress realised that the division of provinces that India had inherited from the British regime was not suitable for easy administration and therefore, had to be revised. Thus, in 1953, the State Reorganisation Committee was appointed by the Central Government, which in its reports accepted that the boundaries of every state should be redrawn bas...