As Regional Identities Sharpen, RSS Set to Pass Resolution to Protect Indian Languages

New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) at its three-day general body meeting in Nagpur will pass a resolution calling for efforts to protect and conserve Indian languages and dialects.

The interesting choice of the resolution comes at a time when some political parties — both regional and national — have sought to build campaigns around sub-nationalism and regional languages as the BJP makes a decisive attempt to expand its political footprint in areas where it is considered traditionally weak.

“The resolution at the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) will seek that efforts be made to strengthen the Indian languages and dialects. Sangh workers will work towards this end,” RSS Joint General Secretary Dr. Krishna Gopal said at the inaugural press conference of the meet this Friday morning.

In the last six months, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has spoken about the preservation of Kannada. The government in the poll-bound state also raised objections to Hindi signboards outside Namma metro stations. The Congress government in Karnataka had on Thursday also approved a state flag.

There were protests in the adjoining Tamil Nadu when the recommendations made by the parliamentary committee on languages were approved by the President. TRS government led by CM K Chandrashekar Rao has made compulsory in schools till Class 12. Last year, BJP MP Tathagat Satpathy replied to a letter written in Hindi by a union minister in chaste Odia to what he called imposition of Hindi.

As such, BJP’s growing dominance in the national landscape — especially in the Hindi speaking north, west and central India — has given rise to new political narratives by regional parties and satraps woven around sub-nationalism.

In the past as well, the RSS has sought to devise programmes to build public opinion around issues through mass campaigns at the ground level.

The last big drive was launched at national executive in Hyderabad two years back where RSS passed a resolution calling upon its workers to ensure common cremation ground, temple and well for all communities in a village.

The campaign was launched in the aftermath of the Rohith Vemula case and a series of incidents which agitated Dalit communities across the country.