Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday called for political differences to be set aside to promote Indian languages, saying that a child can understand the country through their mother tongue. Speaking at the inauguration of the 6th All India Rajbhasha Sammelan, Shah said the government's objective was to make Indian languages languages of governance and science while enriching them through literature. His remarks came amid an ongoing debate over language education and the role of different Indian languages in schools and public life.

“Political differences must be set aside to promote Indian languages. A child can understand India only through the mother tongue,” Shah said at the event. He stressed the importance of preserving and strengthening Indian languages while expanding their use beyond cultural and literary spheres. According to Shah, languages should also become more prominent in governance and scientific fields. He argued that strengthening Indian languages would require collective efforts that go beyond political differences and involve wider recognition of their role in education, administration and knowledge creation.

Shah also credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with making mother-tongue education compulsory under the National Education Policy (NEP). He said students were also required to learn another Indian language, presenting the provision as an effort to encourage familiarity with languages beyond one's mother tongue. Shah criticised those opposing the NEP provision, saying they did not understand the importance of learning another Indian language. His remarks placed multilingual education at the centre of his argument for strengthening India's linguistic diversity and encouraging students to develop familiarity with more than one Indian language.

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The Home Minister also sought to address concerns over the position of Hindi in relation to other Indian languages. He said Hindi should not be viewed as being in competition with other languages spoken across the country. Instead, he stressed the interconnectedness of Indian languages and argued that the promotion of one language should not necessarily come at the expense of another. His comments came at an event dedicated to the country's official language framework and the broader promotion of Indian languages, with Shah emphasising the need to view India's linguistic traditions as interconnected rather than competing identities.

Shah cited Maharashtra as an example of multilingualism, describing it as the country's only multi-lingual state. He said the languages spoken in the state had flourished and received respect, using the example to underline his argument that multiple languages could develop alongside one another. He also pointed to the Modi government's decision to grant Marathi the status of a classical language. The recognition, he said, reflected efforts to acknowledge and preserve the country's linguistic heritage. Marathi is among the Indian languages that have received classical-language status, a designation intended to recognise languages with a long literary and historical tradition.

The remarks at the Rajbhasha Sammelan come against the backdrop of continuing discussions over language policy, mother-tongue education and multilingualism in India. Shah's call to put political differences aside focused on the broader objective of strengthening Indian languages and increasing their use in governance, science and education. At the same time, his comments on the NEP and the learning of another Indian language underline the government's emphasis on multilingual education. By stressing that Hindi should not be considered a rival to other Indian languages, Shah sought to frame language promotion as a collective effort rather than a competition. The debate over implementation and language choices, however, continues to remain a politically sensitive issue across different parts of the country.

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