Hindi Diwas: Amit Shah pushes for Hindi as national language

Shah tweeted today, "India is a country of many different languages, and each language has its own significance, but it's extremely important to have one language represent India's identity globally."

He added, "If there's one language that can unite the country, it's the widely-spoken Hindi language."

He urged people to promote both their mother-tongues and Hindi to realize Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel's dream.

Now, India doesn't have a national language.

Overall, there are 22 scheduled languages in the country, and two of those are recognized as official languages by the Union Government: Hindi and English.

According to the 2011 census, only 43.63% of the Indian population recognizes Hindi and its derivatives as their mother tongue.

Even so, with half-a-billion speakers, Hindi is the world's fourth-most spoken language.

Naturally, the Opposition wasn't pleased with Shah's ideas.

AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi criticized him for pushing Hindi as India's national language.

"Could you try appreciating the diversity of the many mother tongues that dot this land? Article 29 gives every Indian the right to a distinct language, script & culture," Owaisi tweeted.

He added, "India's much bigger than Hindi, Hindu, Hindutva."

In fact, in May, a draft of the National Education Policy (NEP) proposed a "three language" policy, making Hindi and English compulsory, apart from the mother-tongue in non-Hindi speaking states.

The policy was seen as an imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states, and was met with heavy protests, especially in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Eventually, the Centre updated the NEP draft to make Hindi optional.