Planning 25,000-strong rally in Delhi on July 27, leaders step up pressure on Modi govt to "recognize" Rajasthani

Dharna in Delhi in support of the demand

By A Representative
In a sharp effort to step pressure on the Narendra Modi government, protagonists of those seeking to insert Rajasthani language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution have decided to hold a 25,000-strong rally on July 27 in Delhi in favour of their 12-year-old demand. To gather support from the Rajasthani community all over India for the proposed rally, the organizers of the rally began a yatra in Mumbai, reaching Ahmedabad on July 20.
“Before reaching Ahmedabad, we have already held meetings with Rajasthani community people at Vapi, Surat, Ankaleshwar and Vadodara”, said a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Rajasthani Bhasha Manyata Sangharsh Samiti, formed to campaign for the official recognition of Rajasthani as a medium of instruction for those willing to study in the mother tongue. “From Ahmedabad, we propose to go to Udaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner, before reaching Delhi.”
Sources said, Union home minister Rajnath Singh has already “agreed” in principle to include Rajasthani in the eighth schedule. If earlier samiti members met him, how samiti members led by chairman of Prof Rajendra Barhat and vice-chairman Vijay Kumar Jain have decided to meet Modi to press for their demand to come up with a during the monsoon session of Parliament.
The reason for gathering support from Gujarat, samiti sources say, is particularly important, as there is a “huge cultural affinity” between Rajasthan and Gujarat. Besides, there a large Rajasthani community presence in several of the Gujarat towns. In Ahmedabad alone, there are an estimated 6 lakh Rajasthanis, which comes to around 10 per cent of the city’s population.
The plea to include Rajasthani in the eighth schedule of found resounding support of in 2003, when the state assembly passed a unanimous resolution in its favour and sent it to Delhi for consideration. “Ever since then, the issue is under examination. While both, ex-UPA and present NDA government have agreed in principle to the demand, strangely, things have failed to move”, says LN Patel, an Ahmedabad-based chartered accountant who hails from Jodhpur.
On May 5, the samiti held a well-attended dharna in Delhi in favour of its demand. Meanwhile, the view has gone strong among Rajasthan policy makers that, following the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha pattern of mother tongue based (MTB) multilingual education, people in Rajasthan should learn to read and write in their local dialect, as it would “help curb dropout rates, especially among girls, which is one of the highest in India.”
Awaiting a nod from Delhi, the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan has allowed introduction of Rajasthani in schools in Udaipur, Dungarpur and Banswara districts, where children of class one will be given lessons in local dialects of Rajasthani. While Mewari will be the medium of teaching for students in Udaipur, teachers will communicate in Wagri with the scholars in the other two districts, according to a report.
Says Dr Surendra Singh Pokharna, a former scientist at ISRO, one reason why Rajasthani has not been included in the eighth schedule is a “misconception” in the officialdom that it is “only a group of dialects and there is no language as such”. He added, “The truth is just the opposite. The number of dialects of some of the Indian languages recognised by the Constitution is Hindi (43), Tamil (22), Telgu (36), Kannada (32), Marathi (65), Gujarati (27), Bengali (15), Konkani (16) and Punjabi (29). Larger the number of dialects, richer is the language.”
“Denying children education in their mother tongue may lead to intellectual damage which block learning process in children," says Dr Gayatri Tiwari, an expert in human behavior and family relations."Research has shown that children do better when they are taught in their mother tongue.”
Apart from Rajasthani, the demand has been pending to insert Bhojpuri, too, the eighth schedule of the Constitution, making it an officially recognized language. It finds support from influential quarters in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, as well as people’s representatives from the two states. Currently, there are 22 languages which have received such official recognition.

Comments

What Sister Nivedita understood about India that we have forgotten

By Harasankar Adhikari In the idea of a “Vikshit Bharat,” many real problems—hunger, poverty, ill health, unemployment, and joblessness—are increasingly overshadowed by the religious contest between Hindu and Muslim fundamentalisms. This contest is often sponsored and patronised by political parties across the spectrum, whether openly Hindutva-oriented, Islamist, partisan, or self-proclaimed secular.

Safety, pay and job security drive Urban Company gig workers’ protest in Gurugram

By A Representative Gig and platform service workers associated with Urban Company have stepped up their protest against what they describe as exploitative and unsafe working conditions, submitting a detailed Memorandum of Demands at the company’s Udyog Vihar office in Gurugram. The action is being seen as part of a wider and growing wave of dissatisfaction among gig workers across India, many of whom have resorted to demonstrations, app log-outs and strikes in recent months to press for fair pay, job security and basic labour protections.

India’s universities lag global standards, pushing students overseas: NITI Aayog study

By Rajiv Shah A new Government of India study, Internationalisation of Higher Education in India: Prospects, Potential, and Policy Recommendations , prepared by NITI Aayog , regrets that India’s lag in this sector is the direct result of “several systemic challenges such as inadequate infrastructure to provide quality education and deliver world-class research, weak industry–academia collaboration, and outdated curricula.”

The rise of the civilizational state: Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta warns of new authoritarianism

By A Representative Noted political theorist and public intellectual Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivered a poignant reflection on the changing nature of the Indian state today, warning that the rise of a "civilizational state" poses a significant threat to the foundations of modern democracy and individual freedom. Delivering the Achyut Yagnik Memorial Lecture titled "The Idea of Civilization: Poison or Cure?" at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Mehta argued that India is currently witnessing a self-conscious political project that seeks to redefine the state not as a product of a modern constitution, but as an instrument of an ancient, authentic civilization.

Gig workers’ strike halts platforms, union submits demands to Labour Ministry

By A Representative India’s gig economy witnessed an partial disruption on December 31, 2025, as a large number of delivery workers, app-based service providers, and freelancers across the country participated in a nationwide strike called by the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU). The strike, which followed days of coordinated protests, shut down major platforms including Zomato , Swiggy , Blinkit , Zepto , Flipkart , and BigBasket in several areas.

Why experts say replacing MGNREGA could undo two decades of rural empowerment

By A Representative A group of scientists, academics, civil society organisations and field practitioners from India and abroad has issued an open letter urging the Union government to reconsider the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and to withdraw the newly enacted Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025. The letter, dated December 27, 2025, comes days after the VB–G RAM G Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 16 and subsequently approved by both Houses of Parliament, formally replacing the two-decade-old employment guarantee law.

From Kerala to Bangladesh: Lynching highlights deep social faultlines

By A Representative The recent incidents of mob lynching—one in Bangladesh involving a Hindu citizen and another in Kerala where a man was killed after being mistaken for a “Bangladeshi”—have sparked outrage and calls for accountability.

NYT: RSS 'infiltrates' institutions, 'drives' religious divide under Modi's leadership

By Jag Jivan A comprehensive New York Times investigation published on December 26, 2025, chronicles the rise of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — characterized as a far-right Hindu nationalist organization — from a shadowy group founded in 1925 to the world's largest right-wing force, marking its centenary in 2025 with unprecedented influence and mainstream acceptance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi , who joined the RSS as a young boy and later became a full-time campaigner before being deputized to its political wing in the 1980s, delivered his strongest public tribute to the group in his August 2025 Independence Day address. Speaking from the Red Fort , he called the RSS a "giant river" with dozens of streams touching every aspect of Indian life, praising its "service, dedication, organization, and unmatched discipline." The report describes how the RSS has deeply infiltrated India's institutions — government, courts, police, media, and academia — ...

Reshaping welfare policy? G-RAM-G marks the end of rights-based rural employment

By Ram Puniyani With the Ram Janmabhoomi Rath Yatra, the BJP’s political strength began to grow. From then on, it started projecting itself as a “party with a difference.” Gradually, the party’s electoral success graph kept rising. However, many thinkers and writers did not find this particularly worrying at the time, as they saw little difference between the BJP and the ruling Congress. The BJP’s real face began to emerge when it became the principal party of the NDA led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It first came to power for two brief tenures—13 days and then 13 months—and subsequently governed for nearly six years with Vajpayee as Prime Minister. During this period, many of these writers began to understand that the BJP was indeed a “different kind” of party, as even then the process of undermining democratic values and norms had begun. During the first term of the UPA government, several schemes were implemented that were based on the concept of “rights.” These included the right...

Search This Blog