Challenge of language policy was adopted by the Indian federalism in the following way:
(i) A second test for Indian federalism is the language policy.
(ii) Our constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language.
(iii) Hindi was identified as the official language.
(iv) But Hindi is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent of Indians. Therefore, there were many safeguards to protect other languages.
(v) Besides Hindi, there are 21 other languages recognised as scheduled languages by the constitution.
(vi) A candidate in the examination conducted for the central government positions may opt to take the examination in any one of these languages.
(vii) States too have their own official languages. Much of the government work takes place in the official language of the concerned state.
