Official language of the Union.

Article 343, Constitution of India 1950

(1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.

⁠The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.

⁠(2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement:

⁠Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union.

⁠(3) Notwithstanding anything in this article, Parliament may by law provide for the use, after the said period of fifteen years, of—

(a) the English language, or

(b) the Devanagari form of numerals,

for such purposes as may be specified in the law.

The question of a national/official language for India generated intense debate and conflict in the Constituent Assembly.

Draft Article 301A was absent in the Draft Constitution of India 1948. A Drafting Commitee Member introduced this provision on 12 September 1949. The Draft Article, popularly referred to as the ‘Munshi-Ayyangar formula’, among other things, declared Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Union and the use of the international form of Indian numerals for official purposes. It was discussed in the Assembly on 12, 13, and 14 September 1949.

The Members who opposed Hindi as the official language reluctantly accepted this Draft Article but emphasised that no language could be imposed on India merely be entrenching it in the Constitution. There were Members who still persevered to dislodge Hindi – an amendment was moved to replace it with Hindustani.

The adoption of Hindi as the official language in the Draft Article was a huge concession to the ‘Hindi-wallahs’ in the Assembly. However, they were still not happy with the provision, they criticised it, strategized outside Assembly, and moved amendments. First, they felt that if the Devanagari script was adopted, then why not the Devanagari system of numerals? Second, they were concerned that the Draft Article gave too much time for the replacement of English with Hindi – they wanted the replacement to happen much sooner.

Finally, after a lot of backroom jostling, the ‘Hindi-wallahs’ put forward a bunch of amendments. The Assembly adopted one of these amendments: Parliament could, in addition to English, legislate on Nagari numerals as well. This effectively empowered Parliament to sanction the use of Devanagari numerals even before the 15 year period.

The Assembly adopted the Draft Article with the amendment on 14 September 1949.