ABSTRACT
Progressive writers faced a central problem, shared in many other parts of the world, in articulating the notion of a popular-based nation with a unifying identity that of language. The arguments over language were not abstract. For the literate middle classes the question of what form the national language of India would take after independence would determine who had access to jobs within the state bureaucracy. The significance of language in India could not be underestimated; the upper echelons of Indian society were educated in and spoke English as their first language. The problems facing the Progressives over the language question as they tried to provide a popular and radical shape to national aspirations were neither new nor unique to the Asian subcontinent. Progressive writers had their own discussion on Hindustani in the aftermath of the Constituent Assembly decision. Alok Rai has argued that Hindustani could only have succeeded if it was ‘part of an alternative, transformative politics’.
