When was the use of english for official purposes stopped?

• Answer:

                    According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965. However, many non-Hindi speaking states demanded that the use of English should continue. In Tamil Nadu, this movement took a violent turn. The Central Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes. Many critics think that this solution favoured the English-speaking elite. Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the Government of India. Promotion does not mean that the Central Government can impose Hindi on states where people speak a different language. The flexibility shown by Indian political leaders helped our country avoid the kind of situation that Sri Lanka finds itself in.
  

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                    After 1990, there was the rise of regional political parties as well as the beginning of the era of 'Coalition Governments' at the Centre. Since no single party got a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the major national parties had to enter into an alliance with many parties including several regional parties to form a government at the centre. This led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for the autonomy of State governments. This trend was supported by a major judgement of the Supreme Court that made it difficult for the Central Government to dismiss state governments in an arbitrary manner.                                Thus federal power sharing is more effective today than it was in the early years after the Constitution came into force.
  

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                    Municipalities are set up in towns. Municipal Corporations are constituted in big cities. Both municipalities and municipal corporations are controlled by elected bodies consisting of people's representatives. Municipal Chairperson is the political head of the municipality. In a municipal corporation such an officer is called the Mayor.
  

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• Answer:

                    The local government is a three-tier structure. At the top is the District or Zila Parishad, few blocks form a Zila, so blocks have Block or Mandal and then few villages form a block and a village panchayat. The smallest unit of our country is a village and at the village level we have Gram Panchayat, which is run by a head called Sarpanch with his team of representatives. A few Gram Panchayats fall under a Block. At Block level, we have a Panchayat Samiti or Block Committee. All Panchayat Samitis of a district are under a district having a local government called Zila Parishad. Members of Lok Sabha and MLAs of that district also become the members of Zila Parishad.  
  

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• Answer:

                  (i) The basic idea behind decentralization is that there are a large number of problems and issues which are best settled at the local level. (ii) People have better knowledge of the problems in their own localities. (iii) Regular elections are held for the local government bodies at the level of village, block, district, towns and cities. (iv) Seats are reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes to ensure their participation. One-third of the seats are reserved for women. (v) These local bodies generate their own revenue. Besides, the state governments are required to share some powers and revenues with local government bodies.
  

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                  (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 recognized as Scheduled Languages by the Constitution. (vi) A candidate in an 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.
  

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                  (i) Our Constitution declared India as a Union of States. It originally provided a two-tier system (at the Centre and State level) but later in 1992 a third tier of local government was adopted. (ii) The powers are decided into three levels by the Union List, State List and the Concurrent List respectively. (iii) The Union List includes 97 subjects in which defence, foreign affairs, banking, etc. are included. These subjects are of national value. So they are looked after by the Union government and it only legislates on these subjects. (iv) The State List includes 66 subjects like police, agriculture, trade and commerce, etc. These subjects are allotted to all the state governments of India that can legislate on them. (v) The Concurrent List includes subjects of common interest between the Centre and the State like education, forests, marriage, divorce, etc. Both the Union as well as the State Governments can make laws on these subjects but Central Government has an upper hand.
  

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• Answer:

                  (i) According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965. (ii) However, many non-Hindi speaking states demanded that the use of English should continue. In Tamil Nadu, the movement took a violent turn. (iii) The Central Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes. Many critics think that this solution favoured the English speaking elite. (iv) Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of Government of India. (v) Promotion does not mean that the Central Government can impose Hindi on states where people speak a different language. The flexibility shown by Indian political leaders helped our country avoid the kind of situation that Sri Lanka finds itself in.
  

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• Answer:

                  The Panchayati Raj system of India has been introduced by Balwant Rai Mehta Committee. Its achievements are: (i) The introduction of local governments has helped to deepen the roots of democracy in India. (ii) It has increased representation of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women as well. At the same time its problems are: (i) While elections are held regularly but gram sabhas, block committees and zila parishads do not hold their meetings regularly. (ii) Most of the state governments are not ready to provide powers tothe local governments. Neither they are ready to provide sufficient funds for their needs.
  

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• Answer:

                  (i) The basic idea behind decentralization is that there are a large number of problems and issues which are best settled at the local level. (ii) People have better knowledge of the problems in their own localities. (iii) Regular elections are held for the local government bodies at the level of village, block, district, towns and cities. (iv) Seats are reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes to ensure their participation. One-third of the seats are reserved for women. (v) These local bodies generate their own revenue. Besides, the state governments are required to share some powers and revenues with local government bodies.
  

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