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.