The term "Munshi-Ayyangar formula," recently seen in the news, is related to:

In News

•  The Munshi-Ayyangar formula was highlighted in the ongoing debate over the language formula in the National Education Policy, with references to a 2014 Supreme Court judgment favoring "linguistic secularism."

Key Points

• The Munshi-Ayyangar formula was a linguistic compromise reached in the Constituent Assembly in 1949 to resolve the conflict over adopting Hindi as the national language. 
  • It led to the inclusion of Article 343 in the Constitution, which declared Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Union, not the national language. Hence, option 2 is correct.
• The formula acknowledged the presence of several regional languages, such as Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, and Gujarati, which were more developed at the time and spoken by large populations.
• The Supreme Court, in the U.P. Hindi Sahitya Sammelan vs. State of U.P. (2014), reiterated that India's language laws are "not rigid but accommodative" and aim to ensure linguistic secularism.
• While Article 351 imposes a duty on the Union to promote Hindi, Article 29(1) of the Constitution protects the rights of linguistic minorities to conserve their distinct language and culture.
• The Supreme Court has upheld that students and parents have the right to choose the medium of instruction in schools under Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression).

Additional Information

• The Allahabad High Court, in 1982, ruled that Hindi is the national language, but no citizen can compel an institution to impart education in Hindi. 
• In the case of State of Karnataka vs. Associated Management of Primary & Secondary Schools, the Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot impose a particular language as the medium of instruction at the primary school level.