The political commons: language and the nation-state form

This paper is by way of a prolegomenon to a revised history of the language question in India. In the first of three short sections, I present some of my ideas about the role of language in the evolution of political morphology in the modern world. I then propose a reconsideration of the relation between language and nation-state in terms of the discourse of the people. In the last section I turn to a brief presentation on the fate of the language question in the hands of the Indian National Congress, and specifically to Gandhi's approach to the problem. My purpose all through will be to highlight the political character and importance of language in the modern nation-state, neglect of which amounts to the expropriation of the very people in whose name democratic regimes are set up.