LANGUAGE PROBLEM IN ASSAM 67
political activity would continue and grow irrespective of capitalist participation and that therefore, the basic task before the capitalist class was to remain relevant to such a powerful social force and to try and establish their hegemony over its programme and organization and the pattern of struggle.^
Nationalism
Nationalism in the oppressed colonies has always been a complex articulation of two instances—the nationalism of the colonial bourgeoisie and the nationalism of the masses. This distinction is absolutely necessary for any understanding of the colonial question. The nationalism of the Indian bourgeoisie, the expression of a rising subordinate capital seeking to establish control over its state apparatus functioned simultaneously as a mechanism for paralyzing the revolutionary instinct of the masses, for splitting up their common front and incorporating the backward peasant strata into the bourgeois hegemonic block, represented politically by the National Congress. In short, it was not only a means of emancipating India from the clutches of British Capital and establishing local capitalist control over the home market but also a means of effectively excluding the working class from hegemony over the peasant masses, of insulating the flow of working-class ideas and controlling the nationalism of the Indian masses.6
The impact of British rule as well as the penetration of new forces did not take place at the same pace throughout the country. The conditions which led to the rise' of political and national consciousness matured unevenly in different parts and among different communities. Hence it is appropriate to term the historical development of regional nationalities as the basic process on which British rule had been impressed and treat the product a modification of some aspects of the basic process of nationality development. The concrete issue of linguistic reorganization made its first official appearance in the 1917 Calcutta Congress Session. It was imperative for the Congress under Gandhi if it had to become a mass organization to channelise the sentiments of various nationalities and use the national languages as vehicles of political communication and propaganda. But the Congress all through the freedom movement never formulated a concrete plan of action but contented itself in assuaging nationality sentiments by passing resolutions and accepting the principle.
In the post-independence period many hitherto backward or less-developed minorities and linguistic groups have become conscious of their rights and put forward claims for the recognition of their distinct entity.
Multinational Character
India is a multinational state. It has various nationalities demarcated by language and culture. There arc variations in the degree of