From poetry to nationhood: Subramania Bharati’s blueprint for India’s languages

• A tribute to an unforgotten legend on Bhartiya Bhasha Divas

In the canon of modern Indian thought, several figures shaped the political imagination of a nation struggling to define itself. Far fewer shaped its linguistic imagination. Among this rare group stands Subramania Bharati (1882–1921) poet, journalist, social reformer, and one of the earliest thinkers to articulate a coherent vision of India as a multilingual republic.

We the People of BHARAT, celebrate Bhartiya Bhasha Divas to commemorate the birth anniversary of the great Tamil poet and freedom fighter Mahakavi Subramania Bharati , who is remembered popularly as a fiery poet, a fearless nationalist, and a voice of social emancipation. Yet this memory, though accurate, remains incomplete. Bharati was far more than a poet of revolution; he was a linguistic visionary who articulated one of the earliest and most comprehensive blueprints for India’s multilingual future.

While he is celebrated widely as a literary icon, his most sophisticated contribution lies elsewhere: in his understanding of language as both an instrument of political freedom and an architecture of national self-confidence.His poem "Aduvome Pallu Pallu"-  “We Shall Dance in Joy” became a mass anthem for freedom is an example of how he took elite literary forms and converted them into public instruments of political awakening.

Another example is "Pudhumai Penn" - “The New Woman”,  where he imagined an educated, confident woman as an equal participant in society. This was radical for its time .Tamil literature had rarely portrayed women with such agency. He wrote fluently in Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit and English, and encouraged Indians to learn multiple languages without insecurity.

In one essay, he argued that Tamil should modernise with scientific vocabulary, Hindi should act as a bridge across regions, and English should remain a window to global knowledge. This balanced, forward-looking model remains relevant in contemporary debates around mother-tongue education and linguistic equality. Bharati understood freedom not merely as political independence but as freedom from fear, superstition, linguistic inferiority, and social fragmentation. His poem "Achamillai Achamillai" - “Fear Not, Fear Not” captures this ethos: a call for an inner revolution preceding political liberation.

On this day that calls attention to India’s linguistic inheritance, Bharati’s ideas invite renewed engagement. They offer clarity at a moment when language debates often become emotionally charged, politically polarised or narrowly framed. The challenges India faces today  balancing linguistic diversity with national integration, managing the continued dominance of English, building mother-tongue-based education, and adapting Indian languages to the digital age  were all issues Bharati anticipated with remarkable foresight.

More than a century after his death, his ideas remain startlingly contemporary, almost prescient in their diagnosis of India’s linguistic anxieties and potential.

Bharati approached language with an insight uncommon for his time , he viewed it as the core medium through which a society understands itself. For him, language was neither a passive repository of tradition nor merely a vehicle of emotion. It was an element of national infrastructure  as fundamental as political institutions or economic systems. Language is the neural architecture of national identity.

Bharati viewed languages as civilisational assets. Tamil was his mother tongue; Sanskrit his window to India’s classical wisdom

Hindi is a national link ,English a gateway to global knowledge. He rejected the simplistic binaries Indian vs foreign, regional vs national, classical vs modern that continue to distort India’s language politics today.

According to his approach

 A nation must think in many languages but feel rooted in its own.

1. Rejecting linguistic inferiority

At a time when colonial ideology portrayed Indian languages as inadequate for modern thought, Bharati insisted that they possessed the expressive and intellectual capacity required for a modern nation. Importantly, his argument was never sentimental. It was political and psychological. A society that internalises linguistic inferiority, he warned, becomes intellectually dependent on external frameworks. Today, this insight reads as a diagnosis of a persistent Indian reality , English continues to occupy a disproportionate space in public administration, elite education and economic opportunity. While its utility is undeniable, Bharati’s concern was about hierarchy, not access. The relationship between English and Indian languages remains unequal not because of linguistic capacity but because of historical attitudes that remain unaddressed.

2. Language is always the national's primary confidence. He argued that people must learn to think freely in their own linguistic idioms. This belief echoed in his journalism and essays, where he urged Indians to modernise their languages so that they could sustain scientific discourse, political debate and intellectual exploration. This perspective remains arguably one of the most underappreciated aspects of Bharati’s legacy.He has a multilingual Framework for a Diverse Republic. According to him “Mother tongue is essential for cultural grounding and emotional fluency. But  a pan-Indian language is a must for inter-regional communication and mobility.

He also focuses on the  global language  for science, knowledge and international engagement. Contemporary UNESCO recommendations and research on cognitive development advocate precisely such additive multilingualism.

Bharati believed India’s linguistic diversity was an asset, not a complication but it's a

strategic advantage. His writings argue repeatedly that no Indian should be afraid of learning multiple languages: “Our minds,” he suggested, “are naturally equipped for multiplicity.” The deeper challenge was not multilingualism but the political anxieties that reduce languages to instruments of identity competition.

Even today, language debates in India are often framed as zero-sum contests , Hindi versus Tamil, English versus Indian languages, classical versus modern. Bharati’s thought cuts through such binaries. For him, each language served a distinct function, and none diminished the others.His poetry of freedom was also a manifesto of linguistic decolonisation.

Bharati’s political writings reflect a sophisticated understanding of how colonialism shaped linguistic structures in India.The British administration consolidated the role of English as the language of power and reduced Indian languages to vernacular status. This hierarchy created a psychological dependence that, Bharati believed, would outlast political freedom.

A language matures only when it becomes a vehicle for science, philosophy, and public reasoning—not merely literature.

His critique had three components:

# Bharati rejected the categorisation of languages into “advanced” or “backward”. He argued that languages become modern through usage, innovation and intellectual activity, not inherent qualities.

# He accepted that “English is useful, but its dominance is harmful”

Bharati valued English as a window to global knowledge but warned against its disproportionate influence. He foresaw a hierarchical system in which English would monopolise science, higher education and administrative power, a prediction that remains true a century later.

#   Democracy requires equal dignity for all Indian languages. If citizens cannot participate in knowledge systems or public institutions in their own languages, democratic participation becomes uneven.

Bharati’s Unfinished Agenda

“Modernising Indian Languages”

Among Bharati’s most forward-looking ideas was his insistence that Indian languages must become vehicles for scientific, technical and rational discourse. His writings called for-

creation of comprehensive scientific and technical terminologies,

translation of global literature and research,simplification of prose to make knowledge accessible,and institutional efforts to modernise linguistic structures.

He envisioned Indian languages as languages of knowledge, not merely poetry or folklore. Yet, despite advances in literature and media, India has not transformed its languages into fully capable academic mediums. University level science, law, technology and social-science education remain overwhelmingly English-driven.

What's  Bharati’s Linguistic Nationalism

Often, discussions on language and nationalism gravitate towards the search for a “national language”. Bharati rejected the premise itself. He believed India’s unity would come not from linguistic uniformity but from mutual respect among languages.

Three principles guided his vision-

1. Linguistic harmony is superior to linguistic homogenisation .Imposing a single linguistic identity, he believed, would be neither practical nor culturally sensitive.

2. All Indian languages are equally civilisational whether Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Hindi or Sanskrit  contributed to India’s collective heritage. No language should function as an index of cultural superiority.

3. A link language must not become a symbol of dominance .While he acknowledged the need for a practical lingua franca, he insisted that such a language must not marginalise regional tongues.These ideas remain strikingly relevant at a time when debates over language policy often become proxies for cultural or political contestation.

The Digital Century: A New Dimension to Bharati’s Thought

The 21st century has introduced a new dimension to the language question: technology. Artificial Intelligence, machine translation, speech recognition, digital governance and social media all depend on computational linguistic infrastructure.

Bharati, who emphasised linguistic modernisation, would likely have identified this as the critical challenge of our time. Bridging this gap is essential for ensuring that Indian languages remain relevant in fields such as AI, digital governance, e-learning and online knowledge platforms. His vision thus becomes not just cultural but technological: a demand that Indian languages evolve to meet the knowledge systems of the future. Honouring Bharati’s linguistic ideas requires structural measures, not symbolic observance.

1. Mother tongue based multilingual education is highly recommended.

High quality scientific and technical materials must be available in Indian languages, backed by rigorous pedagogical frameworks. Translating existing content is insufficient; comprehensive knowledge ecosystems must be built.

2. Inter Indian linguistic literacy must be encouraged and students should be encouraged perhaps even incentivised to learn an additional Indian language. Such efforts would build bridges across regions and reduce linguistic alienation.

3.Strengthening Indian languages within public institutions such as courts, universities, government bodies and research institutions must gradually widen the use of Indian languages, supported by reliable translation systems and standardised terminology.

4. India’s multilingual future requires a

 permanent National Terminology and Translation Commission ,which must be responsible for vocabulary standardisation, translation coordination, and linguistic innovation. This is essential for academic, legal and scientific advancement in Indian languages.

 Bharati’s Relevance in Contemporary India

In the special reference of new day BHARAT, Bharati’s ideas resonate because he provides all answers India is struggling for…

Bharati did not offer a single solution, he offered a framework. His clarity lay not in proposing a rigid language policy but in outlining principles that maintain their legitimacy over time.

Subramania Bharati belongs not only to the world of poetry but to the intellectual history of India. His vision for Indian languages anticipated many of the challenges India faces today. It was modern without being deracinated, inclusive without being ambiguous, and ambitious without being naive.

On Bhartiya Bhasha Divas, the most meaningful tribute to Bharati is to recognise the contemporary relevance of his blueprint:

• A modern India must be multilingual, confident in its languages, and prepared to adapt them to the knowledge systems of the future.
• The responsibility of shaping such a linguistic ecosystem now rests with policymakers, educators, technologists and cultural institutions. Bharati identified the path; the nation must walk it.

His ideas remain unfinished. But they remain possible.

Oṃ sahanāvavatu 

sahanau bhunaktu .

saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai .

tejasvi nāvadhītamastu

mā vidviṣāvahai .

Oṃ Sāntiḥ Sāntiḥ Sāntiḥ .

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