Anti-Hindi agitations of West Bengal

The anti-Hindi agitations of West Bengal is the opposition to Hindi imposition in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Movements against Hindi imposition were mainly conducted through social media, road meetings, demonstrations and deputation submissions. Road meetings, protest and deputation submission programs were initially centered in the city of Kolkata or Kolkata metropolitan area but later spread to various divisional cities and district cities of West Bengal. All these movements were organized by organizations like Amra Bangali, Bangla Pokkho and Jatiyo Bangla Sammelan.^[1][2][3]

Anti-Hindi agitations of West Bengal
Date	1980s–present
Location	Present-day West Bengal, India
Caused by	Various attempts by the Government of India to promote Hindi language in the state
Goals	To prevent the imposition of Hindi in the state
Methods	Conferences, rallying, media activism
Parties
Amra Bangali Bangla Pokkho Jatiyo Bangla Sammelan Government of India

Since the end of the second decade of the 21st century, various organizations have organized road meetings and agitations against the use of Hindi or Hindi and English languages except Bengali on the nameplates of various institutions of West Bengal, national highways, Banks and Kolkata Metro.^[1]

History

1980s

Amra Bangali started a political program in the 1980s to promote the Bengali language. However, the party's activities were mainly confined to the northern part of the West Bengal.

Protests by Bangla Pokkho

Main article: Bangla Pokkho § Protests

Agitations of 2021

The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science issued a notification to the staffs of institution on 19 March 2021, stating that 55% of written communication in institutions should be done in Hindi.^[4] staffs organized protests against imposition of Hindi in university. Students protested by writing 'No Hindi Imposition' on the institution grounds and stood maintaining social distance. But the notification was only for administrative staff.^[4]