“A Positive Approach to the Problem of Indian Unity”?

Abstract This article examines the impact of linguistic reorganization on politics in Bihar (1954–57). It traces the interlinking politics of Bengalis in Bihar and Hindus and Muslims respectively, who claimed Hindi and Urdu as their mother tongues and discusses the processes that went into forming a broad antilinguistic reorganization coalition that included these three groups. First, it discusses the strategies used by different factions to oppose linguistic realignment in Bihar and the unexpected coalitions that emerged from this period in history. Second, it demonstrates how the linguistic territorialism of this period provided a space for Muslim politicians in the state, as the proponents of Hindi within the Indian National Congress presented Muslims in the state as inherently Bihari to prevent the transfer of territories with large Muslim populations to West Bengal. This article, consequently, seeks to nuance both conceptions of linguistic territorialism and the broader Hindi language movement in India by presenting the distinct Bihari perspectives on these issues.