1. NATIONAL INTEGRATION

The terms 'nation' and 'integration' are both simultaneously concrete as well as abstract notions. The question of achieving National Integration is discussed in India from the angles of religion, language and ethnicity. These three elements may together promote National Integration. They may either promote or pose a threat to national integration, when considered severally. Or one of these elements may work in collusion with another manifestly destructive force to cause harm to national integration. experience has shown that the latter happens more often. Each of them has its own role to play in the conduct of administration, education, etc., and has several sub-entities that contribute to national integration.

Integration has many meanings like the "act or an instance of combining into an integral whole, behaviour in harmony with the environment; the organization of he constituent elements of the personality into a co-ordinated, harmonious whole"2. The same in the context of National Integration, can be perceived on two planes, one the geographical or territorial level and another one on psychological level. On the geographical level it can mean 'keeping the territory united' and on the psychological level 'keeping the plural society in harmony' irrespective of its composition made possible by different linguistic, religious, ethnic and economic groups of people.

We are here to discuss the use of language in administration in the federal set up of India. Hence it is better for us first of all to understand how integration is pursued on the plane of the States an do the plane of the Nation. So, in our case the question of integration is the question of maintenance of integration of the States and Union Territories on one hand and of the Nation on the other hand.

2. NATION

The nation is one, and it is a concrete entity, but the perception of what constitutes a 'Nation' differs from one speech community to another, from a political system to another and from one point of time to another in the history. The perception voiced varies with the user of the term. Hence it is possible for some of the users to interpret 'Nation' solely depending upon the situation that they face.

It was with deesa 'country' that people were more familiar than with 'raaÀra' 'nation' in earlier times. The geographical territory ruled by a 'king' dominated this perception, in a way. The perception then was dependent on the authority with whom one should ultimately communicate, for ultimate administrative purpose.

Kauilya, in his artha s¡stra identifies "The king, the minister, the country, the fort, the treasury, the army and the friend, and the enemy...."3 as the elements of sovereignty. Tirukkural identifies the constituents of a state as "the king, troops, population, substance, council, alliances and fortifications"4. The vastukoosa lists that "the king, the minister, population, fort, treasure, friends and territory"5 as the constituents of the State.

The word 'nation' is derived from Latin root to mean 'to be born' and connotes a people of common descent. According to Stalin "A nation is a historically formed stable community of people which arose on the basis of common language, territory, economic life and psychological make up which has manifested in a common culture6. That the language communities differ from one another in the perception of what a nation is, is amply demonstrated in language use, rather in the changes that are necessitated in their use of terms. Inclusive versus exclusive notions as in the case of Meitheis, Thaadous and Mizos domiate the concept of nation in some language communities. In some other communities, a progression from a smaller unit to a larger ultimate unit geographic or otherwise dominates the notion of nation (as in the case of the Malayalam speech community). A distinction between the crude and the regioned, between the non-standard and the standard dominates the evolution of nation in some language communities. In several others, the concept of nation is one of adjustment and allocation of meanings to existing words to account for the nation. In still others, the adjustment and allocation of meanings is made possible only by an adoption of words from other languages. In some languages, a new meaning of nation is added to the only existing word and a systematic ambiguity is established (Personal communication from Prof. M.S. Thirumalai).

3. LANGUAGE IN ADMINISTRATION

Here, terms like official language, language used in administration, lingua franca, common language, regional languages and provincial languages are discussed. In India, some time in the academic circles and most of the time in the media circles the discussions treat official language, lingua franca, national language and common language as synonyms. But each one of them has different functions to perform in the society. Also I would like to draw a distinction between the 'Official Language' and 'Language used in Administration'. To illustrate this point an example can be cited here. Though the Official Language Act of Andhra Pradesh, 1966 recognizes Telugu as the Official Language for use in its territory, it also permits the use of English, Urdu, Kannada, Tamil and Oriya in certain specified situations and regions for administrative activities. Hence these later ones are the Languages Used in Administration in Andhra Pradesh though only Telugu is the Official Language.

Precisely speaking, Official Language is 'a language used in the business of Government, legislative, executive and judicial'; Lingua Franca is 'a language which is used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them'; Regional Language is 'a language which is sued as a medium of communication between people living with in a certain area who have different mother tongues'. Vernacular Language is 'a language which is the mother tongue of a group which is socially or politically dominated by another group speaking a different languages .... Do not consider the language of a minority in one country as a vernacular if it is an official language in another country'; and National Language is "the language of a political, social and cultural entity".7

A language used in Administration occupies the central place in the context of Language Use in Society. Also its effective harmonious and successful implementation has to be preceded by its use in Education and followed by its use in Law.