Poficy Sciences 22: 415-436, 1989. 9 1989 KluwerAcademic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Language policy and political strategy in India DAVID D. LAITIN Political Science Department, University of Chicago, 5828 S. UniversityAvenue, Chicago, IL 60637 US.A. Abstract. The official language policy of India is described as a 3 + 1 language outcome. The central question that guides this paper is to explain why, when Congress leaders attempted to provide for India a single indigenous language for official communication, have they suffered more opposition than have rulers of states that consolidated in earlier centuries? Standard explanations for the different outcome, relying on special attributes of Indian culture and his- tory, are found to be inadequate. A game theoretic analysis of political strategy helps to high- light two variables that best explain India's language outcome: the world historical time of state consolidation; and the nature of politician/bureaucrat relations for postcolonial states. India has been a crucible for the drama of language conflictJ Some 1500 lan- guages and dialects are spoken by India's 800 million people. Contrary to the state-building efforts in other empires, India remains a linguistic mosaic. No single language stands as the authorized medium for official exchange. Citi- zens develop complex language repertoires in order to interact with servants, family, merchants, colleagues and officials. Language needs are so onerous that many parents with sufficient resources seek to equip their children with different repertoires in order to hedge their linguistic bets. This situation has led sensitive observers of India to forecast 'dangerous decades' of language conflict (Harrison, 1957). Despite deep controversies and a history of violence over these issues, a rather stable outcome has been reached: in regard to languages of education and administration, India now has a de facto 3 _+ 1 language policy. This means that English and Hindi share the de facto status of the language of All- Union business. Although some realms of business are entirely in English (e.g. the records of the state owned oil company) and some are entirely in Hindi (e.g. recent army manuals), these two languages share space in virtually all areas. (For instance, although nearly all India Administrative Service applicants take their exams in English, it is permissible to do so in Hindi). Students in public education must demonstrate some competence in the two All-Union languages. The third language that many Indians must learn is the language of the state in which they are living. In many states, the medium of instruction through primary school is in the official language of the state. That is the third lan- guage; what about the + 1 ? Those who live in Bihar, for instance, where the state language is Hindi, need learn only two languages. (Some in the north can get through, but not with bright job prospects, with Hindi only). Those minor-