India is a democratic multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual and multi-religious country. It has about 400 different languages, 22 of which are recognized as languages by the Indian government.
Despite the conflict over definition/identification of languages, India has still been able to expand the scope of recognized languages by offering official status to languages from different ethnic groups.
The Indian experience offers a valuable reference for Taiwan.
As of today, there are no stipulations in Taiwan's Constitution concerning language. This is a sharp contrast to the language stipulations in India's Constitution.
India's Constitution is not perfect, but it is capable of regulating the status and function of federal and state languages as well as protecting minority language rights. In Taiwan, legislation only provides the languages of the different ethnic groups with passive protection against language discrimination, but it does not offer positive rights.
The government should take steps towards language recognition and positive language rights.
There are lessons to be learned from India's language politics. Taiwan's proposed Language Equality Law (語言平等法) lists 14 national languages.
The draft law has been opposed by those who say that official multilingualism will lead to ethnic conflict, social unrest, and communication problems. They therefore advocate linguistic assimilation.
The Indian experience shows that language assimilation policies and non-recognition of minority languages will neither be able to build a feeling of community nor prevent social conflict, but rather will create alienation and dissatisfaction among minority groups.
Recognizing the status of the languages of the different ethnic groups will promote ethnic reconciliation and linguistic harmony. In fact, about a quarter of countries have more than one official language. For example, South Africa's Constitution recognizes 11 official languages, and Switzerland recognizes French, German, Italian and Romansh as their official languages.
That kind of multilingual policy based on diversity is the kind of language recognition model that Taiwan should pursue.
Taiwan needs a language movement modeled on India's active approach to obtaining language recognition. All ethnic groups in Taiwan should unite in their pursuit of recognition. Taiwan's past rulers have taken a divide-and-rule approach, which has led to suspicion and distrust between the different groups and made it impossible for them to unite. As a result, the linguistic dominance of Mandarin continues and the status of local languages continues to be unimportant.
Ethnic groups must build mutual trust and work together in their quest for official language status.
Tiu Hak-khiam is an associate professor in the department of Chinese literature at National Taitung University.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
History might remember 2026, not 2022, as the year artificial intelligence (AI) truly changed everything. ChatGPT’s launch was a product moment. What is happening now is an anthropological moment: AI is no longer merely answering questions. It is now taking initiative and learning from others to get things done, behaving less like software and more like a colleague. The economic consequence is the rise of the one-person company — a structure anticipated in the 2024 book The Choices Amid Great Changes, which I coauthored. The real target of AI is not labor. It is hierarchy. When AI sharply reduces the cost
US President Donald Trump recently repeated his claim that “Taiwan stole America’s chip industry,” reigniting public debate on the issue. As a former Taiwanese minister of economic affairs and an entrepreneur deeply involved in semiconductor supply chain development, I feel a responsibility to clarify this misunderstanding. From the perspective of global industrial evolution and the economic principle of comparative advantage, such a statement appears overly simplistic and risks obscuring the essence of the issue. The rise of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry was not built on “replacing America,” but rather emerged as a result of countries pursuing different development paths within the
RSS