Protests and demonstrations. Linguistic chauvinism has expressed itself in various forms since Independence often led by self-serving leaders who have themselves received an education in English and its accruing benefits. These leaders have gained some support on the hypothesis that recognising the importance of the English language in education is to deny the import of regional languages. However this is a flawed argument, positing one against the other. Teaching of one at the cost of the other is counter-productive since both have different roles and are equally important.
Regional languages provide access to specific socio-cultural milieus, a mutually enabling process.
In a situation of skewed development the importance of empowerment through imparting information through regional languages cannot be overemphasised. However while this is important, it cannot be at the cost of proficiency in the English language. English is not only the most widely spoken language globally, it can overcome regional chauvinism too. No, there is no alternative to English as a link language. The attempt to impose Hindi as a national language has invited violent backlash from the Southern states which see this as yet another form of the Hindi heartland's attempt at domination.