Official Language: Hindi and English Proficiency
Scope
The paper is set bilingually and candidates answer in Hindi or English. This section tests comprehension and correctness in the chosen medium, plus knowledge of the Official Language policy that governs railway working.
Policy points
- Article 343 makes Hindi in Devanagari script the official language of the Union, with English continuing as the associate official language.
- The Official Languages Act, 1963 and the Official Language Rules, 1976 divide the country into Regions A, B and C for bilingual working.
- Section 3(3) documents, namely resolutions, general orders, rules, notifications and administrative reports, are issued in both Hindi and English; progress is tracked through quarterly returns to the Department of Official Language.
- Railway forms, station signage and staff notices are bilingual; correspondence is ordinarily answered in the language in which it is received.
Grammar for marks
Hindi: sandhi (swar, vyanjan, visarga), samas (tatpurush, dvandva, bahuvrihi, dvigu, avyayibhav, karmadharay), upasarga and pratyaya, paryayvachi and vilom, muhavare. English: error spotting, subject-verb agreement, prepositions, idioms and cloze passages.
Worked example
हिम + आलय = हिमालय. The final 'a' of हिम combines with the initial 'aa' of आलय to yield the long 'aa', so this is deergha sandhi. The governing rule is: अ/आ + अ/आ becomes आ. Contrast this with गुण संधि, where अ + इ becomes ए.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing deergha and guna sandhi when the vowel pair is not memorised.
- Treating sandhi and samas as the same operation: sandhi joins sounds, samas forms compound words.
- English: 'between' for two items, 'among' for more than two.
- Answering in a medium that does not match the question booklet language.