Our Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one language. Although Hindi was identified as the official language but there were many safeguards to protect other languages. According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purpose was to stop in 1965. However, many non-Hindi speaking states demanded that the use of English should continue. The Central government decided to continue the use of English alongwith Hindi for official purposes. Hindi is not imposed on states where people speak a different language. The flexibility shown by Indian political leaders helped our country avoid the kind of situation that Shri Lanka finds itself in. In Sri Lanka, the major social groups are the Sinhala-speakers (74%) and the Tamil-speakers (18%). In 1956, an Act was passed to recognize Sinhala as the only official language, thus disregarding Tamil. Due to this, and other reasons, the relations between the Sinhala and the Tamil communities got strained over time.