The Maharashtra (a western Indian state where Marathi is the dominant language) government has suspended a planned Hindi proficiency exam for state employees after protests from linguistic and regional groups. The exam, scheduled for 28 June and based on a 50-year-old rule requiring civil servants who did not study Hindi through school to pass a language test or face withheld salary increments, was cancelled following widespread criticism that it amounted to the forced imposition of Hindi on a Marathi-speaking workforce. State minister Uday Samant said authorities will review whether the 1976 rule remains relevant, but activist groups say they will continue pressing for its complete abolition.