Stalin warns of another language war if Hindi was imposed

CHENNAI: Taking strong exemption to the various attempts of ‘brutal imposition’ of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people through a slew of concerted efforts, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin warned the Union government, led by Narendra Modi, against testing the Tamil people’s love for their language once again, thus handing out a veiled threat of another massive protest.

Recalling the 1965 language war that broke out when the Union government sought to thrust the dominant Hindi language by going against the assurance given in 1957 by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharal Nehru that English would continue as an official language till people not speaking Hindi asked for it, Stalin pitched for the making of all Indian languages as official languages.

In a hard-hitting statement on Monday, the Chief Minister accused the BJP government of trying to bring in a system of one language, one religion, one food and one culture in the guise of a one nation concept to destroy the prevailing fraternal feelings and sense of brotherhood among people speaking different languages, following different faiths and of different cultures.  

The strength and pride of the Indian subcontinent was in its plurality, he said and flayed the recommendations of a parliamentary committee, headed by Union home minister Amit Shah, to make Hindi the common language when each of the 22 languages listed under Schedule Eight of the Constitution enjoyed equal rights and the popular demand was to include more languages in the schedule.

Questioning the need to conduct competitive examinations in Hindi for jobs in the Union government and also to make Hindi the language of instruction in top notch educational institutions like the IITs, AIIMS and IIMs, he said English should not be replaced by Hindi as recommended by the parliamentary committee on official languages, in its report submitted last month to the President Droupadi Murmu.

Stalin expressed concern over some threats issued through the report like action against officials not filling up Hindi teaching jobs for more than 3 years, crack down on authorities and officials who did not use Hindi, denial of jobs for those not knowing Hindi and making Hindi compulsory in the states where it was now a link language.

Feeding mother’s milk to Hindi and poison to other languages even while raising the slogan ‘Bharat Matha Ki Jai’ (Long live Mother India) in Parliament went against not only the unity and integration of the country but also threatened its plurality, he said.

When the total number of people not speaking Hindi surpassed Hindi-speakers and every language had its own importance and individuality with cultural significance attached to them, it was English, by continuing as the link language, served as a fence, protecting the quintessential cultural significance of other languages from the onslaught of Hindi domination, he said.

The DMK, when it entered Parliament by winning elections in 1957, had given a call for the protection of regional languages, extracting a promise from Jawaharlal Nehru against Hindi imposition, which when broken in 1965 saw several people setting themselves on fire and some others laying down to save Tamil language by facing police bullets, he recalled.

Subsequently the continuation of English and Hindi as official languages was confirmed through resolutions in 1968 and 1976 and hence the government, instead of attempting to impose Hindi, should aim at conferring official language status to all languages, considering the scientific growth and technological advancement in the present day context, Stalin said.

Hindi imposition was practically not possible as it inherently meant that only Hindi speakers were Indian citizens and that the others were second grade subjects, which would not be accepted by people, particularly those in the states adjoining Tamil Nadu, who love their own language, he said.