Ravichandran Ashwin (Photo: X)
India former cricketer, Ravichandran Ashwin joined the debate around Hindi being a national or an official language.
Addressing students at a private engineering college in his hometown, Chennai, Ashwin said that Hindi is an "official language" but not a national language.
The 38-year-old spin maestro, who surprised everyone with his sudden decision to retire from international cricket from the middle of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, had reignited the never ending discussion over 'Hindi imposition' with his comments.
Speaking at the event, the off-break bowler said, "English students in the house..give me a yay. Tamil…okay.. Hindi... I wanted to say 'Hindi is an official language and not the national language'."
Ashwin also opened up on speculation that he wanted to lead the side. Dismissing the claims, he said that he never wanted to take up the leadership role. "When someone says I can't do it, I wake up to accomplish it, but if they say I can, I lose interest," Ashwin said.
Meanwhile, the debate around Hindi being the national or official language has been hanging in the air for quite some time now.
Tamil Nadu has been the centre point, opposing Hindi as the national language, in addition to other states. Tamil Nadu CM Stalin was also very vocal with his thoughts over the issue.
"The LIC website has been reduced to a propaganda tool for Hindi imposition. Even the option to select English is displayed in Hindi! This is nothing but cultural and language imposition by force, trampling on India's diversity. LIC grew with the patronage of all Indians. How dare it betray the majority of its contributors? We demand an immediate rollback of this linguistic tyranny. #StopHindiImposition" Stalin wrote in a social media post recently.
In 2022, the chief minister moved a resolution against Hindi imposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Taking to X after it was unanimously passed, Stalin wrote, "Language is the lifeline of Tamils. We will never accept the hegemony of Hindi to rule over us. Opposing the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Official language, the TNLA has unanimously passed a historic resolution. Once again, TN takes the lead to #StopHindiImposition."
Earlier in 2019, the country erupted in protests, especially in the southern part, after Union Home Minister Amit Shah proposed a "One Nation, One language" scheme.
"India is a country of different languages and every language has its own importance but it is very important to have one language for the whole country which becomes the identity of India in the world. Today, if any one language can bind the country in the thread of unity, then it is the most widely spoken Hindi language," Shah wrote in his post on X in Hindi.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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