Chennai: Tamil Nadu politician MK Stalin criticised Amit Shah on Saturday after the Home Minister said Hindi is “the one language marking (India’s) identity globally”. An incensed DMK chief hit out at Shah’s Hindi Diwas message, warning the centre of another “language war” unless Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a clarification. “The Home Minister’s views threatening India’s integrity are painful and condemnable. The DMK will not hesitate to unite states which stand to lose rights due to Hindi dominance,” MK Stalin said.
Earlier on Saturday Shah had said that since Hindi is “the most widely-spoken and understood language” in the country it is the only language that can unite the nation. His comments were quickly seen by many as a not-so-subtle attempt to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking peoples and states, with the hashtag #StopHindiImposition quickly trending on Twitter.
“We have been continuously waging protests against the imposition of Hindi. Today’s remarks made by Amit Shah gave us a jolt. It will affect the unity of the country. We demand that he takes his statement back,” MK Stalin responded in Tamil on Twitter.
Controversy erupted in June after a draft version of the National Education Policy 2019 required school-going children in southern states to compulsorily learn Hindi. The AIADMK and the DMK, Tamil Nadu’s main political parties, protested what they labelled as an imposition of Hindi designed to serve a political purpose in the long term.
At that time MK Stalin warned the centre that any move to impose Hindi would be a “huge disaster”, while MDMK leader Vaiko warned of a “language war”.
Tamil Nadu has long opposed the imposition of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states; the issue is an emotive one in a state that saw violent protests from 1937 to 1940 and in 1965.
Protests against June’s education policy were also voiced by former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who said no language should be imposed over another for any reason.
Kumaraswamy took to Twitter this time as well, asking if Kannada Language Day (which falls on November 1) would ever be celebrated by Hindi-speaking states.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress MP from Kerala Shashi Tharoor had also issued warnings against the forced imposition of Hindi.
“Most of us in the South learn Hindi as a second language but nobody in the North is learning Malayalam or Tamil,” Tharoor was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Faced with mounting criticism, the centre revised the National Education Policy draft, removing the reference to Hindi in a move that did not satisfy Tamil Nadu leaders; the ruling AIADMK said the state would continue to follow a two-language policy (of learning Tamil and English).
“In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or Grade 7, so long as they are able to still demonstrate proficiency in three languages…,” the revised draft said.
The old version had said Hindi and English would continue to be among the three languages students would study in schools, be it in Hindi or non-Hindi speaking states.
