Mush

South India, particularly TamilNadu is the bastion of opposing imposition of Hindi.This Hindi opposition movement has a long tradition and history in Tamilnadu(TN).

Some History:
In 1937, Hindhi was made a compulsory subject in TN schools by C.Rajagopalachari,then CM of TN.Tamilians under the stewardship of periyar and Maraimalai adigal broke that attempt.Two tamilians thalamuthu and natarajan, died in that epic struggle.

After Independence Hindi and english were made the national languages of India.In 1965, after a 15 year gap, english was removed from that list and only hindi was declared as the solitary national language of India.This led to violent protests in TN and so many deaths of tamilians.To end this struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru promised that Hindhi will not be forced on tamilians, as long as they dont want it. DMK came to power in 1967 because of this epic struggle.

In 1980’s central government started navodaya schools all over the country.But in these schools, Hindi was a compulsory language.MGR,then CM of TN,asked that this should be scrapped.But central government refused to do so.So MGR denied permission for navodaya schools to be started in TN.Till now we dont have navodaya schools in TN.Till now central government has not removed this descriminatory rule.

TN opposed All India radio, being renamed as akash vani.After protests,akash vani is still called( in TN only) as AIR( All India radio).This protest of TN was a sign of of protest for naming all institutions of central government only in Hindi.

But still indirect attempts are made to force Hindi on tamils.I will talk about it as I proceed to the next sections of my article.

TN’s stand on Hindi:

1. Tamilians are proud to call themselves as Indians.Tamils are no less patriots than any Indian in any other part of India.we have given patriots and freedom fighters to our nation like Kamaraj, Abdul kalam and Rajaji.In rest of India,a misconception prevails that tamils dont accept hindi because they are unpatriotic.I would like to call that as baseless premise.Among tamilians,some extreme fringe elements who ask for seperate TN still exist,but they don’t even command 0.5% of public support.

2. Tamils don’t oppose Hindi, but we only oppose imposition of Hindi. This opposition is based on our freedom of speech. Our mother tongue is Tamil. We don’t have any aversion to a person learning any language,be it spanish, French, english, Hindi, maratha, oriya etc. We dont discourage anybody from learning any language. But we totally detest a language being forced on us.How will north Indians feel if Tamil is made compulsary language in schools?How will they feel if doordarshan is called as pothigai channel and runs its program’s in tamil? It is the same feeling which we get when we see doordarshan and when Hindi is made compulsory in schools.

What are our demands:

1.Tamils should not be forced to learn Hindi.Now in many competitive exams run by central government, knowing hindi is made a necessary qualification. In some exams,you can take them only in Hindi or english.This puts rural tamils in a disadvantage,just like how competitive exams being conducted only in english puts rural north indians in disadvantage.

2.In central government banks in TN, officers are ordered that they should sign only in Hindi.Why should a tamilian employee, working in Tamilnadu forced to sign in Hindi , in an Indian government bank? Is this fair?At times central government gives orders like “All banks must buy only hindi newspapers”.This certainly irritates us.

3.Tamil employees of banks are forced to learn hindi, because they might be transferred to North India.But north indian employees of banks, who come to work in TN are not forced to learn tamil.They speak in Hindi and english, which is not understood by rural tamils.If tamil employees speak only tamil and english in North India, they are frowned.But here in TN, North indian employees expect Tamil customers to know hindi.This double standards should stop.

Further different ministries of central government slowly and steadily shift all their work to Hindi from English.This happens year by year.Many ministries and departments now are functioning entirely in Hindi.

If the reason for all this is that Hindi is our national language,then we expect tamil also to be made the national language of India.Either revert back to english or tamil.Not Hindi.

Instead of making tamils to learn english, hindi and tamil, it would be better if we all learn english and our mother tongue.

I hope that people across India will agree to our right to freedom of speech in the language of our choice.We dont hate any language.But we love or language.

Jai Hind.