[lg policy] India’s linguistic imperialism: Tamil Nadu resents central imposition of Hindi on them!

[Harold Schiffman]

 India’s linguistic imperialism: Tamil Nadu resents central imposition of
Hindi on them!
April 2, 2017
<http://kashmirwatch.com/indias-linguistic-imperialism-tamil-nadu-resents-central-imposition-hindi/>
Dr
Abdul Ruff <http://kashmirwatch.com/author/drabdulruff/> 0 Comment
<http://kashmirwatch.com/indias-linguistic-imperialism-tamil-nadu-resents-central-imposition-hindi/#respond>
Dravida
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<http://kashmirwatch.com/tag/hindi/>, Hindutva
<http://kashmirwatch.com/tag/hindutva/>, Hindutva agenda
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-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
__________________

There is a popular saying in Tamil Nadu which approximately says not to
waste their time on unproductive things like an idling person having found
no employment or work to be busy with, went on to shave a domestic animal.
Similarly, some people feeling boredom kept on digging the earth and
creating deep pits and holes and again filling them with the mud they have
dug out – as non-sensical damage control mechanism. Or, build constructions
and demolish them to reconstruct again.

While earlier, people from the South used to go to North to work and earn
livelihood, today many North Indians come to South to work and earn money.
They try to speak South Indian languages as a mere necessity and when they
return their home that language necessity would become irrelevant.

Indian federal government at time does exactly that. Now it is eager to
impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu by replacing nameplates in English by Hindi
versions, angering Tamils and DNK taking up the issue seriously. New Delhi
is doing his unproductive work, knowing full well that Tamils in the South
oppose Hindu imposition tooth and nail. Year ago DMK spearheaded anti-Hindu
agitation to earn their seats in state assembly and parliament and
eventually came to power in the state. DMK is a powerful party even without
Hindi issue but the Congress-BJP – strong in Hindi belt – is trying to
force it to take up the issue so that central government drops its
Hindiization of India once for all, for, India has several national
languages with equal importance.

English or Hindi or Tamil, or Russian people learn if and when they need
it. None can force a language on the people directly or by indirect
techniques.

Tamils living in North or elsewhere do learn to perfect Hindi and other
North or other regional Indian languages because they need to use local
languages. But asking Tamils or any other regions to know and learn Hindi
as a compulsory  language is  ridiculous.

.
*Federal government cannot impose Hindi on Tamils*

While the Congress government time and again made strenuous efforts to
impose Hindi on Tamils and Kannadigas. But people objected to the central
dirty designs of linguistic imposition, the Modi regime is trying impose
both Hindi and Sanskrit on Tamils along with Yoga exercise a part of
Hindutva ideology- and not as health exercises.

In December 2014, the political scene in Tamil Nadu saw a churning with the
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, led by Vaiko, walking out of the
National Democratic Alliance.

Among the reasons Vaiko gave for his decision was “a consistent effort by
the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to impose the culture of the
North on Tamil Nadu.” In particular was the fear that Tamils would be made
to learn Hindi and Sanskrit through official means, something that met with
violent reactions in the 1960s in the State.

When the Centre wanted government departments to use Hindi in social media,
protests erupted immediately in the State. The then Chief Minister,
Jayalalithaa, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the
decision was against the spirit of the Official Languages Act, 1963.
Perhaps, one of the major reasons the Congress was shunted out of power in
the State in 1967 was imposition of Hindi. The State government brought in
paramilitary forces and clamped down on the anti-Hindi agitators, and the
party never again came to power.

Back in 1937, when the Madras Presidency government led by C.
Rajagopalachari insisted on compulsory learning of Hindi in the State, the
Dravidian movement, then in the form of the Justice Party, got a major
campaign agenda. For three years till the policy was revoked in 1940, the
agitations were sustained in almost every part of the Presidency, in the
process making its leader, E.V. Ramasamy (Periyar), the tallest leader of
the Dravidian movement.

In 1965, when the 15-year timeframe to make Hindi the only official
language was about to expire, Tamil Nadu again led the agitations. By this
time, with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) gaining ground, imposition
of Hindi was part of the narrative of the Aryan-Dravidian divide — the
northern Aryans attempting to invade the cultural space of the southern
Dravidians. It took an assurance from the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur
Shastri that English would continue as the second official language as long
as non-Hindi-speaking people wanted it, to quell the protests.
Political commentators argue that years of agitations against Hindi have
clearly had an impact on the psyche of the people of Tamil Nadu. A common
view is that while the people of the other southern States learn Hindi
along with their native language, those of Tamil Nadu are fanatical about
their language choice, which is a consequence of the larger political
narrative. However, while Tamil Nadu political parties have consistently
opposed the “imposition” of Hindi, the State’s policy, all through the
decades, has been to make learning of Tamil “compulsory” in schools.

In 2006, the DMK government passed the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act,
through which school students had to compulsorily learn the language from
Class I. The year 2015-16 will be crucial as the first batch which began
learning the language in 2006 will face the Class X public examinations,
making it a test of efficiency of the policy. But some academics feel that
with over two decades of globalization and the advancement in learning
technology, the animosity against Hindi had mellowed on the ground. So much
so that social scientists like C. Lakshmanan of the Madras Institute of
Development Studies feel there is a growing interest among the people to
learn multiple languages in India in all states but governments everywhere
create obstacles to that. In Hindi speaking states, only Hindi alone is
taught and promoted – not even English. They are totally narrow-minded and
anti-nationals.

Such parochial sentiments on the part of the governments in the country are
bad.

*Hindi chauvinism and parochialism*

 Indian government is bent upon making the Hindi compulsory language
thought the nation so that Hindi politicians can claim upper hand in
Parliament and they could impose one language formula in the parliament as
well as in all state assemblies.

No state in India promotes other languages as central government is
interested only in Hindi promotion all over India. While he is opposed to
the idea of “imposing” a language, Lakshmanan says the Tamil Nadu’s
government’s policies have made it difficult for people to get access to
other languages. So even if someone is willing to learn other languages and
foreign languages, the system discourages them.

He says that while the political rhetoric on Tamil has been strong, many
had preferred English to Tamil in education, thus helping them join the
mainstream without the need for Hindi. This was sometimes to the detriment
of Tamil. “Hindi, spoken widely in the country, is a means to power, and
even politicians let their children learn Hindi.  In that sense, the BJP
will gain if it facilitates learning of the language without imposing it.

Writer A. Marx says politically, the Tamil language issue has ceased to be
an electoral issue, though it continues to be an emotive issue. In 1965,
the DMK was the only face of the anti-Hindi agitations, giving it the full
benefit of the anti-Congress mood. In 2014, all Tamil parties have a common
policy on the language issue, giving no one a clear advantage.  Marx says
the anti-Hindi mood is actually more vigorous in the North than in the
South at the moment. “It is people speaking non-Hindi languages in the
North who have come down heavily on the BJP this time,” he says.
While the Dravidian parties opposed Hindi, he says, they had a logical
language policy nevertheless with the constant emphasis on learning
English, ensuring that Tamils were not left behind in the development story.

Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa challenged a Union home ministry
circular seeking to make Hindi the primary language in universities in the
southern state, saying the circular is not “legal”. “At a time when I have
been emphasizing to the central government that Tamil should be made an
official language, and to use Tamil in the Madras high court, they are
trying to impose to teach law and commerce in Hindi in Tamil Nadu
universities, which is neither right nor legal,” said the chief minister in
a press statement published in Tamil.

*Hindi –Hindutva nexus*

BJP and Congress parties make Hindi a part of their Hindutva agenda.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) sent a circular to Anna University
and Aliquippa University on Tuesday saying Hindi should be their main
language.

“The decision taken by the Central Hindi Committee in July 2011 would not
bind the universities of Tamil Nadu. Chief Secretary Mohan Varghese
Chunkath has been directed to advise the government-run universities to
inform the UGC in this regard,” Jayalalithaa said.

Earlier, two local constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
that rules at the Centre—Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Marumalarchi
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK)—had protested against the circular. They
called it an attempt by the central government to impose Hindi and sought
its immediate withdrawal.

The Official Languages Act, 1963, states that English shall be used for
purposes of communication in states that have not adopted Hindi as their
official language.

According to the Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union)
Rules, 1976, Tamil Nadu and a few other states fall in what has been
categorized as “Region C”. Communication from the central government to
non-central government offices or persons in these states shall be in
English, according to the rules. The states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and
Punjab, and the Union territories of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, and Dadra
and Nagar Haveli come under “Region B”, and any communication from the
central government office to them shall be in Hindi. If any communication
is issued to any of them in English, it shall be accompanied by a Hindi
translation. “Therefore, the UGC circular sent to Tamil Nadu universities
will not be applicable,” Jayalalithaa said.

Ramadoss, founder of PMK, said just because many universities, including
those in Tamil Nadu, received UGC grants, they cannot be used as “tools of
Hindi imposition”. He said it was not clear if the Centre had consulted the
states on this issue and urged the Centre to “drop” its efforts to “impose
Hindi”.

MDMK leader Vaiko alleged that besides the advisory to the universities,
central departments including the railways and insurance companies have
been asked to promote Hindi. “The Centre’s decision to impose Hindi… will
have its own repercussions,” he said while demanding the withdrawal of the
latest order.

Hindi is a sensitive issue in Tamil Nadu, with the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK) party under its founder C.N. Annadurai successfully having
led a major anti-Hindi agitation in 1965.

Tamil Nadu government said it won’t impose Sanskrit and Hindi on students.

The Tamil Nadu government would not impose Sanskrit and Hindi on students
studying in the state, said higher education minister K P Anbalagan in the
assembly on Tuesday. Anbalagan was replying to DMK legislator and former
school education minister Thangam Thennarasu who wanted to know what steps
the state government had taken to prevent the new education policy of the
Centre. “The Centre has not released the entire policy but only a part of
the draft policy has been uploaded for suggestions. The draft says that
Sanskrit and Hindi will be compulsory for students, and what is the state
government’s position on this,” Thennarasu wanted to know. He said
according to the new policy all students would be promoted only up to Class
4, instead of the present system of promoting them till they reach Class 8.
This would affect students in rural areas, he said and wanted the
government to pass a resolution in the assembly against the policy. Leader
of the Opposition M K Stalin also wanted the government to pass a
resolution in the assembly.

In his reply, the minister said, “The Centre has now asked Tamil Nadu
government’s suggestions on the new policy. Only after seeking suggestions
from the people in the state we will reply to the Centre. But anyway,
Sanskrit and Hindi will not be imposed on Tamil Nadu students, and the
government will not in any way help it impose the new policy,” he said.

The reply from Tamil Nadu would be based on factors like local education,
culture and state’s powers. The government would ensure that the new policy
would not affect education followed in the state, he added.

Hindi imposition and anti-Hindi movement

*DMK opposes imposition of Hindi on Tamil Nadu *

DMK has repeatedly declared that none has the right force Hindi into the
throat of people who are not interested in Hindi.  They asked the Federal
government o first make North Indian states to let their people learn some
South Indian languages before expecting the South Indians to accept Hindi
as one of their tongues.

Tamils are not opposed to Hindi but they hate that language being pushed
into their throats.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) which split from the Dravidar Kazhagam
in 1949 inherited the anti-Hindi policies of its parent organisation. DMK’s
founder Annadurai had earlier participated in the anti-Hindi imposition
agitations during 1938–40 and in the 1940s. In July 1953, the DMK launched
an agitation for changing the name of a town – Dalmiapuram – to Kallakudi.
They claimed that the town’s name (after Ramkrishna Dalmia) symbolised the
exploitation of South India by the North.

On 15 July 1953, M. Karunanidhi (later Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) and
other DMK members erased the Hindi name in Dalmiapuram railway station’s
name board and lay down on the tracks. In the altercation with the Police
that followed the protests, two DMK members lost their lives and several
others including Karunanidhi and Kannadhasan were arrested.

In the 1950s DMK continued its anti-Hindi policies along with the
secessionist demand for Dravidistan. On 28 January 1956, Annadurai along
with Periyar and Rajaji signed a resolution passed by the Academy of Tamil
Culture endorsing the continuation of English as the official language. On
21 September 1957 the DMK convened an anti-Hindi Conference to protest
against the imposition of Hindi. It observed 13 October 1957 as “anti-Hindi
Day”.

On 31 July 1960, another open air anti-Hindi conference was held at
Kodambakkam, Madras. In November 1963, DMK dropped its secessionist demand
in the wake of the Sino-Indian War and the passage of the anti-secessionist
16th Amendment to the Indian Constitution. But the anti-Hindi stance
remained and hardened with the passage of Official Languages Act of 1963.
The DMK’s view on Hindi’s qualifications for official language status were
reflected in Annadurai’s response to the “numerical superiority of Hindi”
argument: “If we had to accept the principle of numerical superiority while
selecting our national bird, the choice would have fallen not on the
peacock but on the common crow

The Anti-Hindi imposition agitations of Tamil Nadu were a series of
agitations that happened in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras
State and part of Madras Presidency) during both pre- and post-Independence
periods. The agitations involved several mass protests, riots, student and
political movements in Tamil Nadu concerning the official status of Hindi
in the state.

The first anti-Hindi imposition agitation was launched in 1937, in
opposition to the introduction of compulsory teaching of Hindi in the
schools of Madras Presidency by the first Indian National Congress
government led by C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). This move was immediately
opposed by E. V. Ramasamy (Periyar) and the opposition [Justice Party
(India)|Justice Party] (later Dravidar Kazhagam). The agitation, which
lasted three years, was multifaceted and involved fasts, conferences,
marches, picketing and protests. The government responded with a crackdown
resulting in the death of two protesters and the arrest of 1,198 persons
including women and children. Mandatory Hindi education was later withdrawn
by the British Governor of Madras Lord Erskine in February 1940 after the
resignation of the Congress Government in 1939.

*Agitations*

Overdoing anything just because there is no objection could be dangerous.
South Indian languages are in fact far removed from Hindi and Sanskrit.
There is no connection.

Union is joint and wiling operation and Indian Union should not impose its
will on nations. When Hindi is imposed on an unwilling nation within Indian
Union, that is opposed vehemently by the people. Federal government is
expected roll back its plan forthwith if v faced opposition. Bt Indian
government seems to be adamant in pursuing its illegal goals.

The major opposition party Indian National Congress advised prudence,
expressing fear that such directions may result in a backlash in non-Hindi
states, especially Tamil Nadu and also said that the “Government would be
well-advised to proceed with caution,”. These protests ensured the
continuous official usage of English

The anti-Hindi imposition agitations of 1937–40 and 1940–50 led to a change
of guard in the Madras Presidency. The main opposition party to the Indian
National Congress in the state, the Justice Party, came under Periyar’s
leadership on 29 December 1938. In 1944, the Justice Party was renamed as
Dravidar Kazhagam. The political careers of many later leaders of the
Dravidian Movement, such as C. N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi, started
with their participation in these agitations. The agitations stopped the
compulsory teaching of Hindi in the state.

The agitations of the 1960s played a crucial role in the defeat of the
Tamil Nadu Congress party in the 1967 elections and the continuing
dominance of Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu politics. Many political
leaders of the DMK and ADMK, like P. Seenivasan, K. Kalimuthu, Durai
Murugan, Tiruppur. S. Duraiswamy, Sedapatti Muthaiah, K. Raja Mohammad, M.
Natarajan and L. Ganesan, owe their entry and advancement in politics to
their stints as student leaders during the agitations, which also reshaped
the Dravidian Movement and broadened its political base, when it shifted
from its earlier pro-Tamil (and anti-Brahmin) stance to a more inclusive
one, which was both anti-Hindi and pro-English. Finally, the current
two-language education policy followed in Tamil Nadu is also a direct
result of the agitations.

*Hindi not the sole official language*

 Every language in India is an official language not just the Hindi just
because Indian government stays in the Hindi belt.
The adoption of an official language for the Indian Republic was a hotly
debated issue during the framing of the Indian Constitution after India’s
independence from the United Kingdom. After an exhaustive and divisive
debate, Hindi was adopted as the official language of India with English
continuing as an associate official language for a period of fifteen years,
after which Hindi would become the sole official language. The new
Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950. Efforts by the Indian
Government to make Hindi the sole official language after 1965 was not
acceptable to many non-Hindi Indian states, who wanted the continued use of
English. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a descendant of Dravidar
Kazhagam, led the opposition to Hindi.

To allay their fears, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru enacted the Official
Languages Act in 1963 to ensure the continuing use of English beyond 1965.
The text of the Act did not satisfy the DMK and increased their skepticism
that his assurances might not be honored by future administrations.

As the day (26 January 1965) of switching over to Hindi as sole official
language approached, the anti-Hindi movement gained momentum in Madras
State with increased support from college students. On 25 January, a
full-scale riot broke out in the southern city of Madurai, sparked off by a
minor altercation between agitating students and Congress party members.
The riots spread all over Madras State, continued unabated for the next two
months, and were marked by acts of violence, arson, looting, police firing
and lathi charges. The Congress Government of the Madras State called in
paramilitary forces to quell the agitation; their involvement resulted in
the deaths of about seventy persons (by official estimates) including two
policemen. To calm the situation, Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri
gave assurances that English would continue to be used as the official
language as long as the non-Hindi speaking states wanted. The riots
subsided after Shastri’s assurance, as did the student agitation.

The agitations of 1965 led to major political changes in the state. The DMK
won the 1967 assembly election and the Congress Party never managed to
recapture power in the state since then. The Official Languages Act was
eventually amended in 1967 by the Congress Government headed by Indira
Gandhi to guarantee the indefinite use of Hindi and English as official
languages. This effectively ensured the current “virtual indefinite policy
of bilingualism” of the Indian Republic. There were also two similar (but
smaller) agitations in 1968 and 1986 which had varying degrees of success.

In 2014, the Home Ministry ordered that “government employees and officials
of all ministries, departments, corporations or banks, who have made
official accounts on social networking sites should use Hindi, or both
Hindi and English but give priority to Hindi”. This move was immediately
opposed by all the political parties in Tamil Nadu. Terming the move on use
of Hindi as being “against letter and spirit” of the Official Languages Act
the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa cautioned that this direction
may “cause disquiet to the people of Tamil Nadu who are very proud of and
passionate about their linguistic heritage,” and asked the Prime Minister
of India to suitably modify the instructions to ensure that English was the
language of communication on social media.

*Observation*

As per federal system, every language in India is national. Tamil is as
important as Hindi or any other Indian language.

The Modi government that now feels comfortable with secured majority in
both Houses of Parliament for the first time in its political history
should comprehend the predicament of and apprehensions by the Tamils and
Tamil state over other languages being pushed into curriculum of schools or
colleges in the state.

Of course, RSS and BJP are deadly seeking to impose their will on the
nation just because they have own elections, while people voted for them in
order to avoid the corrupt Congress and in the absence any credible
national opposition.

Central government, which has failed time and again, should stop trying to
create problems of the unity of the nation.

While smartness may not be a bad idea, over smartness on the part of the
federal government in imposing its  pet hidden agenda would have
devastating consequences for the nation, its real integrity beyond the
official declarations.

End linguistic mischief!
http://kashmirwatch.com/indias-linguistic-imperialism-tamil-nadu-resents-central-imposition-hindi/


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