Language war over Hindi rages on, Tamil Nadu CM writes to PM

00Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the alleged recommendation of a parliamentary committee to make Hindi the medium of instruction in central educational institutions.

In his letter to Prime Minister Modi, Stalin said, “The Committee, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, submitted its report, wherein inter alia, it recommends that Hindi should be the compulsory medium of instruction in educational institutions of the Union government such as IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, and central universities, and Hindi should replace English.”

It also includes a recommendation that Hindi shall be made the medium of instruction in all technical, non-technical institutions and all the Union Government institutions, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, he said.

“I am further given to understand that it has been further recommended that youth would be eligible for certain jobs only if they had studied Hindi, and the removal of English as one of the compulsory papers in recruitment exams. These are all against the federal principles of our constitution and will only harm the multi-lingual fabric of our nation,” the Tamil Nadu CM said.

The DMK chief further said there are 22 languages, including Tamil, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. 

There is a demand that some more languages should also be included in this table.

Stalin said the number of people speaking languages other than Hindi is numerically greater than Hindi-speaking people in the Indian Union.

“I am sure you would appreciate that every language has its own speciality with its uniqueness and linguistic culture. It is with the objective of protecting our rich and unique languages from the imposition of Hindi that English has been made as the link language and will continue to be one of the official languages of the Union Government,” he said.

Stalin said the recent attempts to impose Hindi are impractical and divisive in character, and put non-Hindi-speaking people in a very disadvantageous position in many respects. 

This will not be acceptable not only to Tamil Nadu but also to any state that respects and values its mother tongue.

“Respecting the sentiments and understanding the need to maintain Indian unity and harmony, the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave an assurance that ‘English will continue to be one of the official languages as long as the non-Hindi-speaking people want’. Subsequently, the resolutions passed in 1968 and 1976 on official language, and according to the rules laid down there under, ensured the use of both English and Hindi in union government services. This position must remain the cornerstone of all discussions on the official language, “Tamil Nadu CM said.

He said promoting the rich and varied cultural diversity along with their respective distinct linguistic flavours is the pride and strength of the Indian subcontinent. He said India stands as a shining example of multicultural and multilingual democracy in the world arena today because of the inclusive and harmonious policies being followed so far.

He suggested that the approach of the Union Government should be to include all languages, including Tamil, in the Eighth Schedule, the official language.