The Indian Union government has threatened to stop funding Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan if it does not implement the three-language formula. The education minister says that this is an integral part of the new national education policy and Tamil Nadu is duty bound to implement it or else it will not get any money from the union government.
On the surface, this seems reasonable because if a state does not implement a ‘national’ policy, it should not expect money from the “Centre”. After all, it is the Centre’s money! Tamil Nadu has in turn asked what will happen if it stops sending its share of taxes to the coffers of the Union government. In the past too, Tamil Nadu has said that the Union government sends it a very small amount in proportion to the amount of taxes it pays.
How can Tamil Nadu be happy if Uttar Pradesh/Bihar are not? We are not getting into this debate right now, although the state’s point is valid.
BJP’s hostility to states in south India
States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh pay less taxes to the union treasury than states like Tamil Nadu but they get more money from the Union government than Tamil Nadu. The counter argument is that we are all Indians, how can Tamil Nadu be happy if Bihar or Uttar Pradesh is backward? Tamil Nadu should think about Bihar, but do we ever ask Bihar or Uttar Pradesh to feel for Tamil Nadu or Kerala?
What place do Tamil Nadu and Kerala have in the social consciousness of these states ? The attitude of the union government headed by the BJP has been one of hostility towards the states of south India since they have not elected BJP to run their governments.
Even during and after natural calamities like cyclones and floods, the federal union has refused to give them adequate funds from the National Disaster Fund. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala had to go to the Supreme Court to force the union government to release adequate funds for relief and rehabilitation.
How can we trust the intentions of someone who refuses to lend a hand in the times of crisis? Are the people of Tamil Nadu wrong if they do not trust the assurances of the Union Government that the three-language formula does not talk about imposing Hindi?
Is their apprehension wrong that this is a way to sneak in Hindi through the backdoor? They know that the BJP led union government has been trying in various ways to promote Hindi. The Union Home Ministry has asked the Ministry of External Affairs to take steps to promote the use of Hindi in government offices, banks and embassies in other countries. As soon as the BJP came to power, a Hindi cell was set up in the Ministry of External Affairs in 2015.
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For the first time, a joint secretary level officer was appointed solely for the promotion of Hindi abroad. Tamil, Khasi, Kannada speakers may ask why only Hindi should enjoy the favour of the union government? Does the Indian diaspora consist only of Hindi speaking people?
There are more examples of the bias of the BJP government in favour of Hindi. Union home minister Amit Shah, who was on a tour of the North Eastern states 3 years back, announced that Hindi will be made compulsory in all the states of that region.
He said that Hindi is “the language of India” and it would be the contact language for the states of the North East. He also announced a plan to appointment of 22,000 Hindi teachers for the region. This move was met with strong opposition in all the North Eastern states.
Back in 2022, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language headed by Shah had recommended that the medium of instruction should mandatorily be Hindi, and local languages, in all technical or non-technical educational institutions including central universities.
In response to the recommendations, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise his objections against what he called the Union government’s attempts to “impose Hindi by all possible avenues” in the country.
Three Language Formula as Trojan Horse?
When we see the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh spewing venom against Urdu, a language rooted in the state, we can guess the approach of the BJP governments towards Tamil or Tulu.
In 2017, the BJP government shifted the broadcasts of Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali etc. from the Delhi-based Central Broadcasting Service of Akashvani from Delhi to the states. It resulted in loss of job for the readers and translators of these languages based in Delhi.
Apart from that, this move had a symbolic meaning. When you move the languages from the national capital to “their” regions, you want to say that they are regional and not national. Have we ever asked why languages like Tamil or Malayalam are called regional languages and Hindi the national language?
These examples should be enough to make us appreciate the concerns of states like Tamil Nadu when they feel that three language formula would ultimately be used to stealthily impose Hindi on them. The Education Minister is calling the three-language formula a constitutional provision. But that is not true. There is no such provision in the matter of language anywhere in the Constitution. The three-language formula is also not a law. Doesn’t the Education Minister know this? Then why is he threatening Tamil Nadu?
The policy regarding language teaching is part of of the New Education Policy of 2020. NEP was never discussed in Parliament. It is the brainchild of the union government and implemented through a cabinet decision. The representatives of the states have no role in framing it. The union government has also made the forum of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) redundant by not holding it. It was a platform on which representatives of the states used to discuss matters related to education.
The idea is not to centralise decisions. Should the states accept a policy which has been framed violating the federal spirit of the constitution? It should also be kept in mind that any such policy cannot be binding on any state. No school curriculum framework designed at the centre can be made mandatory across the country. NCERT books are also not compulsory.
Education is anyway in the concurrent list. No decision regarding it can be or should be taken solely at the central level. NEP is not binding on the states. All such policies are not suggestive in nature. State governments are better placed to know how education should be planned in their respective states. But the BJP led union government is again using stealth when it makes the syllabus of CBSE the basis for all competitive examinations like NEET. This is how you force the schools in the states to use the NCERT textbooks.
Tamil Nadu’s principled opposition
We need to understand that the opposition of the language formula is part of the principled opposition of Tamil Nadu to the NEP. The way it has always opposed NEET. When I am opposing a policy you cannot ask me to agree to implement a part of it.
There are well wishers of Tamil Nadu who say that it should welcome three language formula as it is right in its spirit. Its history however tells us a different story. It was conceptualised in early days of post-independence India and later adopted as part of the education policy in 1968.
It makes a provision for “teaching of Hindi, English and modern Indian language (preferably one of the southern languages) in the Hindi speaking states and Hindi, English and the Regional language in the non-Hindi speaking States.”
The argument for Hindi being part of the set in the non-Hindi states was that it would help the people of these states communicate with the people of the rest of India. Which meant the acceptance that Hindi is the link language of India.
Tamil Nadu has been against this primacy of Hindi in the national scheme. It says that English is sufficient for it to connect to the world outside which also includes other Indian states. Moreover, it has not stopped the teaching and learning of Hindi in the states. Lakhs of people from Tamil Nadu take the Hindi examinations organised by various Hindi bodies like the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. What it has been opposing is a policy and not a language which in this case is Hindi.
Coming back to education, we know from our history of 75 years that Tamil Nadu was more honest than the “Hindi speaking” areas. They did implement the TLF but chose an easy way out. They introduced Sanskrit as the third language. Students were bribed into opting for it as they were assured of high marks in it. Generations of students who passed out do not have a rudimentary knowledge of Sanskrit. Also, they never felt a need to learn another Indian language.
If we look at this question, people from the Hindi regions have a real need to learn at least one South Indian language as they move to these states for higher, professional education and also different kinds of jobs. The reverse is not true.
Advocates of Hindi have no right to preach to Tamil Nadu
You do not find people from these states in Bihar and UP looking for jobs. But the Hindiwalas are so arrogant that they think it is not their job to learn Kannada or Tamil. They should instead learn Hindi to make it easy for the Hindiwalas to live there.
It is also a fact that the people from the South Indian states are more multilingual than people from UP or Bihar. In fact, the latter group’s proficiency even in Hindi is doubtful. The number of students failing the Hindi examinations in these states is telling.
So, the advocates of Hindi have no right to preach to Tamil Nadu. The people of BJP certainly do not.
It is right for Tamil Nadu to be apprehensive of Hindi nationalist politics. The need is not to correct the language, but to correct the politics. As Dhumil had written:
“भाषा उस तिकड़मी दरिंदे का कौर है
जो सड़क पर और है
संसद में और है
इसलिए बाहर आ!
संसद के अँधेरे से निकलकर
सड़क पर आ!
भाषा ठीक करने से पहले आदमी को ठीक कर…”
(Language is the morsel of the beast
Which is different in the parliament
And very different on the streets.
So, come out on the street
Out of the darkness of parliament.
But before correcting the language
make sure that its the people who come clean.)
Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.
