New Delhi: Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin has stepped up the attack on the Narendra Modi government’s move to establish Hindi as the language of order. Stalin alleged that Hindi has “swallowed many Indian languages, including those which were earlier spoken in the Hindi heartland states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Stalin’s latest attack on the Union Government comes at the same time as Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah contributed to the buzz from the South against the impending delimitation of Lok Sabha seats.
Language
“My dear sisters and brothers from other states,” Stalin wrote in English on X a day ago (February 27), “Ever wondered how many Indian languages Hindi has swallowed?”
He went on to list Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi, Braj, Bundeli, Garhwali, Kumaoni, Magahi, Marwari, Malvi, Chhattisgarhi, Santhali, Angika, Ho, Kharia, Khortha, Kurmali, Kurukh, Mundari and “many more are now gasping for survival.”
“The push for a monolithic Hindi identity is what kills ancient mother tongues. UP and Bihar were never just “Hindi heartlands.” Their real languages are now relics of the past,” he added.
He said that Tamil Nadu resists this imposition.
In a Tamil open letter, the chief minister wrote: “Hindi is a language that emerged a few centuries ago from the blending of Sanskrit and other languages. In contrast, Tamil is a language that is thousands of years old, considered the mother tongue that gave rise to the languages of the Dravidian family.”
Stalin’s party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has been up in arms against the Union government’s imposition of Hindi through the three-language formula which is part of the National Education Policy (NEP).
In the open letter, Stalin wrote that Hindi is just a facade, while the Union government’s goal is to impose Sanskrit. South First reports Stalin as having written:
“Tamil can never be destroyed by Hindi or Sanskrit, as the latter is what they are indirectly trying to impose. This land has continuously repelled invasions from ethnic enemies for many years, all with the aim of destroying the unique culture of the Tamils. The Dravidian movement is a continuation of this long-standing tradition.”
Stalin asserted that those who are at the Union government are concerned by Tamil’s pushback against the imposition of northern languages.
As in his post on X, in the letter too, Stalin highlighted the “disappearance of mother tongues” and how this is a reflection of the cultural erosion that has occurred over time. He mentioned Maithili:
“For instance, the native language of the people of Bihar, Maithili, has become so obsolete that the next generation can no longer learn it. Many people mistakenly think that Hindi is the mother tongue of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India, but this is not true. The invasion of the dominant language, Hindi, has destroyed many regional languages such as Prajbhasha, Bundelkhandi, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Kannauji, Garhwali, and Khumoni.”
“And these are not the only examples. One must look for speakers of languages such as Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Marwari, Mewari, Malvi, Nimadi, Bagheli, Santali, Chhattisgarhi, Korba, and others. The indigenous languages of states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and Rajasthan, where Hindi is the official language, have been corrupted over time. As a result, their cultural values and literary richness have disappeared without a trace,” he added.
Delimitation
In a series of posts in Kannada, Siddaramaiah also took on Union home minister Amit Shah, who had dismissed the row over delimitation by saying that no southern province will suffer a reduction in their parliamentary representation.
“The Union home minister Amit Shah’s statement that he will not allow injustice to be done to the southern states during the delimitation of constituencies is not credible. It is tainted with malicious intent to create confusion in the southern states,” Siddaramaiah said on X, according to Hindustan Times.
“Going by the home minister’s vague remarks, it seems that either he lacks proper information or there is a deliberate intent to disadvantage the southern states, including Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
