Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday said that the Union government should not attempt to “turn India into Hindia.”
He was responding to Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments on the Hindi language that Hindi unites the whole nation in a thread of unity as an official language. Amit Shah was speaking on Wednesday at the All India Official Language Conference in Surat on Hindi Day.
“Declare all the 22 languages in the 8th Schedule as official languages of the government. Hindi is neither the national language nor the only official language. We should celebrate Indian Languages Day instead of Hindi Day,” Stalin said in a statement released by the DMK.
Stalin said: “The Union government should bridge the huge difference in resources spent for development of Hindi vs other languages. The Union only imposes Hindi and Sanskrit via the NEP (National Education Policy).”
The DMK chief went on to say: “To say that one should learn Hindi to understand the culture and history (of India) is against the Unity in Diversity principle of India, which consists of people who speak different languages. India’s culture and history aren’t hidden in Hindi. Historians have pointed out that the Dravidian language family led by Tamil had spread across today’s India and beyond.”
It was nothing but a mere reflection of the “dominant” attitude of those governing in New Delhi to project Hindi as the “national language” by pushing Tamil and other languages with rich literature and culture, said Stalin.
Several languages like Mythili, and Bhojpuri, which were spoken in northern India are almost facing extinction due to the domination of Hindi, Stalin alleged.
Tamil Nadu DMK and AIADMK governments which have been following the dual language policy of Tamil and English since the 1960s, opposed every move to “impose Hindi” by successive governments at the Union government.
