The recent explosion of angry exchanges between political leaders from Tamil Nadu and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in diverse arenas like Parliament, media and social media threw up a political spectacle that many people failed to fathom. The continuing verbal fireworks was ignited in the middle of February by Pradhan when he raised the question as to why Tamil Nadu was not implementing the National Education Policy and the three-language system, tying the recalcitrance with his ministry’s refusal to release funds for the PM SHRI project that runs to over Rs 2,000 crore.
As the controversy snowballed and degenerated into a blame game with Pradhan trying to tell the world that the State government had reneged on in its assurance to implement the project — it’s a different matter that the letter produced as proof of the assurance did not actually prove the charge — it became clear that the skirmish was heading nowhere. However other BJP honchos like State president K. Annamalai butted in, accusing the DMK of depriving poor students of an opportunity to learn Hindi and even embarking on a signature campaign — spawning another controversy after a video showing school children being forced to sign a petition went viral — with the DMK remaining steadfast.
Pradhan’s nitpicking on the DMK like recalling the heckling of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in the Assembly and proclamations like “Tamil language, culture and pride is nobody’s hegemony” or the direct charge of “retrograde politics” for gaining political brownies and reviving the DMK’s political fortunes made no dent on the popularity of the party. In fact, the DMK stand, along with the open opposition to it from the BJP, only had the potential to revive or rather strengthen the DMK’s fortunes, as Pradhan had alleged.
Even Pradhan’s message on X, “DMK’s empty rhetoric on NEP and language imposition cannot hide their failure. Their agenda is crystal clear politics and power at the cost of the future of Tamil Nadu,” only showcased his ignorance about Tamil Nadu and the intertwining of its politics with its language and culture. Little realising that DMK’s storming of Fort St George, the seat of power, in 1967, was possible only because of a historic ‘language war’ it waged against Hindi imposition in 1965, Pradhan said “DMK’s latest cacophony on language imposition and its stance on NEP’s three language formula exposes their hypocrisy.”
While it is debatable if it was a hypocritical act or not, it was a similar cacophony in 1965 that catapulted the DMK to power two years later. So whatever Pradhan saw as wrongs were the right things that had helped the Dravidian parties, the DMK and the AIADMK, to rule the State that thinks differently and even set the political agenda for the entire nation. Leave aside the DMK and AIADMK, there is no political party in the State, other than the BJP, that will dream of openly approving of the three-language education policy or Hindi as a compulsory language.
Of course, that does not mean that Tamil Nadu is totally antagonistic to Hindi. Those who wanted to learn the language were always encouraged with the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, whose headquarters itself located in the heart of Chennai, conducting classes since 1918. The State is home to many Hindi-speaking families and several people have migrated to Hindi-heartlands and settled down there. Students flock in droves to the campuses of Tamil Nadu every year from all over India to pursue their higher education and complete their studies without any hassle. Even a sizable portion of the burgeoning workforce of the State comprises Hindi speakers, who face no discrimination.
Yet if the first ‘language war’ erupted in 1938, it was because Hindi was sought to be imposed. When the Madras Presidency premier R. Rajagopalachriar — Rajaji — announced that Hindi would be compulsory language of study in 125 schools, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, the founder of the Dravidian movement, launched an agitation, telling the Tamil people that Hindi had come to take away their self-respect. Since Rajaji had earlier said that learning Hindi would help master Sanskrit, Periyar raised the question if the lifestyle of the State should follow the Tamil way or the Aryan way, giving a political identity to the language.
It was during the agitation that prolonged till the order on Hindi was withdrawn in 1940, Periyar first said: “Hereafter our cry should be Tamil Nadu for Tamilians.”
The next agitation against Hindi imposition was in 1948 when the Madras Presidency government led by Omandur Ramasamy Reddiar tried to make Hindi compulsory in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam speaking regions and optional in Tamil speaking areas. Then the 1965 agitation, spearheaded by DMK, prevented Hindi becoming the official language of India. The 15-year moratorium for making Hindi the official language was given when the Constitution was adopted in 1950. The agitation in Tamil Nadu put off the elevation of Hindi as the sole official language that would have rung the death knell of English.
Resistance to Hindi got embedded in the collective consciousness of the people so deeply that the DMK, despite not being in power, opposed the opening of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State by the Congress government, under Rajiv Gandhi, in 1986.
The present Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, as working president of the DMK, even warned of a language revolution in 2017 when a court ordered the opening of Navodaya Vidhyalayas in the State. With opposition to Hindi imposition becoming part of the State’s DNA since 1938, there was nothing surprising in the resistance to Pradhan’s bid to arm twist the government into adopting the NEP.
For, the common people of Tamil Nadu have collectively found no compulsion to master Hindi since they benefit more from English that fuels their dreams of overseas education and jobs, driven by an urge to conquer the digital world.
With Tamil Nadu students climbing great heights by occupying top positions in scientific establishments like the Indian Space Research Organisation and even going on to head Google without learning Hindi, people feel that it’s all hunky dory without Hindi. Above all, Rajaji, the man who provoked the first anti-Hindi agitation changed his mind later, leaving for anti-Hindi protests an enduring slogan “English ever, Hindi never.”