In a joint statement on Wednesday, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Youth Wing Secretary Udhyanithi Stalin and Students Wing Secretary CVMP Ezhilarasan called a protest against the national government’s “Hindi imposition policies.”
On October 15, the DMK organised demonstrations across Tamil Nadu. The actions were taken in response to MK Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, denouncing the Centre for allegedly forcing Hindi on the country. In his speech, Stalin outlined the historical sacrifices made by children in opposition to “Hindi imposition” and pleaded with the audience “not to impose another linguistic war on us.”
Stalin tweeted on October 10: “The aggressive push for #HindiImposition by the Union BJP administration is destroying the diversity of India at an alarming rate. The recommendations contained in the eleventh volume of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language report constitute an attack on India’s very soul.”
In his tweet, Stalin also said “If adopted, the large number of people who do not speak Hindi will be treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Hindi mandates are against Indian sovereignty. The BJP government will benefit from taking note of what may be learned from previous anti-Hindi protests.”
In the meanwhile, efforts to impose the Hindi language are “unacceptable,” Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 12 in a letter.
Following reports on the official language committee of the Parliament’s recommendation to make Hindi the medium of examinations conducted for central services and to make Hindi a compulsory language of study in educational institutions including Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management, Chief Minister Vijayan wrote to the Prime Minister to inform him of Kerala’s position (IIM).
