Chennai: Stepping up his campaign against language imposition, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday declared that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were never “Hindi heartlands” and their native languages were “swallowed” due to Hindi imposition.
“My dear sisters and brothers from other states, Ever wondered how many Indian languages Hindi has swallowed? 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,” Stalin posted on social media.
He added, UP and Bihar were never just “Hindi heartlands.” “Their real languages are now relics of the past. Tamil Nadu resists because we know where this ends,” he said.
The DMK leader said “Some languages gave space for Hindi. Those languages vanished without a trace.”
Staling continued to justify his opposition to the Centre’s effort to impose languages through the National Education Policy’s three-language formula, and said even parties opposed to the DMK were not with it in opposing “Hindi imposition”.
He did not agree with the BJP’s argument that the three-language policy did not mandate compulsory learning of Hindi or Sanskrit in schools and instead any any regional language from India could be learnt as the third language.
Stalin’s countered this saying in most States only Hindi or Sanskrit was taught under the policy over the years. “Tamil was not being taught as a third language in any other region except in Andaman Nicobar, where there is a Tamil population,” he said.
He reflected Dravidian movement stalwart Periyar E V Ramasamy’s advocacy that language imposition won’t destroy Tamil but Tamil culture and recounted Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar’s recent comments that the best way to conquer a territory is to overtake its culture. “That is the policy of the BJP Union Government,” he charged adding the Dravidian movement will remain a shield for Tamil.
