Krisha Sharon
DY Patil University
Politics over the language has been a very sensitive topic in Tamil Nadu since the 1960’s. Anti-Hindi agitation included a series of mass protests and riots wherein students and political parties raised movements concerning the official status of Hindi as a language in the state.
Is the three-language equation endorsed in the National Education Policy 2020 a ploy to drive Hindi into non-Hindi speaking States? The revealing of the strategy has set off enthusiastic discussions, after a long gap of 53 years, over the subject in Tamil Nadu. With the decision AIADMK rejecting the three-language policy inside and out and putting forth the dual system strategy, the State seems to have impeded an apparent third endeavour for inconvenience of Hindi over the most recent 83 years. Except BJP, no other political group has sponsored the approach.
In 1937, the first attempt for Hindi burden was forestalled through a progression of fights by Dravidar Kazhagam and a couple of different associations in Madras Presidency. In 1967, a second attempt for the same taken by DMK ruined the subsequent endeavour.
Unlike the National Education policy 1968 which mandated teaching of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking States, the latest NEP does not explicitly mention that the ‘third’ language shall be Hindi. The policy has clearly mentioned that the students will be given an option to choose any national language and no language would be forced on any citizen. This simply means apart from Tamil and English students have to choose any one Indian language in addition to the two languages.
However some linguistic activists and educationists have given it a thought and have concluded that this would eventually end up in students being forced to learn Hindi because of the faculties not being available for other subjects. Aazhi Senthil Nathan, convener of CLEAR (Campaign for Language Equality and Rights) said indicators of social, economic and educational development of the State are testimony that the State’s two-language policy was a successful model. “Three-language policy is neither politically needed nor it is educationally effective” he said.
Kanimozhi tweet:
The blazing politics in Tamil Nadu over the language conundrum intensified by the debate over the New Education Policy 2020 found a new add on when Kanimozhi had an unexpected and unpleasant experience.
The recent tweet posted by Kanimozhi stating that a security officer at the airport asked her if she was “an Indian” because she said she didn’t know Hindi and asked the officer to speak in Tamil or English. She ended her tweet asking, “I would like to know from when being Indian is equal to knowing Hindi.” A hashtag of “Hindi imposition” followed. Her tweet found a lot of support from the political leaders of Tamil Nadu. Adding on the hashtag of Hindi imposition the Tamil Nadu government is rejecting the 3-language formula policy.
Media has been trying to understand why the Tamil Nadu government has an issue accepting the NEP when the entire country is adopting to the change and accordingly few questions where raised to the government of Tamil Nadu.
Reason for rejecting the 3-language system policy?
The National Education Policy 2020, stressing out on the multilingualism as a force for national integration provides for introduction of Sanskrit at foundation stage, which covers primary school students and goes on to recommend the language as a subject till university level. But the fundamental idea of India known for its unity in diversity is being questioned. We accept the difference and have decided to co-exist and that is the beauty of India. So, there is no need for a common language to bring equality amongst the people.
Hindi being the most used language would help in job opportunity, so why not consider this ?
On the off chance that the legislature did not on numerous occasions attempt to force Hindi on individuals, there would be no connection between the two. Transient populaces – be it for white or manual occupations – become familiar with another dialect when they have down to earth use for it. In Kerala, for example, a few Bengali transfers have intentionally learnt Malayalam through government programs . They didn’t need to learn Malayalam in West Bengal schools for them to have the option to do as such. In addition, Tamil is spoken in India as well as different parts of the world like Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Fiji and so forth. So why not the Hindi speakers learn Tamil to improve their global activity possibilities, passing by this rationale?
What is the issue in learning a new language ?
Majority of the people living in India know multiple languages and they have learned those languages willingly. If the government is focusing on the multilingualism improvement why is the census found to have Hindi being the fastest growing language and a drop in people speaking other languages. This has been attributed to the falling population in these states. If people whose mother tongue is Hindi were learning other Indian languages as they expect from the non-Hindi speakers the census reports would have been drawing a different picture all together.
It probably is a beautiful language like many other beautiful languages in India. However, imposing any language on someone is unnecessary and makes it ugly.
The myth of Hindi being the national language:
In spite of the fact that India doesn’t have a ‘rashtrabasha‘, various individuals accept that Hindi involves this status over other territorial dialects. From schools training the line indeed to the political administration in a few states privileging Hindi, the ‘national language’ legend is every now and again rehashed.
According to the Article 343 of the constitution Hindi is known as an official language along with English. Every state also has its own official language. The myth about Hindi being the mother tongue of most of the people in India creates a major issue here. Going beyond assumption and looking at the census of 2011, 43.63 % listed Hindi as their first language followed by Bengali 8.3 % which is not the majority.
To conclude on the topic the beauty of India is UNITY IN DIVERSITY. Linguistic discrimination is an unfair treatment. Respecting people from all different parts of the country without any difference should be the motto of the government.
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