KOZHIKODE: A group of students at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode have objected to a diktat by institute authorities to provide their names in Hindi in order to get their Post-graduate programme certificates in the language, apart from English, during the graduation ceremony in April.
Sources in the institute, one of the 20 IIMs in the country, told The New Indian Express that the students have been asked to give their names in Hindi by March 1 in order to get the certificates that will be handed over to the students on the Convocation day on April 7, printed in Hindi.
Many students, who received the mail from the administration, however, have protested what they are calling a “forceful imposition of Hindi”.
“Even though the officials are probably well within their rights to come up with this circular under the Official language act—this practice was not followed earlier and the institutes under the union human resources development ministry are increasingly doing this kind of mischief in southern states to test our patience,” a student who is a native of Andhra Pradesh said.
A similar order was given to students at IIM, Bangalore in January this year and was met with objections after which the institute clarified that it was not mandatory for students to do that.
The mail, sent to the outgoing batch of PGP students at IIM, Kozhikode however reads that “this (providing names in Hindi) is mandatory for printing the same in PGDM certificate for Convocation 2018.”
The mail goes on to suggest that those who do not know how to write their names in Hindi can take the help of institute authorities or their friends who know the language.
Another student of the institute however said that the order reeked of linguistic discrimination and “the central government should understand that this kind of Hindi majoritarianism was wrong in a multi-lingual country.”
“If they want to give us a certificate in any other language, apart from English, it should be in our mother tongue. We have made this clear to the authorities.”
R Nandakumar, founder member of the Aikya Malayala Prasthanam, a common platform for the mother-tongue organisations of the state said he was discussing with other language activists in what ways can the dissenting students be supported.
“In my view, the BJP government at the centre is prompting the institutes to come up with these litmus tests to see the reaction in southern states,” he said. “Since they cannot do it in schools, they are giving commands to the institutes of higher education under them.”
M G Sreekumar, media relations in-charge of IIM, Kozhikode refused to comment on the issue and an email sent to director (in-charge) Kulbhushan Balooni has remained unanswered.