CHENNAI: Language activism in Tamil Nadu took the garb of T-shirts on Sunday after musician Yuvan Sankar Raja and actor Shirish Saravanan released a photo of them wearing designer T-shirts with slogans I am a Tamil pesum Indian (I am a Tamil speaking Indian) and Hindi theriyathu poda (I don’t know Hindi, go man).
The slogans soon transformed into viral hashtags and kickstarted a social media storm, especially on Twitter where a host of political leaders, including those from the DMK, Left parties and the VCK, picked up the issue and showered support to some pro-Tamil twitterati.
Meanwhile, pictures of two more T-shirts with slogans “Tamil Speaking Indian” and “I am Indian, I don’t speak Hindi” surfaced on social media and added more fuel to the ongoing heated debates over the alleged imposition of Hindi.
Interestingly, the order books of some online T-shirt sellers are likely to swell as several people have started searching for the merchandise. Some users even shared screen shots of their online purchase of the slogan-bearing clothes.
As expected, the BJP took exception to the debate and said instead of opposing Hindi, the TN people should ask others to learn Tamil. Narayanan Thirupathy, a spokesperson for the State BJP, said the New Education Policy has paved way for people in other states to learn Tamil.
“NEP promotes Tamil among non-Tamils. Those who oppose the NEP don’t want Tamil to be promoted,” he said.
Meanwhile, the DMK said the hashtags have sent a strong message to the Centre. Constantine Ravindran, a DMK spokesperson, said, “We have always represented the feelings of Tamils at every level.”
Udhyanadhi joins campaign
Later in the day, DMK youth wing leader Udhayanidhi Stalin tweeted pictures of him attending an online meeting by wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Hindi theriyathu poda”.
The fresh online sloganeering has come up in the background of recent incidents such as DMK MP Kanimozhi allegedly being asked by a CISF officer if she was an Indian when the parliamentarian said that she didn’t know Hindi, at the Chennai airport.
In another incident, the Ayush Ministry secretary had allegedly asked some participants from Tamil Nadu to leave an online training session when the latter asked him to converse in English instead of Hindi.
Also, a TN outfit working on the issue of Cauvery water rights had received reply in Hindi from the Union government in response to an RTI query.
The political atmosphere in Tamil Nadu has already been stormy over the proposed three-language formula in the National Education Policy (NEP), with both ruling AIADMK and opposition DMK rejecting the policy.