CHENNAI: Taking strong exception to the remark of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Hindi Diwas that people should learn Hindi to understand the soul of India’s culture and history, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday said, “The idea of the Union minister goes against the principle of unity in diversity in India. This is India, not Hindia.”
“The history and culture of India do not rest with the Hindi language. Historians have clearly said the history of India should be written from the South,” the DMK president said in a hard-hitting statement. “India is known for its unity. I urge the Union Home Minister not to take efforts to split this in the name of ‘Hindia’.
If local languages are to be safeguarded, then declare all 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as official languages of the Union Government on a par with Hindi and celebrate Indian Languages Day instead of Hindi Diwas to strengthen the culture and history of India,” he said. “Preferential treatment towards Hindi creates unwanted disgruntlement among people of various states and divides them,” he also tweeted.
“Pushing back Tamil and other regional languages and attempting to establish Hindi as the national language is an overt sign of dominance. TN has a history of its people sacrificing their lives for the sake of mother tongue and opposing the dominance of other languages,” Stalin warned.
He went on to say: “Legally, Hindi is neither the national language nor the only official language. Hindi is one official language of the Indian Union and English is the other. Linguists have pointed out that due to the dominance of Hindi, languages like Maithili, Bhojpuri, Santhali, Awadhi are on the verge of extinction.”
“If the Union Government is concerned about regional languages, it should first set the right the disparity in allocation of funds for the promotion of Sanskrit and Hindi compared to other languages. However, it remains keen on imposing Sanskrit and Hindi through the NEP,” he added.
