‘It Is India, Not Hindia’

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin took exception to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comment that Hindi as an official language united the whole nation in a thread of unity and said that the nation remains ‘India’ but not ‘Hindia’.

He demanded that the Union government accord importance to all languages under the 8th Schedule in which Hindi was given a prominent position.

The DMK president demanded that Hindi Diwas celebrated on September 14 be renamed as ‘Indian Languages Day’ after declaring all the 22 languages in the country as official languages under the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

“It is India. Not Hindi. All the languages spoken in India, including Tamil, should be declared as official languages by the Union government,” he said, in a statement released by the DMK.

However, he accepted Shah speaking high of Hindi on Hindi Diwas. “Saying that one should learn Hindi to understand the culture and history of the country is against the principle of ‘unity in diversity’ followed in India. People in India speak different languages. India’s culture is not hidden in Hindi.”

Stalin said that historians have pointed out that Dravidian language family led by Tamil has spread beyond the country. Researchers want the history of the country to be rewritten from the southern part of the country to truly understand the culture and history.

“The dominant attitude of the leaders in New Delhi is reflected when they project Hindi as a national language by pushing aside Tamil and other languages having rich literature away.”

Stalin said that Tamil Nadu gives much importance to its language and it has a history of sacrificing lives for protecting Tamil language, citing the 1965 anti-Hindi agitation. “Hindi is not India’s national language and the only official language. Hindi is the administrative language of India, apart from English.”

Stalin praised former prime minister late Jawaharlal Nehru for erecting a “fence” to protect languages like Tamil from Hindi domination by including English as an official language and said that the “fence” was still strong.

If Amit Shah is concerned about local languages, then funds should be allocated for their development on par with Hindi and Sanskrit, Stalin pointed out.