Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday once again targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre over alleged Hindi imposition. The DMK chief wondered why the union government has not facilitated setting up of an institution to teach Tamil or other south Indian languages to people of states in north India.
Writing to party workers as part of his series on the theme of “all-time opposition to Hindi imposition” Stalin said, Google Translate, Chat GPT and Artificial Intelligence help people overcome language issues and it would be beneficial for students to learn only necessary technology and imposing a language shall only be a burden to them.
The DMK chief said Gandhiji believed that people of southern states learning Hindi and those in northern states learning one of the southern languages would pave the way for national unity and the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha was founded to fulfil the wish of Father of the nation.
“Gandhi himself had participated in programmes in the sabha’s headquarters in Chennai. Now, the sabha is operational across southern states with 6,000 centres,” Stalin said.
Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabhas
Stalin pointed out in a post on X that over the years ‘Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabhas’ was set up to make southern states learn Hindi but an ‘Uttar Bharat Tamil Prachar Sabhas’ was never established in the northern part of the country to make them learn any other language to ‘preserve’ them.
Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, declared by Parliament as an institution of national importance in 1964, was established in 1918 by Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of propagating Hindi in southern states and the first Pracharak was his son Devadoss Gandhi.
According to the DBHPS website, Gandhiji desired that the ‘Hindi Prachar’ in the south should be carried on by involving the local people of the respective area. Till 1920, the sabha had its office at George Town in the then Madras and after some years it was shifted to Mylapore and from there to Triplicane where it functioned till 1936. Now, the DBHPS functions from downtown T Nagar in Chennai.
“A century has passed since the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha was set up to make South Indians learn Hindi. How many Uttar Bharat Tamil Prachar Sabhas have been established in North India in all these years? Truth is, we never demanded that North Indians must learn Tamil or any South Indian language to ‘preserve’ them. All we ask is to #StopHindiImposition on us. If BJP-ruled states want to teach 3 languages or even 30, let them! Just leave Tamil Nadu alone,” he said.
Earlier on March 3, CM Stalin argued that if the students in Northern India have been taught two languages properly, then why do Southern students need to learn a third one?
Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sunday sounded a strong warning against the central government’s alleged attempts to impose Hindi on the state. He declared that Tamil Nadu would never accept the New Education Policy (NEP) and Hindi imposition in any form.
Stalin emphasised that the state’s Chief Minister, MK Stalin, has made it clear that Tamil Nadu rejects the NEP, delimitation, and Hindi imposition. He accused the central government of trying to “impose Hindi sideways” and through the NEP.
The Tamil Nadu government has strongly opposed implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020, raising concern over the “three-language formula” and alleging that the Centre wants to ‘impose’ Hindi.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan reiterated the importance of promoting Indian languages through the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Truth is, we never demanded that North Indians must learn Tamil or any South Indian language to ‘preserve’ them.
(With inputs from agencies)
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