CHENNAI: DMK President and Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday hailed the "Language Martyrs" of the state who sacrificed their lives during the anti-Hindi agitation in the past and asserted that there was "no place" for the language here forever.
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Paying tributes on the occasion of Language Martyrs Day, he said, "a state that loved its language like its life, unitedly struggled against Hindi imposition; protested with the same intensity every time it was imposed."
"Language Martyrs Day; there is no place for Hindi then, now and forever (in TN)," the Dravidian party chief said in a social media post.
He shared a brief video of the history related to the anti-Hindi agitation, which peaked during 1965, that included references to the 'martyrs,' besides the contributions of late DMK stalwarts, CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi in the language issue.
Tamil Nadu, by leading the anti-Hindi agitation, "safeguarded the right and identity of various linguistic national races in the sub-continent," Stalin added.
"I pay my grateful respects to those martyrs who gave their precious lives for Tamil. No more life will be lost in the language war; our love for Tamil will never die! We shall oppose Hindi imposition forever. #LanguageMartyrsDay #StopHindiImposition," the CM said.
The CM also paid tributes at the memorial of Language Martyrs Thalamuthu and Natarasan, here. Further, he inaugurated their busts at the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) building in the city.
Language Martyrs is a reference to those who had sacrificed their lives, mainly by self-immolation, during the anti-Hindi agitation across Tamil Nadu in 1964-65.
Till this day, the southern state follows the Two Language formula--Tamil and English, even as the DMK has been alleging Hindi imposition through the Centre's NEP 2020.
Meanwhile, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leader Vijay also paid tributes to the Language Martyrs.
"Mother Tamil is equal to our life," Palaniswami, also state Leader of Opposition, said in a social media post.