Hindi, a chink in TN's armour

Two important issues ended the Congress monopoly of power and ushered in Dravidian rule in Tamil Nadu 50 years ago. One was acute rice scarcity. The other was the attempt by the Centre to make Hindi the sole official language of the Union. 

While rice scarcity is a thing of the past now, access to learn Hindi is being denied to students by successive governments in the State, thereby restricting their mobility and at the same time not providing jobs for them at home. 

The 1965 student-led anti-Hindi agitation was against imposition of the language. By sticking to two-language formula in the state, governments have imposed their will on the people. 

Tamil Nadu had a history of resistance to any primacy being given to Hindi over Tamil. It started in 1938 when Rajaji of the Madras Presidency sought to introduce Hindi in schools. The agitation was led by Dravidian patriarch Periyar EV Ramasamy and the move was dropped by Rajaji. 

When the new Indian Constitution came into force in January 26, 1952, it was stipulated that Hindi would be the official language of the union and English would continue as associate language for 15 years. Following a series of agitations in the State, Pandit Nehru gave an assurance in 1959 that English would continue until the non-Hindi speaking people were ready to accept the change. It was followed up with the 1963 Official Languages Act providing for the continuance of English as the associate language beyond 1965. 

The DMK members, however, opposed the act as it said English ‘may continue’ as associate language, arguing it meant English “may or may not continue”. They wanted the bill be amended to ensure English ‘shall continue’. 

However, fears increased after Jawaharlal Nehru’s death that Lal Bahadur Shastri’s reassurance would not hold in the face of pressure from Hindi extremists. The resistance came not only from Tamil Nadu but also Maharashtra and Gujarat. 

Rajaji also came out against Hindi as the sole official language, holding that it would make native speakers of Hindi have an inherent advantage over others in the all-India competitive examinations. This was echoed by DMK leader CN Annadurai also. 

The Chief Minister of Madras M Bhaktavatsalam added fuel to fire by seeking to introduce three-language formula in schools.  In February 1965, the Congress favoured the three-language formula and a conference of Chief Ministers agreed to it, provided the party favoured the conduct of UPSC examinations in all recognised regional languages. However, it met with opposition from officials as being impractical. The Centre could not fulfil its assurance to amend the Official Languages Act to ensure continuance of English as associate language. 

The student agitation erupted in this backdrop and soon turned violent, with the Congress government seeking to put it down through police force. 

I was a product of the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 as I was doing my final year degree in Presidency College. The leadership was given by DMK student leaders like Raja Mohammed and Vaiko of Presidency College as well as others like P Sreenivasan (who later trounced Kamaraj in 1967), Durai Murugan from the Madras Arts College and students of Pachaiappa’s and colleges in Madurai. 

While the DMK student leaders were swayed by Annadurai’s emotional appeal and oratory, the vast majority of students joined the protest because it concerned their future and they wanted a level playing field. 

The DMK agitations were marked by symbolism bordering on the absurd by opposition to renaming of Kallakudi as Dalmiapuram after the famed industrialist Dalmia and was akin to Jamshedpur and it had nothing to do with Hindi. 

It was also marked by tokenism like opposition to Akashvani for All India Radio, though in later years, Doordarshan found little resistance. 

All this is history to a new generation. It may, therefore, not appreciate the strong emotion associated with the anti-Hindi movement. Karunanidhi himself found that the spirit could not be revived when he launched an agitation in 1986 to press for amendment to official languages chapter 14, in the Constitution to provide official language status to all the 14 recognised national languages. The spark was the move by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to start Navodya Schools (schools of excellence) across the country. Karunanidhi tried to sell it as an attempt to impose Hindi through the backdoor, but failed. 

Karunanidhi sentenced

In fact, the then Chief Minister MG Ramachandran got him prosecuted for disrespecting the Constitution. Karunanidhi was sentenced to 14 weeks jail. However, MGR using his executive power got him released immediately. Not so magnanimous was the then Speaker PH Pandian who disqualified seven DMK legislators who took part in the agitation, on the ground that they had violated their oath by defiling the Constitution. 

In other words, Hindi became a pawn in the struggle between the DMK and the AIADMK. 

Critics say that by shutting out the Hindi completely from Tamil Nadu, the successive regimes have done more harm than good to students. While the Government could enforce two-language formula in aided schools, there was no way the CBSC schools could be stopped from teaching Hindi. 

Instead, the Government has sought to impose Tamil on these schools by enacting the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act in 2006, covering all CBSC schools. Again, it has exempted Kendra Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools. Under the act, learning Tamil is compulsory for non-Tamil students.

At the all-India level, Tamil chauvinism of the DMK has led to the birth of Shiv Sena under Bal Thackeray in Bombay in 1966. Over time, he has turned against ‘north Indians’, meaning people from Bihar making a living in Mumbai. In Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian parties whipped up anti-north Indian feelings, targeting Marwaris in Chennai.

With the linguistic reorganisation of States in 1956, regional languages have come to the fore. 

Contrary to perception in Tamil Nadu, Hindi is confined only to the BIMARU states, or Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 

The fear that not knowing Hindi will be a disadvantage for Tamils is unfounded. In the east and the north-east, Hindi is not the spoken language. They are proud of their native tongue like Bengali, Assamese and Manipuri. You can get along with English in these States as well as in Kashmir as Hindu Pandits and Muslims from the Valley are fluent in English, as they are all the time exposed to foreign tourists. 

In the 1960s, government jobs were prized. After liberalisation, the new generation prefer jobs in private sector. Of course, in public sector companies such as ONGC, additional marks are given for proficiency in Hindi in promotions. That may only give Hindi speakers a slight edge over others. 

As for all-India services like IAS and Railways, officers must know the language of the states they are posted so they can interact with the aam aadmi (pardon the Hindi word). 

The new generation may not have gained much by not learning Hindi. But they have not lost out much either. As for migrant workers, whether they are from Salem or Dharmapuri and working in construction firms, or those from the north-east whom you find in Chennai hotels,  they have the skill to pick up spoken language to get by.