If media headlines were to be the measure of a political party’s strength, the Bharatiya Janata Party would seem to be the principal Opposition in Tamil Nadu. That has been the case since the early days of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government that came to power in May 2021.
Former IPS Officer K Annamalai, who became state BJP president two months later, emerged as a formidable Opposition voice, stealing a march on the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) that was enmeshed in a power tussle between EK Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam. What, however, came as a gift to Chief Minister MK Stalin was the appointment of RN Ravi as the governor in September 2021.
As if fired up by then-Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar’s elevation to the Vice-President of India, Ravi, like many other ambitious Raj Bhawan occupants, made it his daily mission to attack the elected government. Stalin must have loved it. Delhi rulers trying to overrun the government chosen by Tamils was always going to be a hit narrative in the Dravidian land. Stalin thrived in it.
Stalin’s Hindi politics
Now, about a year ahead of the assembly elections, Stalin has already framed the contours of the electoral discourse—’Hindi imposition’ and delimitation—to politically disempower Tamil Nadu and other southern states. Trust Stalin to keep the debate raging for the next 13 months, at least. Coming at a time when millions of hearts are swelling with pride about the Iron Age beginning on Tamil soil, these issues would evoke strong reactions. Or so Stalin would reckon.
In a nutshell, the ruling DMK seems to be off the block with a lead. The more the controversy over the alleged Hindi imposition attempt and delimitation rages on, the more remote will be the chances of a rapprochement between the AIADMK and the BJP. AIADMK general secretary EK Palaniswami isn’t convinced about this alliance, but the BJP remains optimistic. See how Annamalai is trying hard not to speak a word that may offend the Dravidian party in the Opposition. If Hindi and delimitation become the central planks in the next election, Tamil parties would not want to touch the BJP with a barge pole.
That brings us to the question as to why the Centre is trying to rub it in, despite knowing how these issues could play out in Tamil Nadu. Why would the Narendra Modi government deny Samagra Shiksha funds to Tamil Nadu for not implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) that entails the three-language formula? After all, this formula is not the brainchild of the Modi government.
Multilingualism in the educational curriculum had its roots in the S Radhakrishnan-led University Education Commission (1948-49), which emphasised the need for bilingualism and trilingualism among school students. It evolved into a three-language formula in the national education policies cleared by the Indira and Rajiv Gandhi governments in 1968 and 1986.
So, what is the controversy about when NEP 2020 doesn’t mandate Hindi as part of the three-language formula, which in turn only states that two of the three languages have to be native to India. If the Stalin government doesn’t want to include Hindi as the third language, it can go for Kannada, Telugu or any of the 25 regional languages, such as Bhojpuri or Maithili, which he claims Hindi has swallowed.
Stalin is obviously playing politics, seeking to reignite the old anti-Hindi sentiments in Tamil Nadu. But why is the Centre playing into his hands? Why would it deploy Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to slug it out publicly? Even a political novice would tell you that denying funds to Tamil Nadu over the NEP—or, the three-language formula—would backfire.
Yet, BJP leaders are engaging the Tamil Nadu CM in a fractious debate over Hindi. They won’t obviously gain from it in any of the states going to polls early next year—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Puducherry and West Bengal. Are they expecting it to have an impact on the October-November Bihar elections? Unlikely.
The BJP’s vote share went into double digits in Tamil Nadu—11.24 per cent in the 2024 parliamentary poll, up from 3.62 per cent in 2019. An over three-fold jump in the vote share should, however, be seen in the context of the BJP contesting over four times more seats—23 in 2024 compared to five in 2019. Failures in the Dravidian land can’t be the justifiable reason for the Centre to stoke old anti-Hindi sentiments, unless party strategists see the issue playing out favourably in the Hindi heartland—Bihar to start with. I have my doubts though.
Also read: Our blood boils when we sense danger to Tamil. Love for mother tongue is Godliness: CN Annadurai
Young Tamils don’t know Tamil
Anyway, Stalin must be a happy man today. This controversy over Hindi is good for him, politically. The same can’t be said about the people of Tamil Nadu. Look at the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024. It says a lot about the Stalin government’s utter failure to teach Tamil to young Tamils. Sample this:
- Only 12 per cent of Standard III children can read Standard II level text. Of all the states and union territories, the only one lagging behind Tamil Nadu is Telangana – at 6.2 per cent. The figures on this count for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are 26.1 per cent and 34.3 percent respectively. So much for the DMK government’s love for Tamil.
- Only 35.6 per cent Standard V children in Tamil Nadu can read Standard II level text. Tamil Nadu is again second from the bottom—after Telangana—on this score.
- 64.2 per cent of Standard VIII children can read Standard II level text in Tamil Nadu. Another way of looking at it is that over one-third of Standard VIII students in Tamil Nadu can’t even read Standard II level text. The solace for Stalin could be that three other states—Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—lag behind Tamil Nadu in this category.
Also read: DMK should wake up. Anti-Hindi politics isn’t working on Tamil Nadu voters anymore
Convenient to be anti-Hindi
CM Stalin can’t hide behind the alleged Hindi imposition when his government can’t even enable young children to read Tamil text in schools.
MK Stalin may have reasons to oppose Hindi or trilingualism. As The Indian Express reported, only 26 per cent of India’s population is bilingual and 7.1 per cent trilingual, as per the last Census in 2011.
In Tamil Nadu, less than one-third of the population—28.3 per cent to be precise—are bilingual. Only 3.39 per cent of the people are trilingual. The lowest-ranked states in terms of bilingualism are from the Hindi heartland—Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
These figures give us an indication of why political parties, be it the DMK or the BJP, find this debate over Hindi politically convenient in their catchment areas. While the bilingual population grew slightly—by about 1.23 percentage points—between 2001 and 2011, the share of trilingual people fell from 8.51 percent to 7.1 percent.
Stalin may probably feel vindicated by these figures. He may, however, want to listen to Sridhar Vembu, the billionaire businessman from Tamil Nadu who founded the multinational technology company, Zoho Corporation.
His 26 February X post read: “As Zoho grows rapidly in India, we have rural engineers in Tamil Nadu working closely with customers in Mumbai and Delhi — so much of our business is driven from these cities and from Gujarat. Rural jobs in Tamil Nadu depend on us serving those customers well. Not knowing Hindi is often a serious handicap for us in Tamil Nadu. It is smart for us to learn Hindi. I have learned to read Hindi haltingly in the last 5 years and I can now understand about 20% of what is spoken. As India is a fast growing economy, engineers and entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu will be smart to learn Hindi. Ignore the politics, let us learn the language!” He ended the post with “aiye Hindi seekhen (come learn Hindi)”.
Vembu may be the minority in a politically surcharged Tamil Nadu today, but Stalin and other politicians should see the larger message. It’s politically convenient to be anti-Hindi in Tamil Nadu, but it’s unfair to deny the youth the option to learn it if they wish so.
As for the BJP-led Central government, it may want to revisit what the Kothari Commission had suggested: students should be taught a modern Indian language, preferably a southern language, in the Hindi-speaking states, and Hindi in the non-Hindi speaking ones. So, while Prime Minister Modi has started Kashi Tamil Sangamam, what about asking the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh to make Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam as the third language in schools? Or, in Gujarat, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh, for that matter?
In 2019, then-CM Palaniswami had urged PM Modi to make Tamil an optional language in other states.
That should be a good start to counter Stalin’s language politics—and a leverage for the AIADMK to reconsider its equations with the BJP.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Tamils live in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. They are not an immigrant community in Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese and Tamils both played the language card in the 1950s and that country descended into civil war. The first race riots were triggered by Tamils whitewashing Sinhalese name boards in their districts.
Tamils in Malaysia and Singapore dare not raise the language issue. The two countries prosper.
Stalin is slowly becoming a demagogue with the state elections approaching. He is playing with fire. Tamil Nadu will not benefit.
A very good article. I am a native Hindi speaker who grew up in Delhi and now lives overseas. I look at all this politics surrounding languages with a heavy heart. I understand the impulse of the Southern Indian states to preserve their native tongues, but I wish the demonization of the Hindi language would end. For my part, if I work anywhere in South India when I return to India in later life, I will make an effort to learn the local language. Perhaps other “North” Indians living in South India should try to do the same.