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At present there is a battle at political front is going on between the DMK led state government of Tamil Nadu and the BJP led NDA government of Indian state regarding the acceptance of three language policy as per the NEP 2020.
What Tamil Nadu government is saying that two language policy of Tamil and English worked well in their case since independence and they do not have resources to go for third one in state funded schools.
The non-state funded schools and the private ones are free to do so and the government does not have any issue in that.
Although NEP does not say that third language should be Hindi but Tamilians have deep insecurity about Hindi imposition which was seen during 1930’s and 1960’s in fact whole of the Dravidian movement is based on opposition to Hindi as they have a deep pride in their language which is rightly so as it is the oldest language in the world even older than Sanskrit.
Hindi is not a national language but it is official along with English. In our constitution article 351 talks about directive for development of Hindi and in 1952 then Government of India had decided to take 15 years’ time for adoption of Hindi as a national language but it did not turn out.
The three-language policy was there since 1967-68 and Tamil Nadu was made exception, rest every other state had accepted it.
Tamil Nadu fundamental primacy is against the imposition of Hindi and it must be voluntarily learning instead of mandatory according to them.
Is the BJP government at the center looking for unified language which acts as a thread for the entire country?
Then why cannot it be English even though India is having a second largest English-speaking population in the world but still bulk of the people cannot speak English.
According to Tamil Nadu government NEP is a smoke screen to impose Hindi on them.
The center has withheld the budget of 2500 crore under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan to Tamil Nadu as it is not adopting three language policy as suggested by NEP 2020.
And as per the state government the education is in concurrent list and NEP cannot be made compulsory for state government schools.
Although it is a vehement opposition and it appears like a life and death issue but in Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Samiti the maximum enrolment is from Tamil Nadu as compared to other southern states.
We must be extremely sensitive to the feelings of those who does not speak majority language and Hindi is not that one.
We should preserve our multilingual cultural heritage.
India peculiar colonial obsession for English must be put in perspective.
It is a language of international exchanges, speaking it is a passport to everything.
We live in a country where children are penalized to speak Hindi. Why English hegemony?
English imposition is a pedagogic barbarism. English hegemony constrained our creativity. Its supremacy must end.
Yes it is useful as it has a larger footprint than French,Spanish,German et.al. One should use it to our advantage but not at the cost of our own languages.
Hindi Lokbhasha is acceptable but Rajbhasha is non-sense.
Hindi has expended over the years thanks to Mumbai cinema, TV serial and cricket commentary but there are 22 schedule and 100 non-scheduled languages, they also require state promotion.
Hindi should be allowed to grow naturally and let people adopt it voluntarily.
The way language should be taught is that at primary level it has to be mother tongue, one can introduce languages but not comprehensively.
At middle level the standard languages like Hindi,English,Tamil et.al should be introduced but then English is going to be the medium for various subjects is not the thing to do.
Three language formula is there officially since 1968 but it is recommended by a commission
in 1948 itself.
It is Hindi,English and one south Indian language for Hindi speaking states and for southern states it is their native language,English and Hindi.
It is the Hindi speaking states who diluted this policy as they were not ready to learn south India languages rather, they had gone for Sanskrit which everybody knows that it is a joke in our country as I felt that how we used to cram the things and simply vomit in the exam and it is also not that difficult as script of Sanskrit is Devnagari itself.
Instead, NEP is softer in three language formula. Three language formula is decent approximation for multilingualism.
Is Tamil Nadu really worried about Hindi imposition or rather it is a pretense for federalism and representation(delimitation) which they are basically concerned about.
We need to seriously address the anxieties of identity.
Refrences:
1.The HW News English
2.The Mojo
3.Indian Express(You Tube)
4.Various interviews of Yogendra Yadav in different digital platforms.
5.The Print
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.