Uddhav and Aaditya meet Fadnavis, Worli MLA calls it ‘friendly exchange'
The meeting comes a day after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis offered former ally and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray to join the Mahayuti.
'Uddhavji, now we don't have to do anything till 2029. We have no scope left to come there (to opposition benches). But you have the scope to come here (to treasury benches). We can think about it differently. We will talk differently,' Fadnavis had said in the legislative council on Wednesday.
The meeting took place after a delegation of Shiv Sena (UBT) legislators held a meeting with legislative council chairman Ram Shinde and Fadnavis. The delegation reminded the government about its pending demand of appointment of Leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly. Following this, Thackeray gifted a book titled 'Hindichi Sakti Havich Kashala (What is the need of making Hindi mandatory?)' to Fadnavis and Shinde.
'We presented him a collection of articles from apolitical individuals opposing imposition of Hindi. We are opposing the imposition of Hindi from the first standard,' said Aaditya Thackeray after the meeting.
When asked about the consecutive exchanges between Thackeray and Fadnavis, the MLA from Worli constituency said that 'friendly exchanges' routinely happen in the legislature.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
History Headline: Far from politics, journey of Hindi in southern states
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently waded into the language row, stating that former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, a scholar, knew 17 languages. Without mentioning any of the states that have been alleging Hindi imposition by the Centre, Naidu said on July 15 in Delhi, 'Now we are asking — why should we learn Hindi?' The governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala have in the past called the three-language formula proposed by the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, a covert move to impose Hindi on the southern states. They allege that the Centre's Hindi push goes against the idea of a federal polity. While the debate goes on, with the southern states often pitted as anti-Hindi, away from the noise of political debates, the language and its speakers have had a long history in the region. Scholars say Hindi actively began to make its presence felt in the South around the Independence movement, with Mahatma Gandhi establishing the first Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in Madras (now Chennai) in 1918. The objective was to teach Hindi to a non-Hindi-speaking populace as a link language for the freedom movement. 'Learning Hindi was one way of feeling that one is participating in the Indian national freedom movement,' says Prof J Atmaram of the University of Hyderabad's Hindi Department. In 1922, the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha conducted its first preliminary exam to test basic Hindi proficiency. The first undergraduate examination, Rashtrabhasha Visharad, was conducted in 1931. In the other southern states where the Sabha had its regional centres — Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Kochi and Gulbarga — Hindi learning gained in popularity. 'For example, Andhra Pradesh acted as a corridor between Hindi and other southern languages. The state welcomed Hindi learning, be it in Hyderabad or Vijayawada,' says Atmaram. In Karnataka and Kerala too, there wasn't much opposition to Hindi. 'Tucked away in Ernakulam south stands the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, active since the 1930s,' he said. Hindi grew more organically with the advent of mass media — radio and TV. 'At radio stations in Madras and Trichy, Hindi programming, along with regional languages, continued in independent India,' said Atmaram. By the 1970s, Doordarshan had reached homes in the South with its Satellite Instruction Television Experiment (SITE). The experiment, which began in 1975, focused on Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where instructional programming with shows dedicated to agriculture and education would have one visual component and two language components. For instance, a person in Andhra watching one of these programmes could opt to do so in Telugu. 'But while instructional programming had a language option, mass media programming, including news and entertainment which were aired through SITE, were mainly in Hindi,' says Prof B P Sanjay, who worked on SITE and was former director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. The popularity of Doordarshan's blockbuster TV shows — Ramayana, Mahabharata, Chitrahaar, etc — meant that while few homes spoke Hindi, the language wafted uninterrupted into their homes and hearts. In the 1970s and '80s, another phenomenon contributed to the spread of Hindi — magazines published in Hindi. For instance, Dakshinanchal Hindi Samiti translated Bhakti literature into southern languages and vice versa. 'Also, there were famous Hindi language magazines, Kalpna and Golconda Darpan, which were being published from Hyderabad. These magazines were popular even in the North,' says Atmaram. These magazines gave writing in Hindi a push. The focus was on schooling students in Hindi and the NEP of 1968 paved the way with its recommendation of a three-language policy which foregrounded Hindi and English along with the regional languages. Except for Tamil Nadu, which followed the two-language (English and Tamil) policy in government- and aided-schools, all other southern Indian states had adopted the three-language policy. In recent times, with migration, the language and its dialects spread faster. In certain Kerala districts, there are bus boards displayed in Hindi to cater to migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Operating out of Erode's Periyar Nagar — a neighbourhood named after Tamil Nadu's social reformer E V Ramasamy, who spearheaded the anti-Hindi agitations of the1930s — is the Tamil Nadu Hindi Prachara Sabha, an NGO run by M Krishnamurthy, 60, which conducts spoken Hindi classes. 'In Tamil Nadu, no one will stop you from teaching or learning Hindi. We have been running the institution from 2009 onwards,' he said. His institution caters not just to school students and civil service aspirants but also to Erode's turmeric traders. 'They need to converse in Hindi for their business interests and we help them,' he says. The writer is Assistant Editor, The Indian Express
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
Revenge of the vernac! Time to mind your angrezi, mister
A controversy of sorts erupted recently after home minister Amit Shah's declaration at a book launch in Delhi that 'those who speak English will soon feel ashamed — the creation of such a society (in India) is not far away.' The comments attracted widespread criticism from the opposition, which accused Shah of pushing the RSS's agenda of cultural domination. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the BJP-RSS did not want underprivileged children to learn English and make progress to become equal. So, what does it mean when a powerful politician hints at shaming people for speaking the language of colonial masters? Is it an unpleasant yet necessary process of the much-needed linguistic decolonisation of our minds, as Shah claims? Credit: Chad Crowe Or is it clever political messaging meant for the vast majority of aspiring young men and women from small towns and villages who speak in the 'vernacular' and hold an irrational grudge against the English-speaking class living in metropolitan India? Just to contextualise, the etymology of the word 'vernacular' is interesting: it is derived from the Latin word 'verna', which means a slave born in his master's house. One of the other variants derived from 'verna' is 'vernaculum' — a low-bred person or proletarian. I was made aware of my 'vernac' identity many years ago when an acquaintance hurled the word at me as an insult. He spoke rather fluent English and kept referring to Hindi speakers as 'vernacs' — a derogatory term to describe those who speak in the vernacular. I, on the other hand, was trying to argue with him in Hindi — the language I am most comfortable in. But my combative antagonist was not willing to stoop to my level by answering in the language of the general hoi polloi. Around the same time, I was offered a job in an upmarket English-language news magazine. But my excitement came crashing down in the very first editorial meeting. While colleagues were rattling off story ideas in their clipped accents and perfect diction, peppering their pitch with public school jokes, I forgot my well-rehearsed lines when my turn came, and could only manage to mumble a few words in Hindi. Suddenly, a thick pall of oppressive silence fell in the editor's room. I could see embarrassed faces all around me; some colleagues looking down at the floor to avoid eye contact. The sacrilege had been committed. A yokel had sneaked into the 'Exclusive Club of the English-speaking Gentry' and defiled it with his lowbrow 'vernacular', or so I thought. That was my first embarrassing encounter with linguistic shame. Dr Lori Gallegos, professor of philosophy at Texas State University, defines linguistic shame as something that 'involves feelings of embarrassment, a sense of inferiority, and attitudes of self-reproach that arise in relation to the way one speaks.' She equates linguicism with other forms of discrimination, like racism and sexism. Apart from direct linguicism, which is still practised in some South Asian convents and public schools, there is another form of discrimination where 'people implicitly view those who do not speak English as uneducated or unintelligent.' PM Modi himself faces this kind of glottophobia regularly when he is mocked for mispronouncing an English word or phrase. Amit Shah's son, Jay Shah, is also trolled for his lack of fluency in English. Against this backdrop, Shah's unapologetic reverse linguicism — though one is not justifying it — becomes somewhat understandable. Ironically, Shah was echoing the sentiments expressed by the celebrated Kenyan-American Marxist writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who died last month. Thiong'o shunned the English language back in the 1970s and declared that in future, he would only write in his mother tongue, Gikuyu. It was his way of protesting against the imposition of the language of the colonial masters, which he described as a 'cultural bomb'. So, when the wider Sangh Parivar eulogises India's past, it may appear to be rejecting the effect of the 'cultural bomb' as described by Thiong'o, but there's a big difference between the two. While Thiong'o sees English and many other European languages as an assault on native African languages, the Hindutva narrative is more selective in its approach. Urdu, an out-and-out Indian language, is as much an anathema to them as English. A more troubling thought is how such rhetoric could encourage the right wing's vast army of foot soldiers — often drawn from under-educated and poor marginalised castes who resent the English-speaking elite. Some of them have taken on the role of cow vigilantes who patrol highways. This foot soldier could now potentially have another assignment as a bhasha rakshak dal (defenders of language) vigilante — going from room to room in Delhi Gymkhana or the swanky clubs in South Mumbai, or inspecting seminar halls in universities and the India International Centre to check if the speakers are ashamed enough while delivering a speech in English. Should that dystopia become a reality, will the angreziwallas be then forced to form secret societies where one could only whisper in a language that shall not be named? Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
PIL in SC seeks FIR against Raj, MNS workers for ‘mob violence'
Mumbai: A public interest litigation filed in the seeks registration of an FIR against (MNS) leader and his party workers for indulging in "mob violence" by assaulting people from other states who are unable to speak Marathi and urges that such illegal activities need to be curbed with an iron hand. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now It also seeks the derecognition of MNS. "Such activities of Raj Thackeray and his so-called political workers, if not stopped forthwith, will in no time assume the character of complete lawlessness. Resultantly, people will be prone to take the law into their own hands, which would be inconceivable in a civilised society that respects the rule of law," states advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay. Citing the April 16 and 17 GRs that introduced Hindi as a third language in primary schools, Upadhyay in his petition states that Thackeray, "in desperation to occupy some seats" in the forthcoming BMC elections, decided to "encash the opportunity". He has been making "fiery speeches" against Hindi-speaking people from UP, Bihar, MP and Rajasthan who settled in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai, Thane and Pune. His speeches "instigate people to come on the street, and something which started as opposing Hindi has led to Marathi being imposed on people who do not speak Marathi or have come from other states". Following withdrawals of the GRs, at a July 5 rally, Thackeray "justified that people who do not speak Marathi should be hit below their eardrums". At his instance, his "goons/political workers" were assaulting and beating up such people and even dismantling/destroying their business establishments/shops, etc. After a Rajasthani businessman from Mira Bhayander was beaten up, Thackeray "publicly proclaimed these are trailers. .." Upadhyay alleges Thackeray's "love for Marathi is seasonal". Upadhyay further states that "Raj Thackeray thinks that by invoking Marathi pride, he and Uddhav Thackeray could do wonders by consolidating Marathi votes" for winning BMC elections. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "The love and affection of Raj Thackeray is not for the Marathi language but with an eye on Mumbai municipal corporation elections, and these tantrums are blown out of proportion with an oblique and ulterior motive of gaining advantage" in the elections. Stating that since acts of Thackeray and his party workers constitute cognisable offences, including "endangering the sovereignty, integrity, and unity of India," on July 10, Upadhyay wrote to the PM, home minister, Maharashtra chief minister, Election Commission of India, and State Election Commission to ensure an FIR is forthwith registered and MNS's recognition is withdrawn. "However, no action was taken. .. with the result that people were living under the constant shadow of fear of being assaulted, beaten up, insulted, and humiliated by Raj Thackeray and his political workers." Therefore, he said, he approached the SC.
