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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
At Madurai event, Amit Shah apologises for not knowing Tamil: ‘One of the greatest languages of India'
Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday, during a speech in Madurai, described Tamil as one of the greatest languages of India and extended an apology for not being able to convey his message in the language. Addressing workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madurai, Shah began his speech by apologising for not being able to speak 'one of the greatest languages of India'. "...I apologise to the party workers of Tamil Nadu as I cannot talk to them in one of the greatest languages of India, Tamil..." Shah said. He also assured the BJP workers that the ruling DMK will be defeated in 2026 polls and an NDA government of the BJP-AIADMK would form. "The NDA government of the BJP-AIADMK alliance will be formed here in 2026. I live in Delhi, but my ears are always on Tamil Nadu. MK Stalin says that Amit Shah cannot defeat DMK. He is right. It's not me, but the people of Tamil Nadu will defeat you," he said. Amit Shah's remarks about Tamil come amid a language war with the MK Stalin-led state government, which accused Centre of Hindi imposition through the proposed three-language formula under the National Education Policy (NEP). The NEP issue sparked an intense row between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government in March this year. Chief minister MK Stalin and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had trained guns at each other for weeks over the implementation of NEP in the state, with the former claiming that Centre was holding funds as a form of blackmail. Stalin, who heads the DMK, also said that the Union government was sowing the seeds of another language war and that Tamil Nadu was ready for it. Language has long been an emotive issue for the state that was rocked by anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s. On the other hand, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had stressed that the National Education Policy 'upholds the principle of linguistic freedom' and 'does not advocate the imposition of any language' on states. Pradhan had also appealed to him to not 'politicise education' and 'rise above political differences'.
The Print
03-06-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Bengaluru is copying Mumbai. Language purity is becoming a code for economic frustration
His detractors include Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who dismissed his remarks as ignorant, and other state ministers who are calling for a ban on his films. Joining the chorus is the strident Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, an organisation that has been at the forefront of similar language-related debates – they staged a protest outside Bengaluru's Victory Cinema, and threatened theatre owners against screening the movie. Haasan's assertion that Kannada was ' born out of Tamil ' has triggered the familiar theatre of linguistic outrage. The gist of the widespread condemnation is that Kannada is a separate, but 'sister' language to Tamil, and that there is no hierarchy between the two. Kamal Haasan was preparing to set the box office ablaze with his latest movie, Thug Life, a mega Mani Ratnam vehicle. But his remarks on Kannada at a Chennai event have had the effect of lighting a match in a room full of petrol. Meanwhile, Haasan has doubled down, contending that his remarks spring from 'love'. He has refused to apologise until proven wrong. For his troubles, good old censorship will be called upon, once again, to bolster public pride in our roots. Haasan has become the latest high-profile casualty in a storm that has increasingly been gathering force across Karnataka – where language has become a new fault line for deeper anxieties about jobs, identity, and belonging. But these fissures have always existed in modern India, where our states are divided along linguistic lines. The anti-Hindi imposition movements of Tamil Nadu, for instance, stretch back to the 1930s, but echo well into today in the battles over National Education Policy. Through the 1960s, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cemented its political fortunes via genuine resistance against cultural imperialism, in favour of federal principles and economic equity. Even now, Tamil Nadu remains the only state where Hindi is non-compulsory in schools. And as commentators point out, 'When more than 25 per cent of Hindi speakers remain illiterate even after 78 years of independence, the fervent enthusiasm to impose Hindi on states for whom the language is historically alien and culturally distant is both baffling and potentially counterproductive.' Versions of these struggles have manifested across India – in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, Bengal, and Jharkhand. In a fit to spurn Punjabi, Haryana once even chose Tamil as its official second language, and it remained on records for 40 years until 2010. At least some of these movements had teeth because they challenged actual power structures. In southern states especially, they were a reaction against the flattening impulse of an overzealous Centre determined to impose Hindi uniformity. But somewhere between then and now, things have gone sideways. The weapons that once targeted policy makers and power structures have been redirected downward, finding new victims among the most powerless. Today's language warriors corner office and gig workers, harass cab and autorickshaw drivers, and terrorise street vendors. As our cities have become more cosmopolitan, they've also taken a turn for the parochial. Language purity – wrong & right In Bengaluru, these tensions have reached a point where both sides are simultaneously wrong and right. There's a fine line that divides pride in your mother tongue from intolerance for any other language – but it is still completely distinguishable. Obviously, it is a crime for an autorickshaw driver to slap a passenger for not speaking Kannada. It is not strictly a crime to say that North Indians come to Bengaluru to 'beg', but it is deeply offensive. It's borderline intimidation – and legally untenable – to say that Bengaluru is 'closed' for North Indians. At the same time, it is an illustration of typical North Indian entitlement and ignorance to move to another city and demand that the local population speak Hindi. It's disruption of public duty for a nationalised bank officer to refuse to even attempt to speak the language of the state she works in. And it is downright delusional to believe that the city would lose its glamour if North Indians vacated it. But a staunch defiance of any attempt at assimilation is the hallmark of many Indians. Writing in 1962, the linguist Paul Friedrich observed: 'Starving Indians in the industrial slums of Bombay have knifed each other 'because' one speaks Marathi, the other Gujarati… Various fissures in India's culture may be growing rather than decreasing.' Friedrich spoke about the connections and the fluidity of state borders and how the neat boundaries never coincided with language. 'Thus, Madras State included not only Tamilians but many people speaking Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, not to mention minority languages. The Bombay Presidency included speakers of at least four major languages.' This forced differing groups of people to interact, but that didn't always result in a happy coexistence. Friedrich could be writing about today when he said, 'The close juxtaposition of linguistic minorities does not necessarily produce fusion, despite the heat and friction of the urban industrial pot; thousands of caste groups living in diaspora in the big Indian cities have retained their mother tongue, endogamy, and religious practices for hundreds of years, in accordance with the deep-lying values that support social segregation, combined with various types of social interdependence.' Also read: DMK should wake up. Anti-Hindi politics isn't working on Tamil Nadu voters anymore Targeting the powerless Bengaluru is now fine-tuning the template that Maharashtra perfected, where language purity is code for economic frustration. The 2008 Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) attacks on North Indian taxi drivers were systematic campaigns targeting 'outsiders' who supposedly spoiled Maharashtrian culture. Seventeen years on, the same trend continues: A recent viral video showed a cab driver from Uttar Pradesh being thrashed despite speaking Marathi. His attackers scoffed, 'So, you're acting smart in Maharashtra now?' before beating him. The easiest targets are gig workers and street vendors. An 18-year-old Zomato delivery worker in Mumbai appealed to be treated 'like a human' after facing 'language discrimination'. A few weeks ago, a couple in a Mumbai society refused to pay the pizza delivery executive because he didn't speak Marathi. In turn, the executive had to apologise at the MNS office. Street vendors, already criminalised and harassed by authorities, are also at the receiving end of this linguistic persecution. The informal economy's most vulnerable become convenient scapegoats for attendant concerns about jobs and cultural change. The bitter irony is that language – even at its most stilted and broken – has always meant connection. Centuries ago, Amir Khusrau wrote 'Ze haal-e-miskin makun taghaaful/Duraa'e nainan banaaye batiyaan (Do not neglect the condition of this wretch! He turns his eyes away and makes excuses)'. The ghazal's unique structure, where the lines alternate between Persian and Hindavi, is a thing of beauty. Khusrau wasn't polluting either language – he was celebrating their capacity to create something greater than the sum of its parts. There is so much more to protecting a language – like fostering its expression – than the chauvinistic demand that the poorest migrants speak it. This might not occur to today's linguistic fundamentalists, but languages have always grown through mixing, through human cross-fertilisation. Almost all spoken languages were shaped by millennia of beautiful contamination – and they are stronger for their capacity to grow and adapt. How can a poor street vendor or delivery executive – or even Kamal Haasan – threaten that? Karanjeet Kaur is a journalist, former editor of Arré, and a partner at TWO Design. She tweets @Kaju_Katri. Views are personal. (Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
News18
04-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Rahul Gandhi Calls Lord Ram 'Mythological', BJP Hits Back With 'Anti-Hindu' Jibe
Last Updated: BJP leaders launched a scathing attack at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying insulting Hindus and Lord Shri Ram has become the identity of the Congress. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sparked a row after he referred to Indian deities, including Lord Ram, as mythological figures. His remark came during an event at Brown University in the United States. In the viral clip, Gandhi was heard saying, '…All are mythological figures; Lord Ram was of that type, where he was forgiving, he was compassionate." As the video went viral, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders slammed Gandhi for his remark. Sharing a part of the video, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the country will never forgive Gandhi for doubting the existence of Lord Ram. 'Rashtra Drohi Congress, Ab Ram Drohi Congress. Rahul Gandhi says Prabhu Ram is mythological or kalpanik. (Rahul Gandhi says Lord Ram is imaginary.). This is how and why they (Congress) opposed Ram Mandir and even doubted existence of Prabhu Ram…" Poonawala said that this is the biggest indication of the mindset of a party that is anti-Ram and anti-Hindu. Insulting Hindus and Lord Shri Ram has become the identity of the Congress. He mentioned that Congress has been questioning Lord Ram, opposing the Ram temple, and using terms like Hindu terror. 'Now another statement has come up where he says Lord Ram is mythological. This is the same language that Sonia Gandhi used during UPA government to break the Ram Setu. This is the biggest example of Congress being anti-Hindi and anti-India and the people of the country will never forgive him for this," Poonawalla said. BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan too shared a clip of Gandhi's remark on X and wrote, 'Rahul Gandhi's Congress led UPA Govt [2007] had filed an affidavit in SC stating no historical proof of Lord Ram. His ally DMK mocked Lord Ram saying there is no history which states which Engineering college Rama studied nor what bridge he built." First Published: May 04, 2025, 07:09 IST
New Indian Express
23-04-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Seeman pays homage to anti-Hindi protest martyr Rajendran, registers land for memorial
CUDDALORE: Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) Chief Coordinator Seeman on Monday paid homage at the tomb of anti-Hindi protest martyr Rajendran at Rengapillai Mandapam near Parangipettai and registered land for constructing a memorial hall in his honour. Rajendran, a native of Kallal village in Sivaganga district and a student of Annamalai University, was killed during the 1965 anti-Hindi agitation. Then pursuing a BSc degree, he was shot dead by police during a protest inside the university premises. Owing to the volatile situation prevailing across Tamil Nadu at the time, his body was laid to rest in Parangipettai instead of his native village. Accompanied by party members, Seeman laid a wreath and paid floral tributes at Rajendran's tomb. He later proceeded to the Parangipettai Sub-Registrar Office, where he completed the registration of four cents of private land surrounding the tomb. Party functionaries said the land, registered in Seeman's name, would be used for the construction of a memorial hall dedicated to Rajendran. Construction work is expected to commence shortly. Earlier in February, Chief Minister M K Stalin had announced the state government's plans to renovate Rajendran's tomb as a memorial during an event in Cuddalore. DMK cadres regularly pay homage at the site on Rajendran's death anniversary each year.
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
DMK's rule in T.N. an extension of Justice Party govt.: Chief Minister
There is no end to the Justice Party. The DMK's rule in Tamil Nadu is an extension of the Justice Party's rule in Madras Presidency, said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in Chennai on Tuesday. Releasing a book on the life and legacy of Justice Party leader and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile Madras Presidency P.T. Rajan titled Dravida Araneriyalar Thamizhavel P.T. Rajan Vaazhve Varalaru, Mr. Stalin said when the Justice Party was defeated in the 1937 election, Rajan had remarked, 'One day we shall take revenge for this defeat.' Thirty years later, when the DMK won the 1967 election, he considered the DMK's victory as a success of the Justice Party. During the 1971 election, he appealed to the people to vote for the DMK to form a strong government, the Chief Minister said. 'Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan is not the only heir of P.T. Rajan. We all in the DMK are political heirs of P.T. Rajan. Some may feel irritated when they hear the word 'heir.' They might feel uneasy, but we would keep repeating it.….Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan is an intellectual and capable of putting forth strong arguments. But his eloquence should remain a strength, not a weakness,' he said. Mr. Stalin added that the book was not just the biography of one individual, but the history of the Justice Party, its leaders, and its governance achievements. 'Not everyone's life can be called a history, but P.T. Rajan's life is undoubtedly a history. His contributions to various departments like Cooperation, Public Works, and Registration, had shaped Tamil Nadu's development,' the Chief Minister said. 'In 1938, during the anti-Hindi agitations P.T. Rajan famously said, 'We are not opponents of Hindi, but we are against the imposition of Hindi upon us.' We continue to voice the same sentiment today. Though the faces of our enemies may change, their mentality remains the same. Until that mentality changes, our struggle will continue,' he said. Recollecting the speech of former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai on April 20, 1967, who called Rajan as a 'Man of culture and a learned man', N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited, said Tamil Nadu remained the top State in the country not only because of its economic progress, but also because of its crusade against regressive social norms. He also hailed Mr. Stalin for his stance on implementing two-language policy in the State, the recent landmark judgment of the Supreme Court with respect to the role of Governors in taking decisions on Bills passed by the Assembly, and the State's opposition to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test. Justice C.T. Selvam, former Judge, Madras High Court, who received the first copy of the book, recollected his grandfather and Justice Party leader Sir A.T. Panneerselvam's association with Rajan. Venu Srinivasan, chairman emeritus, TVS Motor Company, recollected his family's long association with the family of P.T. Rajan and the latter's contribution to social justice, equality, spirituality and Tamil. Ministers Duraimurugan and Mr. Thiaga Rajan and Rukmini Palanivel Rajan, chairperson, Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple Board of Trustees, were among those present.
