Chennai: More heat was generated on the debate over significance of Hindi language in the country, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin saying the Central government should treat all languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as official languages.
The DMK chief also advocated that September 14 be observed as ‘Indian Languages Day’, instead of ‘Hindi Diwas’.
DMK released a statement by Stalin in response to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks made on Hindi Diwas – that Hindi was the friend of all Indian languages and unites the whole nation in a thread of unity as an official language – a day earlier.
Stalin said if Shah was concerned about local languages, he should allot funds for those on a par with Hindi and Sanskrit.
“But the Union Government is bent on imposing Hindi through the National Education Policy,” stated Stalin.
He added that the country should not be turned into ‘Hindia’.
“It is India. Not Hindia. Indian languages including Tamil should be declared as official languages of the Union Government,” the statement said.
Stalin reiterated that the Union government was trying to push away Tamil and other languages which are rich in literature and culture ’s with a ‘dominant’ attitude to project Hindi as the ‘national language’.
“To say that one should learn Hindi to understand the culture and history (of India) is against the unity in diversity principle of India, which consists of people who speak different languages… India’s culture and history aren’t hidden in Hindi. Historians have pointed out that the Dravidian language family led by Tamil had spread across today’s India and beyond,” was Stalin’s view.
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