Hindi is a contentious issue down south. It must be handled with dexterity and patience

September 14 is celebrated as Hindi Diwas across the country. It was on this day that Hindi became one of the official languages. The Constituent Assembly in September 1949 adopted Hindi as an official language to be written in Devnagri script. It was then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru who decided to celebrate the day as Hindi Diwas, though he himself was not very conversant in the language. This is also a day that does not pass without a new controversy. The southern states have blamed the successive Central Governments for imposing Hindi on south India where few people speak Hindi. JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy wrote a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday to avoid celebrating 'Hindi Diwas.' The former Chief Minister stated that celebrating Hindi Diwas would mean "injustice" to the people of Karnataka as they have nothing to do with it. Taking a cue, Congress leader Priyank Kharge also denounced the Centre's efforts to introduce Hindi across southern states. Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stirred the hornet’s nest by saying that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English. There was even a Twitter war over Hindi between Ajay Devgn and Kiccha Sudeep.

The debate over Hindi as a common language of the country has thus been revived as the BJP has made a fervent pitch to push it as a national language that could unite the country. Hindi has been a big emotional issue in the south. At the time of Independence, it was decided that Hindi and English would be used as official languages for 15 years. After that, efforts were made to make Hindi the official language through an Act of 1963. Annadurai of the DMK opposed the Act. The then Prime Minister Nehru promised that English would continue to be one. Later, anti-Hindi imposition protests spread across Tamil Nadu. Chinnasamy of Tiruchi was the first person to immolate himself against the imposition of Hindi. This led to a spate of self-immolations against the imposition of Hindi. There was rioting and 70 people died in protests. The then Prime Minister LB Shastri finally agreed to keep English as a language for interstate and Union-State communication. After that, there was a lull in the language row but now it is once coming to the fore. It is very important to deal with the issue with maturity, taking everybody on board so that the bloody history is not repeated.