nTamil Nadu’s wait for Navodaya Vidyalayas, the Centre-funded public schools in each district of the State is destined to get delayed further because of the hatred for Hindi by the Dravidian politicians and intelligentsia.
Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country which has banned Navodaya Vidyalaya, a public school concept launched across the country at the instance of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.
“What is shocking is that the Indian National Congress of Rajiv Gandhi is hand in glove with the DMK and other Tamil fringe groups in their opposition for implementing the dream of Rajiv Gandhi,” said SV Badri, theatre personality and founder of the famous drama team Crazy Creations.
The call for massive agitation against the proposal to have three-language system comes amid an observation made by Governor Banwarilal Purohit that the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu have a vast collection of Sanskrit manuscripts in public repositories and private collections. “It has been stated that there are more than a lakh and half Sanskrit manuscripts in Tamil Nadu and Kerala which are waiting to be translated. There is a huge treasure of knowledge still waiting to be tapped from Sanskrit sources like inscriptions,” said the Governor.
This could be undertaken if only there are youngsters with knowledge in Hindi and Sanskrit, according to N Gopalaswamy, former Chief Election Commissioner of India who is the chairman of Kalakshetra Foundation.
“We have set up the National Manuscript Mission and digitised 40 lakh pages of Sanskri manuscripts. But this is just tip of the ice berg,” Gopalaswamy told The Pioneer. Learning of Hindi means
creation of lakhs of jobs, he pointed out.
Nobody is as disappointed more than M Ravinson, president of Kumari Maha Sabha, am organisation fighting for the rights of the Tamil Nadu children to learn Hindi and also to open Navodaya Vidyalayas in the State. “The politicians and some of the elite groups do not want our children to learn Hindu. They also want the rural poor to remain as poor and uneducated. Navodaya Vidyalayas are meant for the rural poor to get quality education financed by the government. Denying the same to the children is violation of human rights,” said Ravinson, a lawyer by profession.
But the intelligentsia in the State have other ideas. “Knowing Hindi is an advantage for the ambitious middle class. Tamil Nadu has all along been a self-sufficient State and there hasn’t been any need to learn it. With the changing demographics, I am afraid it would become a necessity. Already students, especially those from poor economic background, aren’t expressive either in English or Tamil. Making Hindi compulsory would worsen things,” said AR Meyyammai, senior scribe.
Dr YR Johnson, a former principal of Navodaya Vidyalaya, who is relentlessly fighting for the cause of children said that the Dravidian politicians are destroying the future of Tamil Nadu students by not allowing the three-language formula and opposing the Navodaya Schools in the State. “Times have changed. The anti-Hindi agitation of the 1960s was a serious mistake and it has already dome a lot of damage,” said Johnson pointing out that schools passing out of Navodaya Vidyalayas stand better chance to get admission in medical colleges and IITs.