After Sanskrit, Ramayana, Mahabharat and Bhagavad Gita, it is the turn of Hindi to earn the wrath of the lefts, the Dravidian parties and Tamil chauvinists. In a meeting held in Chennai, leaders of the CPI(M), the DMK and the VCK charged that the move by the Centre to make people learn Hindi was an agenda of the RSS to destroy the pluralism and cultural diversity of the country.
Sitaram Yechury, the CPI(M) general secretary, had people in splits when he charged that the efforts by the Centre to “impose” Hindi on non-Hindi speaking States was a part of the political project of the RSS. “Why impose HindiIJ Imposition of Hindi is the imposition of a certain ideological conditioning. It is that ideological conditioning which is a pre-requisite for the ideological conditioning required for converting the secular republic of India into their version of Hindu Rashtra,” alleged Yechury while addressing a conclave on how to prevent the safronisation drive unleashed by the RSS,” said Yechury, while addressing a meeting held under the auspices of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association, a frontal outfit of the CPI-M.
Taking a cue from the observations made by his all-India boss, G Ramakrishnan, the party’s Tamil Nadu secretary went one step further and said that the BJP was trying to subvert the plurality and diversity of the country by making people study Hindi. “We are organising a conference of the Chief Ministers of non-Hindi speaking States to counter this move. The objective of the RSS and the BJP to make people learn Hindi is art pf their large agenda. They are working to create a one nation, one language and one culture through this mission,” said Ramakrishnan.
The CPI-M Tamil Nadu leader said his party would work jointly with the DMK, which was in the forefront of the Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu and also the VCK. Thol Thirumavalavan, the VCK leader too expressed his displeasure over the move to force people study Hindi.
This is the first time the lefts and the VCK oppose the learning f Hindi and describing it as a part of the saffronization drive by the Sangh Parivar. V Kalyanam, former private secretary to Mahatma Gandhi, expressed his shock over the reported statement by the leaders against Hindi. “Nearly two-third of the people in India speak Hindi. There is no doubt about the status of Hindi, our national language. Statements like these are derisive in nature and an insult to the memories of the Father of the Nation,” said Kalyanam.
M Sridhar, editor of Shabd Saagar, the first comprehensive Hindi-Tamil dictionary, said the statement by the left leaders was made out of frustration. “People in Tamil Nadu, especially the new generation, are enthusiastic about learning Hindi and Sanskrit. Children of these leaders who speak ill of Hindi and Sanskrit are also learning Hindi with enthusiasm and aplomb,” he said.
Since the last few months, the DMK has been waging an undeclared war on Hindi. The mixing of Hindi with RSS and the BJP has shocked the Hindi teachers in the State.