Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu states see ruling BJP\u2019s move as attempt to wipe out their cultural heritage
\n New Delhi
\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s insistence on nationwide adoption of Hindi, the main language of northern India, has drawn the ire of some states, which saw it as a move that would wipe out their cultural heritage.
\nIn linguistically diverse India, the imposition of Hindi has always triggered tensions among the states and the central government.
\nHigh-profile brawls have erupted recently over Modi\u2019s push for the nationwide adoption of Hindi, the language of his power base in northern India and a symbol of his campaign to unify the country around the ideology of Hindu nationalism, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
\nIn Maharashtra, a state in western India governed by Modi\u2019s party \u2014 the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was forced to retract a policy requiring that Hindi be taught in elementary schools last month.
\nOpposition politicians, residents and others had called the policy an affront to Marathi, the region\u2019s native language, the report said.
\nIn another state, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has raged for months against an education policy pushed by the Modi government for the adoption of Hindi, claiming that it is trying to force students to learn the language.
\nThis southern Indian state has a history of rioting over efforts to make Hindi mandatory.
\nTamil Nadu sued the central government in May after it said that it would withhold education funds until the state implemented the policy.
\n\u201cIt is common sense that pushing any one language will harm the national integration and unity of a linguistically diverse nation like India,\u201d said Niranjanaradhya V P, an activist who studies how education affects childhood development.
\n\u201cIt is because of this imposition that there is so much resistance by people.\u201d
\nCentral government officials have been careful to emphasise publicly that India\u2019s strength lies in its linguistic diversity. When they attack any of India\u2019s languages, their target is English, calling it a legacy of colonialism that must be de-emphasised to build a new India.
\nHindi and English are India\u2019s two official languages, and Hindi is the mother tongue of the biggest group of Indians.
\nThe ruling BJP leaders have made the spread of Hindi a cornerstone of their overarching goal of remaking India into a Hindu-first nation and the Modi government officials increasingly refer to the country as Bharat, a name derived from Sanskrit.
\nThe Modi government has steadily promoted Hindi across the nation by naming new public programmes, such as for education, agriculture or development, in the language.
\nTamil Nadu has refused to abide by that policy, which the state government claims is a way to force the teaching of Hindi.
\nIts top leader, M K Stalin, has said that his state has no need for Hindi because it has achieved high literacy rates teaching in Tamil and English.
\nTamil Nadu and other southern states worry that the imposition of Hindi would wipe out their cultural heritage, including a family of languages with Dravidian, rather than Sanskrit, roots.
\nIn Maharashtra, the trouble started in April after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis issued a diktat that Hindi would be mandatory in elementary schools, in addition to English and Marathi.
\nThe blowback was immense. Sushil Kedia, an investor, was trolled after posting on social media that he had struggled to learn Marathi despite being a longtime resident of the state. Vandals also attacked his offices. Kedia later apologised for his comments.
\nWhen the government\u2019s efforts to push Hindi create outrage, they often also generate political opportunities.
\nThe fight over Marathi reunited two prominent state politicians, estranged cousins who had a falling out nearly two decades ago and created their own political parties, stated the NYT report.
\nThe two marked their triumph over the weekend at a celebratory rally.
\nThe Thackeray reunion comes ahead of important municipal elections and after Maharashtra\u2019s 2024 state elections, in which both of the Thackeray-led parties suffered major losses.
\nOn Saturday, Stalin, the Tamil Nadu leader, congratulated the two on their \u201cvictory\u201d. In a post on X, he said the campaign to reject the imposition of Hindi had \u201ctranscended state boundaries\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu states see ruling BJP\u2019s move as attempt to wipe out their cultural heritage New Delhi Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s insistence on nationwide adoption of Hindi, the main language of northern India, has drawn the ire of some states, which saw it as a move that would wipe out their cultural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-490091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n