New Delhi [India], October 18 : Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu MK Stalin on Friday raised concerns over linguistic diversity and representation and strongly condemned the celebration of Hindi Month valedictory function along with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan.
"I strongly condemn the celebration of Hindi Month valedictory function along with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan. Hon'ble @PMOIndia, The Constitution of India does not grant national language status to any language. In a multilingual nation, celebrating Hindi Month in non-Hindi-speaking states is seen as an attempt to belittle other languages. Therefore, I suggest that holding such Hindi-oriented events in non-Hindi-speaking states could be avoided, and instead, the celebration of the local language month in the respective states should be encouraged," Stalin posted on X.
He also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasising that the Indian Constitution does not grant national language status to any language, and Hindi and English are only for official purposes. He suggests avoiding Hindi language programs in non-Hindi-speaking states.
"It has been announced that the closing ceremony of the Hindi Month celebrations and Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Television will be held this evening at Doordarshan Tamil in Chennai, and Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi will be the special guest. This blatant attempt to impose Hindi is strongly condemned. India has 122 languages spoken by a significant number of people and 1599 other languages. There is no justification for celebrating only one language when India is a diverse country. In a country where more than 1700 languages are spoken, especially in a state where the world's oldest language, Tamil, is spoken only in Hindi, it will affect the country's diversity. Central government should not be responsible for this," he wrote.
He stated that in a multilingual country like India, celebrating the Hindi month in non-Hindi-speaking states was seen as an attempt to belittle the other languages.
Further in his letter, Stalin suggested that the Hindi language-oriented events could be avoided in the non-Hindi speaking states if possible or if allowed the celebration of the local language should also take place in respective states with equal warmth.
"If the Union goverment still wants to conduct such events they can simultaneously celebrate local language months to promote harmony among languages," Stalin suggested.
The TN CM wrote that India has no national language and if Hindi Month was being celebrated, the same should be done with Tamil language.
"Whether the Congress is ruling at the centre or the Bharatiya Janata Party is ruling, there is no difference in imposing Hindi. As the golden jubilee of Chennai Television is also celebrated today, what has it done to Tamil in the last fifty years? Chennai TV could have organized a program to explain in which genres the Tamil language is best. Apart from that, celebrating only Hindi cannot be allowed. Therefore, I urge you to cancel the closing ceremony of the Hindi Month celebrations in the two functions scheduled to be held today at the Chennai Television Station," he wrote.
Further, he also stated that the Government of the country should hold special events to celebrate the richness of the classical languages that it has recognized in the respective states, which could help enhance the cordial relationship among people.
"India has no such thing as a national language. If it is fair to celebrate Hindi Day and Hindi Month because Hindi was declared the official language of the country on 14th September 1949, the same right of celebration should be given to the Tamil language. When the Constitution of India was adopted on 26.01.1950, 14 languages including Tamil were included in its Eighth Schedule. The central Government should have declared that day as Tamil Language Day. On October 12, 2004, Tamil was announced as the classical language. The central Government should have declared that day as Classical Tamil Day. Without doing them, holding celebrations only for Hindi is tantamount to denigrating other languages. "
Earlier today, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S Ramadoss took to social media X and wrote in a post that the Hindi month celebrations in Chennai were a blatant attempt to impose Hindi.