We are seen by those up north as that region which always votes differently, fuelled by its Dravidian ideals and its hatred for Hindi. Nothing can be further from the truth than that. While it is true that ‘Hindi thinippu’ is an oft-raised bogey in politics, it is opposition to making Hindi compulsory. Nobody has been prevented from speaking in Hindi or learning it voluntarily here. But what we do not want is that the interests of Tamil be sacrificed for it. In this nobody can fault us. Try getting the French to speak in English.
The history of our anti-Hindi protests is quite well known. We had the first of these in the 1930s when the Rajaji Government tried making it compulsory. The intensity of that protest ought to have been a lesson for all time but by 1965 it was forgotten. With the 15-year period during which the KM Munshi-Gopalaswami Aiyangar formula of English as the official language coming to an end in that year, attitudes hardened on both sides. In Madras the Bhaktavatsalam-led Government bungled in handling the situation. The DMK, already on the upswing, drew students into the protest and when they were teargassed, the situation got out of hand. There has never been a Congress-led or for that matter any national party-led Government in Tamil Nadu since.
The DMK in particular, has been careful to nurture the sentiment that brought it to power. The World Tamil Conference of 1968 was the first step in asserting regional language identity. Glorifying those who died in the cause of Tamil was another. The erecting of statues of Tamil savants and scholars along the Marina was a third. The changing of the state’s name from Madras to Tamil Nadu was yet another step. There were many others, micro and macro that came into play and we developed a regional identity that has since gone on to question many shibboleths in the rest of India.
Anti-Hindi agitation by college students in front of the Southern Railway headquarters administrative building, Madras in 1967 | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
Many have bemoaned this. But in reality it is always good to have in democracy someone or some region that challenges and questions. Tamil has certainly been a beneficiary with funds made available for research and also the development of the language. That it has degenerated beyond measure as a spoken tongue with unique letters such as Zha, the hard La and Na all given the go by in recent times is tragedy. But if the opposition to Hindi had not happened when it did, a beautiful language with many treasures in its possession may have played second fiddle.
What is interesting is that Hindi has always been a presence in the city. Marwaris, Jains, and Gujaratis settled here in the 18th century itself and carried on their trade. Many have localised, speak Tamil fluently and yet carry on with their customs and traditions. In the same spirit, many Tamils have moved elsewhere, learnt North Indian languages and settled down wherever they prospered. The Dakshin Bharath Hindi Prachar Sabha had its foundation laid by Gandhi no less and though it has faded in importance now, it has continued teaching Hindi to many Tamilians. Its various degrees were spoken of with pride by those who qualified. And even during the height of the anti-Hindi protests in the 1960s, there was no mass exodus of Hindi-speaking people from here. It must also be remembered that the 1960s was also when studios of Madras were churning out Hindi film hits. Matinee idol Dilip Kumar was writing that this was the most cultured city of India and was contemplating retiring here.
And later, once the dust had settled on the anti-Hindi protests and life came back to normal, Madras or Chennai was not considered out of bounds for anyone. Trade flourished, new companies were set up and the IT boom has brought countless people from the North here as it has taken several from here to other parts of India. Hindi films remain as popular as they are elsewhere, and the word Ji has become a universal suffix. Much of the services in the city are today provided by migrant labour from the North and when rumours sparked an exodus, the Government went to great pains to settle the matter at once. No, we are not anti-Hindi or anti-Hindi speaking people.
What we resent is any attempt at stuffing the language down our throats with ill-conceived notions of it being a national tongue. Then we will rise in protest. There is nothing wrong with a regional identity co-existing with a national identity. It does not make us anti-national. And just for a change, we would like to hear of some other part of India which has taken to Tamil for the sake of it and nurtured it. Perhaps anti-Hindi can be given a positive twist – it should be pro-Tamil.
