By P.K.Balachandran/Daily News

Colombo, February 25 – On February 21, the world observed the “International Mother Language Day” to commemorate the epoch-making 1952 mass struggle for the rights of the Bengali language in Pakistan.

By a coincidence, around that day, a conflict had arisen in India between the rights of the Tamil language vis-à-vis Hindi, creating a rift between Tamil Nadu State and the Central Indian government, the former standing for Tamil’s rights, and the latter for Hindi’s rights.  

The conflict was over two matters-  

(1) the rights of the Tamil language, which is the State language of Tamil Nadu, vis-a-vis Hindi, which is the official language of the Union of India.

(2) the denial of Central government funds under an education scheme called the Samagra Shiksha to Tamil Nadu because of the Hindi issue. The Central government insists that the States fully implement the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 to merit payment under the Samagra Shiksha. But Tamil Nadu refuses to do so.

National Education Policy

Tamil Nadu has refused to fully implement the NEP on the grounds that it has provisions designed to impose Hindi on Tamil Nadu ignoring the fact that the State has consistently refused to be dragooned into accepting Hindi as the national official language.

Tamil Nadu has been citing inequities that will arise from giving a dominant status to Hindi. It will give people, whose mother tongue is Hindi, an undue advantage over those whose mother tongue is not Hindi, especially those whose mother tongue has little or no link with Hindi, such as Tamil.

Samagra Shiksha Scheme

Under the Samagra Shiksha scheme, the Union government should fund education in the various States up to 60%. But the Union government has been “delaying” the disbursement of funds to Tamil Nadu to the tune of INR 2,400 crore (INR 24,000 million), citing non acceptance of the NEP in full.

Tamil Nadu had pointed out that the Centre had released INR 76,320 million to all States and Union territories under the scheme but excluded Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu’s case, the denial was because the State government did not follow the Centre’s “Three-language formula” in school education mandatory under the NEP.

The Centre insists that all State schools teach the mother tongue (State language), English and Hindi. But Tamil Nadu has rejected this and has been following the “Two-Language Formula”, teaching only the State language (Tamil) and English.

Education is a Devolved Subject   

Tamil Nadu says that as per the Constitution, Education is a State subject and that States have an inherent right to follow their own education system, suited to their vision and social and economic conditions. But the Central government has been arrogating to itself chunks of Constitutional States’ rights and putting them in the Concurrent List in the Constitution. Such arrogation of rights has happened whenever an all-India party gets an overwhelming majority in the national parliament. This was the case when Congress was powerful and is the case now, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is powerful.

The BJP has been particularly interested in centralization because it is wedded to the concept of “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan” in which “Hindi imposition” is a key component, the Tamils say.

Stalin Writes too Modi

On February 20, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for releasing the pending funds due to Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha scheme. Reiterating the State’s position on the two-language policy, he urged that the funds be released to Tamil Nadu “without linking” it to the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

The Samagra Shiksha scheme was “fundamentally unacceptable,” Stalin said, adding that the Union government’s non-release of funds was a “pressure tactic to coerce” a State into adopting centrally mandated programmes in “blatant violation of cooperative federalism.”

Stalin said that this would “grossly undermine the States’ rights to shape their own education policies, based on a State’s specific needs.”

Due to the non-release of funds under the ongoing programme, several vital payments towards teacher salaries, student welfare programmes, inclusive education initiatives, reimbursements for underprivileged students, and transport for students in remote areas have been jeopardised, Stalin pointed out.

“In the interest of cooperative federalism and the welfare of lakhs of students and teachers, I urge you to intervene in this matter. For many decades, Tamil Nadu has always been steadfast in its two-language policy, which is deeply rooted in our educational and social milieu,” Stalin said, further pointing out that Tamil Nadu has been exempted from implementing The Official Languages Act, 1963, as mentioned in The Official Languages Rules, 1976.

Deputy Chief Minister Udayanidhi Stalin said that even Central schools like Navodaya Vidyalayas that follow the three-language policy have not been established in Tamil Nadu because of the opposition to it.

Udayanidhi further said, “The tremendous strides made by our State in the last half century and its trendsetting initiatives can be traced back to our progressive policy making, built on this two-language policy and social justice. The above would clearly exemplify that any change in our two-language policy is non-negotiable for our State and our people.”

Historical Background

The conflict over the national language has been on in India from 1946-49 when the Constituent Assembly was debating the constitution of free India. There was a strong lobby for making Hindi the official language of free India, though India had as many as 16 major languages spoken in different geographical regions.

But Constituent Assembly members from non-Hindi speaking regions, especially from Tamil Nadu, objected saying that it would place people with Hindi as a mother tongue at a distinct advantage over others whose mother tongue was not Hindi. Opposition came especially from the Tamils because Tamil had little or nothing to do with Hindi.

Three and Two Language Policies

In early 1968, the Indian parliament adopted The Official Languages (Amendment) Act, 1967, to permit the continuation of English, in addition to Hindi, as the language of official communication, deferring an earlier policy of adopting Hindi as the sole official language in the country.

And it also adopted the Official Language Resolution, 1968. This resolution provided for taking steps to implement the Three-Language Formula fully in all States. This entailed the study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the South Indian languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi-speaking areas, and of Hindi along with the regional languages and English in the non-Hindi-speaking areas.

But this triggered widespread protests by students in Madras that forced the first DMK government, headed by C.N. Annadurai, to announce closure of educational institutions. The Madras government adopted a resolution in the Assembly on January 26, 1968, rejecting the three-language formula.

Two Language Formula

The Madras government resolution argued that the adoption of one of the regional languages as the Official Language of India, in a land of different languages, cultures, and civilizations, would result in the domination by one region over the other regions. It proposed that until Tamil and other national languages were adopted as official languages, English should continue as the official language and the Constitution should be suitably amended.

 “Whereas this House is of the opinion that the Official Languages (Amendment) Act, 1967, passed by Parliament, does not serve to achieve the above objective, but will result in creating, among those connected with the administration, two divisions with mutual hatred, friction, and inevitable confusion, this House resolves to continuously strive to realise the objective as stated above. As the Resolution on the Language Policy passed along with the Official Languages (Amendment) Act will result in injustice to the people in the non-Hindi regions by placing them at a disadvantage with new burdens, and as all the political parties are unanimously of the opinion that the said resolution should not be enforced, this House resolves that the Union Government should immediately suspend the operation of that resolution and devise ways and means to ensure that the people in the non-Hindi regions are not subject to any disadvantage or additional burden,” the resolution said.

“This House is of the opinion that the said resolution, by insisting on the enforcement of the three-language formula, aims to force Hindi on the people of non-Hindi regions with the ultimate object of making only Hindi the sole Official Language,” the Madras resolution added.

The House then resolved that “the three-language formula shall be scrapped, and Tamil and English alone should be taught, and Hindi should be completely eliminated from the curriculum in all schools in Tamil Nadu”.

That resolution holds till date.

https://www.dailynews.lk/2025/02/25/featured/730268/tamil-nadus-fight-against-imposition-of-hindi

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