Why impose Hindi on India’s non-Hindi Populace

There is an ominous desperation in the speed and breadth of Hindi imposition under the Narendra Modi regime. It has led to growing unease among India’s non-Hindi populace. The presidential stamp of approval granted recently to a slew of Hindi imposition and promotion measures recommended by the Committee of Parliament on Official Language has created the climate for a political showdown in the incredibly diverse political entity called the Indian Union.

Hindi imposition by the Union government is as old as the Indian Union itself. In 1965, more than 200 Tamils were killed by primarily central forces when they protested forced Hindi imposition. Since then, Tamil Nadu has been portrayed as a lone thorn in the beautiful path of linguistic uniformity via Hindi. This formulation was convenient. By portraying Tamil Nadu as an outlier, it implied that the rest were on board. This lie has now been shredded.

Strong voices, both from the political field and the civil society, have arisen from many non-Hindi states, including non-Dravidian states. Bengali speaking MP Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress, Tamil speaking MK Stalin of the DMK, Kannada speaking HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), Telugu speaking Jayaprakash Narayan of the Lok Satta, and many more have spoken out against Hindi imposition in the last one week.

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