AN EMOTIONAL AND PASSIONATE VOICE AGAINST…

The classes have ended, exams out of the way, and the course is completed.

I see out of my apartment window aimlessly and all I see in the car park is four cars .The apartment complex, which until last week was bubbly with activity, is suddenly abandoned place. Its summer time and all the students have left for home. Boredom is hitting me hard I have a month to kill before I move. I have so much time to kill. Therefore, I thought I would restart blogging.

What do I blog about? IPL, Rahul Dravid hhmmmm…What about blogging about one of my favorite topics, whether every Indian (read hard core Tamils like me) should know Hindi, which is the so-called National Language.

India has a national bird, national animal even a national flower. We do not have a national language. When did Hindi become the National Language? If my mind is correct, Hindi is just an official language. There is a lot of difference between official and National Language. Hindi along with English has been named the official languages for governance just because they are widely spoken languages. They are not national languages my friends.

Why is their so much criticism of Tamils? Why are we branded as being regional (Tamil first and Indians next)? Why are we considered as people who are so against the spread of Hindi? Actually the number of Hindi and Arabic speaking people in India have increased (I saw this info in either CNN IBN or NDTV)

"If Hindi were to become the official language of India, Hindi-speaking people will govern us. We will be treated like third rate citizens" - Former Tamilnadu Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai, speaking at a Public Meeting in Chennai Marina (Madras Marina) on April 29, 1963. That is exactly is happening. I was surprised to know that Non Hindi students lose out to Hindi-belt students coz the latter can take their exams in their mother tongue. Students from Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra where Hindi is a compulsory subject in schools did not fare any better than Tamil students, as Hindi is not just our mother tongue. Irrespective of hard you study you can never compete with the Hindi students.

Why should even road signs along highways in Tamil Nadu come with Hindi signs? If there are signs in English and Tamil is not that enough. Why should every government office in TamilNadu have signs in Hindi? It is absurd. The Tamil signs are there for the locals. For all the others we have the signs in English. It is not possible for signs in everybody’s language. It is impractical to post signs in hundreds of languages. English has evolved as the international language. No one expects to find signs in Tamil Nadu in Chinese, in German, in Vietnamese, in Nepalese, in Telugu or in Bengali ... Then why a special superior privilege for Hindi people?

Why do people want Hindi to be forced upon us? What have we lost just because we do not speak Hindi? Tamil Nadu has the highest level of urbanization, is the second most industrialized state in the country. We have not suffered politically or socially. Our culture is still intact. There are industrial and IT parks everywhere. Dell, BMW, Nokia, and Hyundai just to name a few MNCs are filling up their coffers fast.

Why is our patriotism questioned because we cannot speak Hindi? Tamil is one of the oldest languages (in fact it is now been declared as a classical language) which evolved independently in a script totally Devanagri languages.

It hurts when IIFA and Global Indian Film Awards (GIFA) only honor Bollywood films and artistes. How can ‘India’ be used only when only Hindi speaking artistes get their due share or does the Hindi film fraternity consider itself equivalent to the Indian film industry. There are more sensible movies that come out in Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam than in Hindi. The Hindi imposition has reached to dizzy heights. An educated American (includes Indian kids in America) thinks Hindi is the only Indian language and there is no mention of the famous Bharathiyar ,Kattaboman and other South Indian freedom fighters in the history text books. I read about how the Congress Party was started in Std.8, how the Congress Party evolved in Standard 9 and how Congress Party and Gandhi helped India get freedom in Standard 10.

I do not want Tamil to be made the National language of India. I don give a damn about what the national language is, just as I care little about the tiger being the national animal etc. I am not anti Hindi. I have many friends who speak Hindi. Even yesterday when I had gone to one of my good friend’s house I felt embarrassed because I dint know Hindi. I just wished I had understood Hindi. A couple of years back I did not have the need for Hindi .My situation has changed now.

Do not try to force Hindi upon us. That is all what I am saying. People will learn Hindi if it is required. India’s beauty lies in diversity. Just leave us the way we are. We are proud of our roots ,our language and our culture.

Thamizhan enru sollada thalai nimirinthu nillada

(Raise your head high and be a proud Tamil)