AS part of Sangh Parivar’s agenda, the Modi government is vigorously pursuing the promotion of Hindi and Sanskrit in every possible manner. Its Draft National Education Policy 2019 openly promotes Sanskrit to the detriment of several other Indian languages deemed to be national languages under Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution. In protest to such an action of the central government, the CPI(M) Tamil Nadu state committee has organised a convention in Chennai on November 5, 2019 entitled “Convention of Southern States against Imposition of Hindi and for the Protection of Mother Tongues”.

While K Balakrishnan presided over the convention, this burning issue was raised in unison by T Veerabhadram, secretary, Telangana state committee; A Vijayaraghavan, Central Committee member and LDF convenor, Kerala;            T Surendra Rao, secretariat member, Karnataka state committee; Thiru M Rajendran, ex-VC, Thanjavur Tamil University and K Balabharathi, ex-MLA and member, Tamil Nadu state committee. The event was coordinated by Prof Arunan. Polit Bureau member G Ramakrishnan, Central Committee members K Varadharajan, AK Padmanabhan, P Sampath and other senior leaders attended the convention.

Su Venkatesan, MP and member, Tamil Nadu state committee proposed the following resolution: “India is a country of many nationalities which has been recognised by the Indian constitution. Only on that basis, its first chapter defines it as a union of states. Such a definition recognises the diversity of India. Only because of this unity in diversity, India was given its pride of place. After independence, after many a struggle across the country, in 1950s many states were formed on the basis of language. However, no proper solution was found on this language issue. Instead Hindi has been declared as official language of the central government. Besides this, it was pursuing a policy of imposing Hindi in every possible way on all the states.

“Describing the insidious methods adopted by the BJP government at the centre to impose Hindi and Sanskrit, the resolution pointed out such imposition is against the spirit of federal principle and relegation of 22 Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution and asserted that protection of one’s mother tongue is a birth right and only by making the language of the state as the official language of the concerned state and judiciary and giving equal status and recognition to all the 22 languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution as official languages of the country will be helpful in preserving the diversity and unity of the country.” The resolution also demanded these languages should be given equal opportunity and funds for their development and preservation. 

This convention also called upon all the democratic forces to carry forward a powerful movement for equal recognition of all the national languages and also vehemently condemned efforts of the BJP government to impose Hindi on various Indian nationalities.

K Balakrishnan in his presidential address said that RSS is trying to subjugate the people in the name of one country, one language by destroying many other languages. Hence, we resolve to oppose such insidious imposition and to protect our mother tongue.

Mentioning that languages spoken in South India such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are in the list of leading 35 languages in the world, A Vijayaraghavan from Kerala said that the Left parties are fighting valiantly against the anti-people policies of the BJP government at the centre which is using its brute majority in the parliament.  He also said that only by rallying vast sections of the people in the struggle against the anti-people, anti-labour policies of the central government, these nefarious moves can be defeated.

Veerabhadram from Telangana said that language is the unifier of the people and they can improve their knowledge only through thinking in their own mother tongue. This is the universal truth. To converse with people, one’s language is essential. Hence, equal recognition should be given to all the languages being spoken in the country and they should be given proper funds for their development.  He also said that like Hitler and Mussolini, the Sangh Parivar is thinking to stoke the religious feelings of the people and to organise them in the name of one culture.  However, the diversity of India in its cultures, languages and nationalities are the real obstacles to their machinations.

Surendra Rao from Karnataka said that despite Karnataka being a strong believer in the mother tongue, in recent times, people from Hindi speaking states are being appointed in many public sector industries including banks where the general public are facing problem every day. He also said that such a convention should be held at the all India level to expose this kind of discrimination of states and their languages.

Speaking at this convention, Thiru M Rajendran, ex-VC, Thanjavur Tamil University asserted that language plays an important role in human development as well as all the modern inventions of humanity. He also demanded that special privileges being given to Hindi now shall be extended to all the 22 languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution.  Similarly Rs 50 crores assigned for the development of Hindi in the recent budget should be expanded by assigning Rs 50 crores to these 22 languages. He also pointed out that even the recent Draft National Education Policy 2019 failed to do justice to other Indian languages except Sanskrit and Hindi.

Balabharathi in her speech said that language being the medium of communication for the humanity, it has a pride of place in everyone’s life, whether they are educated or are daily workers. Hence, as a Marxist, we cannot sit idle when both the central and state governments are refusing to allow our mother tongue to thrive. She also asserted that the CPI(M) has always maintained that it is the duty of the State to safeguard all languages and develop them to improve the well being of the people who are speaking them.