Cricketer Ashwin pitches a ‘language googly on a spinning TN track’
Ravichandran Ashwin, who just recently announced his retirement from test cricket, bowled a different kind of googly on the political pitch – by opening up with his sharp and factual observation on the status of the Hindi language.
Does the all-rounder in Ashwin entertain a political future in the state now that his cricket-playing days for the country are over? Certainly not, as people close to him assert, but his sudden and unexpected statement on the status of the Hindi language drew attention from within the political circles.
Ashwin chose to comment on the status of the Hindi language and caught many supporters of Hindi, a language they consider erroneously as the country’s national language when in reality India does not have a national language. Much debate had taken place over the language issue during the freedom struggle. Those wanting to make Hindi the common link language for the country had to give in to the overall pressure from the non-Hindi-speaking states, predominantly from the South.
Many people in the country entertain an erroneous notion that Hindi is the national language and often get into arguments when the Constitution is very clear on the subject. Hindi is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with English, to carry out governance activities across the country.
Cricketer Ashwin, addressing a graduating ceremony at a private college in Chennai on Friday, asked if any students wanted to ask him questions in Hindi. When he asked if any wanted to do so in English, then too the room was more or less silent. But when he asked about Tamil, the crowd roared in affirmative approval, and he began addressing the gathering in Tamil.
But before launching into his address, Ashwin thoughtfully came out with his googly – and declared that Hindi was not the national language. Noting the difference in reactions of the students when he mentioned Hindi, he said, “I thought I should say this: Hindi is not our national language; it is an official language.”
Now Ashwin’s reference to the Hindi and its status did spark off comments on either side of the issue.
In Tamil Nadu, a state where the language issue blew up in the early 60s when the then central government led by the Congress imposed Hindi and made it compulsory in schools, sparking off an intense agitation in which several people lost their lives in police firing, Ashwin’s stand won him many new admirers.
Oldtimers will recall, that the Congress government in the late fifties and early 60s, became the villain in Tamil Nadu as a huge anti-Hindi agitation razed the state, and the agitation eventually led to the downfall of the Congress government.
The Dravidian party swept to power riding the language agitation, and to this date, the Congress has been unable to strike and find roots in the state. At best it can only piggyback on the popularity and purchase of either of the two Dravidian parties as Tamil Nadu essentially became a two-horse race between the two regional parties.
Even today, the Congress must thank the DMK for the few seats that it won in an alliance with the Dravidian major. If not DMK, then it must tie up with AIADMK, as it has in the past, but of late for over two decades, the Congress has been in an alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu.
The Dravidian political parties have long championed the use of Tamil over Hindi. They argue that promoting Hindi at the expense of regional languages like Tamil would marginalize local identities. Language is a crucial part of cultural identity, and in Tamil Nadu, there is a strong sense of pride in the Tamil language and its ancient heritage.
The resistance to the alleged “imposition of Hindi” in Tamil Nadu is also tied to a broader sentiment of regional autonomy.
