70 years on, anti-Hindi imposition becomes DMK’s war cry once again

The anti-Hindi movement is nothing new to Tamil Nadu and DMK has always been at the forefront, leading the state in resisting the majoritarian onslaught on linguistic freedom.

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Life has come a full circle for the DMK as it leads a protest on Friday against the imposition of Hindi in the wake of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s ‘One nation, one language’ remark.

This day, 70 years ago, CN Annadurai along with four other senior leaders of the then Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) announced the name of a new party after choosing to break away from the parent group. But in many ways, it was the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s that not only catapulted it to power but gave the DMK a distinct identity.

While the anti-Hindi agitations have been a symbolic movement in Tamil Nadu since the 1930s, it was the 1965 protests that helped dislodge the Congress government, which had until then held fort in the state. The violent protests at the time were against the move to make Hindi the only official language. This was complicated further when the then Chief Minister M Bhaktavatsalam introduced the three-language policy in the Madras Legislative Assembly. In the subsequent 1967 state elections, the Congress was defeated by the DMK led by CN Annadurai.

Now decades later, Amit Shah’s remark that ‘only Hindi can unify India’ has rekindled the anti-Hindi imposition sentiment in the state, with the DMK being quick to counter the ‘one nation, one language’ idea. 70 years after it was formed, ‘stop Hindi imposition’ remains DMK’s war cry, but is it more than just rhetoric?

“The Hindi issue will continue to be alive as long as Hindi speakers are in a majority and they continue to hold power at the Centre. It is a majoritarian attitude,” says R Kannan, biographer of CN Annadurai. He credits the DMK for a lot of the recent happenings at the language sphere like enabling candidates appearing for central government recruitment exams to write the test in the regional language.

“The DMK and the Dravidian movement have had a history of opposing Hindi imposition,” he emphasizes adding that Tamil Nadu is the only state with the two-language policy and have stuck to it since 1968. Stating that DMK’s fight has been to keep Hindi away from essential services (postal services, governance, education) Kannan points out, “The party has been demanding equality between Hindi and other regional languages listed in the Constitution.”

Plurality and linguistic freedom

AS Panneerselvan, Readers’ Editor of The Hindu and author of a forthcoming biography of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi sees DMK’s anti-Hindi imposition stance as one of linguistic pride.

“It (The idea of linguistic freedom) is a sense of pride which flows from the basic right to practice your own language. That is where this comes from,” he argues, adding that such assertions are crucial to retain India’s plurality.

“I don’t think India would have remained plural if the south had been passive when this extreme centralization started happening in the wake of partition. This struggle is hence important because it ensured that India remained plural and gave space for multiple identities,” he says.

Kannan also views DMK’s stance on Hindi in a similar manner.

“The DMK's fight is, to an extent, symbolic. It is required because we happen to be the only state which keeps protesting at every turn. Now we see pockets of protests in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. But they are not as deep-rooted or spread out as in Tamil Nadu,” he explains. Kannan also points out that a large portion of the opposition in other states could be for BJP rather than Hindi.

Adding that the fight against majoritarianism has to continue, Kannan says, “The DMK has always taken a stand. Annadurai, DMK’s founder has always maintained that the following for Hindi must be organic and that we are not opposed to Hindi.”

Panneerselvan also points to the difference between the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1930s and the ones that are happening now. “At that point, it was only Tamil Nadu, now we have Karnataka and West Bengal joining hands. In these 70 years, (since the DMK was founded), the scope of linguistic freedom has widened and more linguistic groups are recognising the need to protect their own language and their own linguistic traditions,” he explains

Compromise and conciliation

The party has seen ups and downs in the past 70 years, from losing the people’s mandate to losing M Karunanidhi in 2018. Commenting on the evolution of DMK through the last 70 years, Kannan says that the party has largely stuck to the founding principles of the party. He, however, says that the party has had to make some compromises on the way on its electoral journey.

“DMK is loyal to the original ideal. But every party that decides to come to the electoral arena has to make some compromises now and then. DMK has also done that,” he explains. For a party that was once rooted in Dravidian rationalism, Kannan notes that many of its second-rung leaders now sport Kumkum (vermillion) and vibhuti (holy ash).

Panneerselvan, however, says that DMK’s politics has been one of conciliation rather than revolution, bringing in change gradually. “DMK was born with the idea of conciliation in mind rather than revolution. It is a party which managed to bring in changes in an incremental fashion,” says Panneerselvan, adding that the party realizes that dramatic change might not work in a country like India.

“Some people confuse incremental change with compromise. But DMK consider it as conciliation. There is a difference between conciliatory political approach and compromise. Conciliation enhances your ability to negotiate and secure benefits for your own people. What DMK managed to do was to draw that fine line which divided conciliation from compromise. Hence, they could join a union government and still remain a regional party,” he explains, pointing out that since 1972, when the AIADMK split from the erstwhile DMK, national parties like the BJP and Congress have been wiped out of Tamil Nadu’s political playground.