Current affairs

'I don't speak Hindi': From actors to politicians, TN fights against Hindi imposition through T-shirts!

By alagu, 07 September, 2020
India, Tamilnadu, Chennai, Hindi

On Sunday, social media platforms went into the storm after the users from Tamil Nadu had launched the fight against Hindi imposition. Besides being voicing against the imposition, politicians and celebrities have sent solidarity to each other to stand against such development through wearing t-shirts. 

The actors and politicians had shared the photographs with wearing the t-shirts that read 'I am Indian, I don't speak Hindi', 'I am a Tamizh Pesum Indian', (I am a Tamil Speaking Indian), 'Hindi theriyathu, poda! ( I don't know Hindi, go man). The posts from the actors and politicians with such T-shirts have widely shared and pressed the voice against the Hindi imposition to grow stronger. 

DMK Youth Wing Secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin, Tamil Actors like Shanthnu Bhagyaraj and his wife Keerthi Shanthnu, Aishwarya Rajesh had shared the photographs with the T-shirts that read 'Hindi theriyadhu, Poda', 'I am a Tamil Pesum Indian'. The posts have been shared widely with the hashtag of #HindiTheriyadhuPoda. 

 

Actor Shirish, who made his debut in 'Metro' that was released in 2016 had shared the picture with music director Yuvan Shankar Raja where the duo can be seen wearing the T-shirts that campaigned anti-Hindi imposition. DMK MP Kanimozhi had also shared the picture where people in the picture can be seen with masks and with the t-shirts, that have become a recent trend in the state. Kanimozhi said, "A spark is enough to ignite a sentiment. When we printed Tshirts, in the era of blatant Hindi imposition, we didn't know that the youngsters would respond passionately like our forefathers in fighting discriminatory practices. Thank you".

 

The spark to stand against the Hindi imposition had come after the revelations of the Central government authorities who consider Hindi as the national language. Recently, the outrage against Hindi was seen in the state after DMK leader and Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi had faced discrimination at the Chennai airport. She was asked by a CISF officer if she was Indian after she told him to speak in English or Tamil as she doesn't know Hindi. After she tweeted about the incident, former Union Minister Chidambaram and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had said that they too had faced similar incidents at the airports. 

Following the incident, the Union Secretary of the Ayush Ministry had caught with controversy after he asked the doctors from Tamil Nadu to leave the online session if they don't understand Hindi. The Secretary had apparently told the doctors that he can't speak English and asked them to leave if they don't know Hindi. This issue had further escalated the voice of speaking against the Hindi imposition and the opposition parties had urged the Central government to employ the staff who can speak the local language of where they have been posted. 

 

Recently, reputed Tamil movie director Vetrimaaran had shared a similar incident of what he faced in 2011. The national award-winning director had said that he was humiliated for not knowing Hindi at an airport when he returned to India from Montreal, Canada where his 'Aadukalam' movie was screened at the film festival. 

He has put forth the incident during his recent interview with the Tamil media. He said that he was humiliated by the immigration officer at Delhi airport after he admitted that he didn't know Hindi. The immigration officer reacted against the director and asked the latter how he didn't know the country's mother tongue and the officer claimed that Tamilians and Kashmiris were breaking the country. Despite Vetrimaaran had shared his identity, the director was made for 45 minutes at the airport. Ever since the t-shirt fight occupied the trend, it has set the social media platforms on fire after the pro and anti-Hindi activists had raged a Twitter war in the state.

 

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