Stalin asks why Centre has not set up institution to teach Tamil in northern states

Chennai, Mar 4 (PTI) Targeting the BJP-led Centre over alleged Hindi imposition, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M K Stalin on Tuesday wondered why the union government has not facilitated setting up of an institution to teach Tamil or other south Indian languages to people of states in north India.

Writing to party workers as part of his series on the theme of “all-time opposition to Hindi imposition” Stalin said, Google Translate, Chat GPT and Artificial Intelligence help people overcome language issues and it would be beneficial for students to learn only necessary technology and imposing a language shall only be a burden to them.

The DMK chief said Gandhiji believed that people of southern states learning Hindi and those in northern states learning one of the southern languages would pave the way for national unity and the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha was founded to fulfil the wish of Father of the nation. “Gandhi himself had taken part in programmes in the sabha’s headquarters in Chennai. Now, the sabha is operational across southern states with 6,000 centres,” Stalin said.

Further, the chief minister, refraining from specifically naming anyone, posed whether an organisation like “Uttar Bharat Tamil Prachar Sabha or Dravida Basha Sabha” was established in north India to facilitate people of northern states to learn one of the languages of southern states.

Hitting out at BJP without naming it directly, the chief minister alleged that those who claimed to get installed a statue of saint poet Thiruvalluvar on the banks of River Ganga had it dumped on a garbage heap and wondered whether such people would set up an institution to propagate Tamil. “Those who follow the path of Godse will never fulfil the objectives of Gandhi.” Even during the bygone times of Madras province, Gandhiji was instrumental in the christening of provincial Congress party unit as Tamil Nadu Congress. “Even for trains being operated in Tamil Nadu, the BJP-led union government gave Hindi-Sanskrit names. It is their secret plan to destroy Tamil and other languages. It is the Dravidian movement that has the strength to openly oppose it.”

Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, declared by Parliament as an institution of national importance in 1964, was established in 1918 by Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of propagating Hindi in southern states and the first Pracharak was his son Devadoss Gandhi.

According to the DBHPS website, Gandhiji desired that the ‘Hindi Prachar’ in the south should be carried on by involving the local people of the respective area. Till 1920, the sabha had its office at George Town in the then Madras and after some years it was shifted to Mylapore and from there to Triplicane where it functioned till 1936. Now, the DBHPS functions from downtown T Nagar in Chennai.