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To Dated 15th August 2014 The Editor Surrey, UK The Hindu 859-860 Kasturi & Sons Building Anna Salai, Mount Road Chennai Tamil Nadu India Pin: 600002 Sir, Subject: Tamil protest against imposition of Hindi on the people of non-Hindi states by issuing two recent directives by the Central Government I, on behalf of Bangla O Bangla Bhasa Banchao Committee (Save Bengal and Save Bengali Language Committee), Kolkata, West Bengal, strongly support and congratulate the statements made by former Chief Minister and DMK Chief, Mr. M Karunanidhi, present Chief Minister and AIADMK Chief, Miss Jayalalitha, Mr. Vaiko of MDMK and Mr. Ramdoss of PMK Party, vehemently protesting against two recent directives issued by the Government of India, directing all officials in all Government departments to use Hindi only in social media such as Facebook, Twitter etc. And if wished, English could be used, but only after Hindi. That means a slow process of total elimination of English for the sole purpose of propagating, promoting and ultimately imposing Hindi on the people of non-Hindi states. Imposition of Hindi was conspired long before independence when orthodox Hindi zealots declared that those who do not know Hindi have no right to live in Hindustan. And they have been propagating Hindi stating Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan. This has been acting as Hindu Mantra keeping the people of non-Hindi states speechless or dumb. Fortunately for us (non-Hindi states) Tamils alone have been fighting at the forefront against the imposition of Hindi with the aim of killing all other regional languages and reaching the ultimate goal of one language, one administration and one country. Death of a language means death of that particular linguistic national identity. This threat of annihilation of non-Hindi national identity-may lead to total disintegration of multilingual multinational union of India. Thus the Tamils have been historically fighting to save the unity of India courageously declaring that Hindi never, English ever, since the British and English language alone created a modern united India.

Dr M Majumdar

(FRCS) President

Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao

Committee

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Thus the ex Chief Minister Mr. Karunanidhi promptly declared that central government directives actually mean the imposition of Hindi on the people of non-Hindi states making them second-class citizens. He also warned the centre that the days of linguistic movements are not over and he demanded immediate withdrawal of these directives. Since DMK is a partner of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), presumably the Central Government did not pay heed to the demands made by Mr. Karunanidhi. However, the present Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha wrote to Prime Minister Mr. Modi, stating that the directives were against the language act of 1963. And therefore should be withdrawn as soon as possible. At the same time MDMK Chief, Mr. Vaiko and PMK Chief Mr. Ramdoss both NDA partners also demanded withdrawal of the directives. Mr. Ramdoss added that English must continue as the official language till all regional languages are made official language like Hindi. The Governments of Jammu and Kashmir and also Orissa made similar protests against these directives. But all Hindi parties including Aam-Admi party silently supported it. Yielding to the Tamil pressure, particularly to the pressure of the Tamil allies AIADMK, MDMK and PMK, the central government declared that the directives would remain applicable to the Hindi speaking states only and not to the non-Hindi states. But this division of Hindi and non-Hindi states is not desirable and is not the true solution of the problem. The multilingual, multinational Indian Union was created on the basis of equal rights for all languages enlisted in the 8th Schedule of the constitution where Hindis standing is in the same line amongst other languages. Hindi cannot claim to be superior to Tamil, Bengali or Malayali. Even during the 68 years post-independence, with total state patronisation for Hindi spending crores of rupees, neglecting all non-Hindi languages, the Government of India could not make Hindi acceptable to more than one third of the population of India. This is because people can neither forget nor forego their mother tongue. Every state has its own mother tongue, which is held dear by her own people. Even Hindi states have separate mother languages in addition to Hindi e.g. Bihar has languages like Maithili, Bhojpuri, Magadhi etc. In this modern era no state however powerful should try to compel its citizens to forget his/her own mother tongue, keeping in mind the failure of Russia and Pakistan in particular and Europe and Middle East in general. Hindi zealots have laid claim to the foundation of Indian unity on Hindu culture and Sanskrit language, yet India, as a united nation never existed historically prior to the arrival of the British and their use of English as the language of communication and governance. The British have not been physically present for the past 70 years, yet the English language exists in India due to its inner strength and beauty making it indispensable to all people. Unlike Hindi, English does not pose a threat to other languages. On the contrary it acts as a cementing factor amongst all regional cultures and languages. It is the duty of the central government to ensure that all Indian languages survive and flourish- a duty that unfortunately the government has intentionally failed to perform. Not surprising then, that according to UNESCO, India can claim to have the largest number of endangered languages in the world at risk of extinction. The Tamil language is undoubtedly safer than other non-Hindi languages especially Bengali, mainly due to physical distance from Hindi speaking states resulting in limited

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migration of Hindi speaking population. Yet except the Tamils no one came forward to resist the onward march of Hindi aggression. Tamils alone made immense sacrifice losing 73 lives including that of Chinnaswamy of DMK party who gave his life by self-immolation. The Tamils compelled the central government to formulate the 3-language policy. The Tamils fought tooth and nail primarily for the protection of Tamil language. But the fruits of the Tamil sacrifice indirectly saved all non-Hindi languages including Bengali. Unfortunately, we the Bengalis of West Bengal never came forward to save our own Bengali mother tongue, which is now attacked from all directions- facing progressive diminution and contraction. An independent report from Germany forecast that by the end of the 21st century Indian Bengali would be extinct in India. To fight against this impending disaster we have formed an organisation Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee (Save Bengal and Save Bengali Language Committee). Since we inherited only a small part of divided Bengal (West Bengal), weak and dependent on the centre for all matters, we lost the courage to face the challenge of Hindi dominance. Hindi leaders have been trying to enforce a unitary form of Govt. although there is no such provision in the constitution of India, which favors a quasi-federal form of government. We want a united India without the dominance of one linguistic group over others. We want equality in all respects hence we would like to demand stronger states with greater provincial autonomy. To realize this we need appropriate leadership and Unity among all non-Hindi states. Some Hindi states would also support the notion of more power for individual states. Since Tamils have been in the forefront of all previous struggles against Hindi domination domination, naturally Tamil leadership would be acceptable to all non-Hindi states. Establishment of a federal government in the centre should be the aim of all. Otherwise all regional languages other than Hindi would be wiped out. Our organisation will cooperate with all Tamil parties and organizations to form a joint action committee to protect all regional languages demanding preservation of the federal structure of the central government. Only then can we preserve Unity in Diversity. Yours faithfully, Dr. M Majumdar, FRCS (Edin.) President Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee 795 AE Block Sector 1 Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 064 West Bengal India

795 AE Block, Sector 1, Salt Lake Kolkata 700 064, Ph:033-23376802

Sarbamangala, Bidhan Road Siliguri 734001 Mobile 99331 91960

To Mr Tapan Sen, General Secretary Centre of Indian Trade Unions B T Ranadive Bhawan, 13 - A, Rouse Avenue,New Delhi - 110 002 ,

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, FRCS

(FRCS)

Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee

( ) BANGLA BHASHA SAMITY(Regd. No 36133) www.banglabanchao.org

Copy to Honble Governor West Bengal,

Mr M. K. Narayanan

Honble Chief Minister West Bengal, Ms. Mamata Banerjee

MPs and MLAs from West Bengal Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, Gen Secretary, AITUC Mr Abani Roy, General Secretary, UTUC Editors of Bengali and English newspapers