Opinion Dis/Agree: Don’t be fooled – ‘three-language formula’ is about imposing Hindi

It is in this context that one must view the extra-constitutional conditions imposed belatedly on TN by the Union government for the release of our state’s allocation of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan funds (approximately Rs 2,152 crore) in the FY 2024-2025 Union Budget approved by Parliament.

The threat, stated in public by the Union Minister of Education, is simple: Implement the NEP in full through legislation in TN’s assembly (including the compulsory three-language formula) or the Centre will not release the Parliament-approved, pre-allocated, funds.

Given the lack of a single example to show how this will improve outcomes, we see the threat as pure political extortion. Such an attempt to force the will of the Union government on TN’s elected legislature is in flagrant violation of the Constitution.

In fact, adding a third language would impose costs — not only in staffing and logistics, but also by overloading students’ learning capacity — with no evidence-based benefits to justify such curriculum dilution. In large parts of the country, even two languages have not been implemented adequately, for if they had been, we would have already had English as a link language and we would not be having this debate over 75 years after Independence.

There is also the justified fear that introduction of a third language corrodes the use of the native language, sometimes to the point of its practical demise. Hiding behind the fig leaf of the idea that the third language being mooted is not Hindi does not fool anyone. A cursory look at the Home Minister’s statements every Hindi Day, and the multi-fold spending on Hindi promotion, as opposed to other regional languages, will highlight the true intent.

The threat of a similar outcome in Tamil Nadu is a dagger to our hearts, because of our existential love for our mother, Tamil — the core of our identity as Tamilians, and the high expression of our glorious culture and history. Our love is not just manifest in our eagerness to preserve the world’s oldest living language, but also in our urgency to keep it refreshed to suit the changing times. We have undertaken many efforts to ensure our language remains vibrant and ever-youthful, from hosting a KaniTamil Manaadu (Conference on Tamil Computing) way back in 1999 (we ran its second iteration in 2024), and digitising ancient texts, to creating Tamil LLMs. Many of these efforts are undertaken by the Tamil Virtual Academy — an entity established by our leader, Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi), when he was chief minister — which functions as part of my current ministerial portfolio of Information Technology and Digital Services.

This threat is consistent with the Centre’s unconstitutional approach of using any means as a weapon for its political agenda. Beyond the politicisation of fund allocation and adding politically self-serving last-minute conditions for the disbursement of funds, the most troubling examples include: Unprecedented use of Article 293(B) to constrain state borrowing beyond their respective FRBM-equivalent legislation; illegal, covert coercing of bilateral and multilateral lending agencies to adopt lending constraints to non-BJP government-ruled states, and worst of all, the intentional appointment of obdurate governors to thwart the work of elected governments. As our Chief Minister has stated, the Tamil people can never be cowed down by such threats. History teaches lessons. Money alone cannot meaningfully alter employment or growth rates, if the prevailing social structures are not conducive to such improvements. For example, the bias towards Gujarat by the current government through the creation of Free Trade Zones like GIFT City and the allocation of mega projects have not resulted in any noticeable improvement in either employment or the quality of life for the average resident of Gujarat.

People of ancient cultures like the Tamils cannot be subjugated, nor their identity altered, by coercive actions. Previous attempts at Hindi imposition were catastrophic failures. In Tamil Nadu, January 25 is designated as Language Martyr’s Day, when we pay our respects to those who lost their lives in the struggles to preserve Tamil and oppose language imposition. We will not surrender our linguistic rights now or ever, and thereby allow their ultimate sacrifices to have been in vain.

The writer is Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, Tamil Nadu