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Anti-Hindi agitations in the 20th Century
Madras was the nerve centre of these protests in Tamil Nadu. During the first instance in 1938, the Justice Party led a campaign against the move by the Congress government to teach ‘Hindustani’ in secondary schools. In the 1960s, the DMK led the protest against the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963
In 1963, the protests gained momentum following the arrest of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai on November 16 in Madras. He was booked under the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act for “conspiring to burn Part XVII of the Constitution of India as a mark of protest against the introduction of Hindi”, and was released after a few months.
| Photo Credit: THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Apart from the struggle for Independence, early 20th Century Madras was the nerve centre for a very significant batch of protests in the State — the anti-Hindi agitations. Strangely enough, this protest, on linguistic grounds, continues to date.
Be it in 1938, when the Justice Party led a campaign against the move by the Congress government, under the leadership of C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), to introduce the teaching of “Hindustani” in 125 secondary schools of the then Madras Presidency, or in the mid-1960s when the anti-Hindi agitation took place on a larger scale, the city was the bedrock of the agitations.
According to The Rajaji Story (1937-1972), the second volume of the biography authored by Rajmohan Gandhi, the decision covered Classes VI to VIII, where students were required to learn the subject but failure in it could not block promotion to a higher class. For the Premier (the post equivalent to that of the present-day Chief Minister), the term ‘Hindustani’ was preferred to Hindi so that many Urdu words could become part of its vocabulary. Besides, the students could learn the language either in the script of Nagari [Sanskrit] or Urdu. Rajaji, who called the move “chutney on the leaf”, said “taste it or leave it alone.”
Natarajan and Thalamuthu
But, critics of the government’s decision had generally used the term, Hindi, throughout. ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy, who along with members of the Justice Party and Tamil enthusiasts, severely opposed the government’s decision and organised protests. Natarajan, a 20-year-old protester from the city, was among those arrested by the police on December 5, 1938. A few days later, he was admitted to a hospital, but died on January 15, 1939.
A month later, on February 13, Thalamuthu, a native of Kumbakonam, was arrested along with others for staging a demonstration at the Hindu Theological High School in George Town in Madras. He fell ill and died on March 11. The death of the two youngsters in police custody fuelled the protest further. Thalamuthu and Natarajan became the icons of the anti-Hindi agitation. Fifty years later, the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, named the building in Egmore, which housed the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), after them.
The death of the two young men did not make any impact on Rajaji, who continued with his policy on the language issue. On June 18, 1939, Periyar, while addressing a public meeting on the Triplicane beach, said: “It was the intention of the government to thrust Hindustani [Hindi] on us,” The Hindu reported the next day. The episode came to an end only after the Rajaji government resigned in 1939 and Governor Lord Erskine withdrew the Government Order a year later.
The issue resurfaced in a big way at the time of enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963. The 15-year period for English to remain an associate language was also to come to an end by January 26, 1965.
Call for action
In 1963, the DMK called for “direct action” against Hindi. The protests gained momentum following the arrest of the party’s founder, C.N. Annadurai, on November 16 in Madras. He was booked under the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act for “conspiring to burn Part XVII of the Constitution of India as a mark of protest against the introduction of Hindi”, and was released after a few months.
On January 25, 1965, Annadurai was again arrested on the eve of his protest programme against the “Hindi imposition.” Two days later, two youth, both DMK members from Kodambakkam and Virugambakkam, immolated themselves. Clashes erupted in various parts of the city with the government advising all colleges to remain closed till February 1.
On February 11, a teenager was killed near the Kodambakkam railway station, when police opened fire against a “riotous” mob trying to hold up trains at the station, The Hindu reported. Several persons were injured in a lathi charge in T. Nagar. The day of Annadurai’s arrest — January 25 — is still observed by the DMK and the AIADMK in remembrance of those who died for the cause.
According to Hand of Destiny, the first volume of the memoirs of former Union Minister C. Subramaniam, M. Bhaktavatsalam, as the Chief Minister of the State, took a “very stiff attitude” against organised acts of violence and once refused to meet a large number of students who had come in a procession to Fort St. George and wanted to submit a memorandum.
Widespread violence
“As he had ordered the police to disperse the crowd, the use of force — lathi charge and tear gas — was resorted to, injuring many students in the process. As a result of this, the agitation became more intense and led to more widespread violence,” Subramaniam recalled. The situation became so bad that Subramaniam and his colleague in the Union Council of Ministers, O.V. Alagesan, had offered to resign but, on the advice of the then President S. Radhakrishnan, their offer was turned down by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The volatile situation, which started in Chennai and spread to the rest of the State, calmed down after Shastri’s assurance that English would continue on as an associate language.
The impact of the anti-Hindi agitations was so deep that successive governments — headed by the DMK or the AIADMK — have been adhering to the two-language formulaand the continued opposition to the National Education Policy, 2020, is only an illustration of the State government’s approach.
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