Language Dispute NEP-M.K. Stalin Lashes Out at the Center for Hindi

There is quite a bit more uproar about the NEP in India, and it has raised the ire of M.K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He has alleged that the central government has placed the futures of 25 North Indian languages at risk by imposing a hegemony of Hindi as the leading language in the Union.

Stalin stated that the aim of the Centre is to establish Hindi supremacy over all other languages. He further pledged that "We will guard our mother tongue and Tamil Nadu will not accept a one-sided language policy from the center.

Concerns ran high in North India, where, linguists and regional leaders fear, the NEP might push several local languages toward extinction. This is true particularly in states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, where so many regional tongues are at risk.

Stalin invoked the old conflict between the Centre and the states over language policy. So far, the Tamil Nadu government has shown discord against the NEP, and so has West Bengal, Kerala, and Karnataka. There are experts who feel that as far as possible, the NEP must encourage a policy of equal importance to all the languages in order to preserve the diversity of languages in the country.