The data tells the story. The number of students in Tamil Nadu voluntarily learning Hindi at Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS), a organisation launched to promote Hindi in southern India, gradually increased to 5.90 lakh in 2019 from just 2.18 lakh in 2009.
Governed by a board of trustees, DBHPS is a private institution accredited as a university to grant degrees. Since it was recognised as an Institution of National Importance in 1964, DBHPS is partially funded by the Union government, its secretary M.G. Guttal told ThePrint.
According to Guttal, “Enrolment numbers are an indication of people’s interest in Hindi when the language is not imposed on them. We do not even advertise or promote courses taught here. But people join voluntarily and complete their exams.”
Guttal said admissions had increased by 25 percent since 2012. Though there was a slump soon after the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers have recovered steadily since then.
Admissions dropped to 4.85 lakh in 2020 and further plummeted to 3.47 lakh in 2021. But after the slump, the number of students learning Hindi slowly picked up and as many as 4.14 lakh people enrolled in 2023. And as many as 2.77 lakh people had enrolled for their examinations at DBHPS until August this year. “Admissions have once again picked up and more students are now learning, which is evident from the data,” Guttal said.
The numbers also show that in the last five years, Tamil Nadu has had the highest number of enrolments among southern states, barring Telangana.
For instance, in 2023, while 4.14 lakh people enrolled to learn Hindi in Tamil Nadu, only 1.35 lakh signed up in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The number was less than 10,000 in Karnataka and Kerala, where only 6,607 and 8,422 people enrolled for Hindi classes last year respectively.
The number of people enrolled at the Hindi Sabha reflects only those who have registered for academic courses. However, there are lakhs of other people who have taken up informal spoken Hindi classes across the state, and their numbers cannot be accurately estimated.
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‘Most learn Hindi on their own will’
What’s the reason for the increasing demand for a Hindi education?
Guttal said it was largely because of the two-language formula in the state, which excludes Hindi from the syllabus. Although most states follow a three-language formula under which students learn at least three languages during their school education, Tamil Nadu is the only state with a two-language policy, which it has been following since 1967.
State secretary of the public schools’ platform and educationist Prince Gajendra Babu said many people in the state learn Hindi as a hobby or to fulfil their professional needs.
“People do not want it to be in their curriculum as suggested by the New Education Policy (NEP). A lot of families in the state are learning Hindi as a hobby, there is no stress upon them. Some take it for their professional needs. Say, for example, those involved in translation work learn Hindi as an additional language,” he told ThePrint.
The NEP has been a bone of contention between the BJP and the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, with the state refusing to accept the three-language policy on the grounds that it imposes Hindi on the state.
Stakeholders say the number of students learning Hindi has also increased because of teaching opportunities available after completing these courses. “If they complete the courses equivalent to BA, they can finish a B.Ed and join a school or even start their own classes at home. This is one of the major reasons,” Guttal said.
Former vice chancellor of Anna University V. Balagurusamy said many industrialists in the state have chosen to learn Hindi for business purposes. “More than English, they prefer to learn Hindi to communicate with their business counterparts in north India. They learn it on their own will,” he said.
The increase in the number of people learning Hindi coincided with the 2010 introduction of the Uniform State Syllabus in all schools in Tamil Nadu, which replaced the Matriculation syllabus. In the matriculation syllabus, Hindi was an optional second language instead of Tamil in some schools. This change not only enabled more people to learn Hindi but also led to an increase in the number of CBSE schools in the state.
From only 98 CBSE schools in the state in 2009, the numbers rose to 1,617 in 2024.
‘Language of north India’: An emotive issue
DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said the number of people learning Hindi voluntarily in Tamil Nadu showed that Nirmala Sitharaman’s remarks were a ploy to rake up an emotive issue and divert people’s attention.
“She tried to do the same here and it stands exposed. It is also learnt that her classmate who studied in the same college in Trichy where Nirmala Sitharaman studied was able to learn Hindi without any hurdle. It is an utter lie, typical of BJP style. She might get sympathy in northern India, but it will not work in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The latest controversy over Hindi in Tamil Nadu erupted on 5 December when opposition parties accused Sitharaman of speaking incorrect Hindi while replying to questions on the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in the Lok Sabha.
A visibly agitated Sitharaman took on the Opposition and blamed the DMK for not letting her study Hindi in Tamil Nadu. “When I went to learn Hindi in Tamil Nadu, I was mocked on the streets. ‘Oh, you want to learn Hindi? You live in Tamil Nadu and why do you want to learn Hindi, the language of north India?’ Learning Hindi was seen as learning something foreign. Is Tamil Nadu not a part of India? What’s wrong with me learning Hindi?”
She also recalled that she was called a “Vandheri”, or an outsider, in Tamil Nadu.
But Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam leader Kolathur Mani, a staunch follower of social reformer Periyar who was at the forefront of the protests against Hindi imposition in 1937, questioned the credibility of the finance minister’s statement.
“Had these hundreds of thousands of people in the state been ridiculed, how would they have had the opportunity to learn Hindi at the Sabha? In fact, protests in Tamil Nadu have never been against Hindi, but against imposition of Hindi language,” Mani said.
Citing the steady number of people learning Hindi in Tamil Nadu as vindication, BJP state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy said, “But it was not the case when she (Sitharaman) studied Hindi in the state. Then, the DMK was a strong force here and they forced people not to learn Hindi. However, now people have defied the DMK and understood the importance of learning Hindi.”
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Govt schools & dropout rates
Though the number of people learning Hindi voluntarily has increased, former Anna University Vice-Chancellor V. Balagurusamy said the state should consider allowing Hindi in government schools.
“Though politically the DMK is against the imposition of Hindi, they should also have an option for a government school student to learn Hindi at school. By denying Hindi, the government is denying the right to learn another language,” Balagurusamy said.
However, Dravidian writer and historian Mathimaran expressed concern that adding Hindi to the school curriculum might lead to an increase in dropout rates.
“If Hindi is added to the school curriculum, students would feel burdened to learn the language just as we struggled to learn English,” Mathimaran said.
Educationalists said the Centre would have set up more Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) schools to promote Hindi in Tamil Nadu if students had been more interested in taking up Hindi at the school level.
Despite opposition to the imposition of Hindi over the years, Prince Gajendra Babu said for a long time only Hindi and English were taught in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools in Tamil Nadu.
“After many petitions and struggles, they added Tamil to the curriculum. If students really wanted to take up Hindi at their school level, they would very well join the KV schools here,” he said.
Love-hate relationship with Hindi
The people of Tamil Nadu have always had a love-hate relationship with Hindi. The anti-Hindi agitation in the state was initiated by social reformist and Dravidar Kazhagam or Self-Respect movement founder Periyar in 1937 when teaching Hindi in Madras Presidency schools was introduced by then Congress government under C. Rajagopalachari.
However, the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in its history published in 2018 said Periyar was also among the first to donate a building he owned in Erode district to run one of the first Hindi training schools in 1922.
Kolathur Mani recalled that was when Periyar was part of the Congress movement.
“Apart from giving his own building, he also took care of 15 of the 30 students from giving them shelter and food. When he was with Congress, he followed the principles of that party,” Kolathur Mani said. After quitting the Congress in 1925, it was the same Periyar who first took to the streets in 1938 to oppose the imposition of Hindi in schools.
“Even the Saiva Mutts, who were promoting Tamil, did not protest against Hindi imposition. It was Periyar who appealed to Saiva Mutt people. He asked them, ‘What are you reading so busily when there is a threat to your Tamil? Come to the streets’,” Mathimaran said.
Despite years of protests against the imposition of Hindi, Mathimaran recalled how the people of Tamil Nadu have admired Hindi even during turbulent times.
“Even during the peak Hindi agitation days in 1968, none of the theatres screening Hindi movies were attacked. People did not even protest in front of such theatres,” he said.
“In fact, Hindi movies released in those periods were a blockbuster hit.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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