Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday slammed the Centre over the alleged imposition of Hindi through the National Education Policy (NEP). He said Tamil Nadu would not accept the policy and vowed to protect Tamil and its culture. 

“Will oppose Hindi imposition. Hindi is the mask, Sanskrit is the hidden face,” Stalin said in a letter to party workers. 

The ruling DMK has accused the Centre of pushing Hindi through the three-language formula under NEP, a claim the Union government has denied. The issue has become a major political flashpoint, with Stalin warning that the state is ready for “another language war,” referring to the anti-Hindi protests led by the DMK in 1965. 

Stalin alleged that many regional languages spoken in northern states, including Maithili, Brajbhasha, Bundelkhandi, and Awadhi, have been “destroyed by hegemonic Hindi.” 

“More than 25 north Indian native languages have been destroyed by the invasion of hegemonic Hindi-Sanskrit languages. The century-old Dravidian movement safeguarded Tamil and its culture because of the awareness it created and the various agitations,” he said. 

Tamil Nadu opposes NEP, Stalin said, because it imposes Hindi and Sanskrit through education policies. He countered the BJP’s claim that the third language in the NEP could be a foreign language, stating that “only Sanskrit is being promoted in many states” under the policy. 

He cited BJP-ruled Rajasthan as an example, claiming that the state was appointing Sanskrit teachers instead of Urdu instructors. 

“If Tamil Nadu accepts the trilingual policy, the mother language will be ignored, and there will be Sanskritisation in the future,” he said. 

Stalin also alleged that NEP provisions allow for Indian languages to be taught in schools “in addition to Sanskrit,” while languages like Tamil are relegated to online learning. 

“This makes it clear the Centre has planned to do away with languages like Tamil and impose Sanskrit,” he charged. 

He recalled that former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister CN Annadurai had implemented the two-language policy decades ago to ensure that “there is no place for imposition of Aryan culture through Hindi-Sanskrit and destruction of Tamil culture.” 

(With PTI inputs)

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