Chief Minister MK Stalin's party DMK has historically led anti-Hindi-imposition protests.
"Projecting Hindi speakers alone as Indian citizens and others as second-class citizens reeks of divide-and-rule," said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin today as the Parliament's language committee reportedly said Centre-run educational institutions should switch away from English to "Hindi or local language", and that the UN be asked to make Hindi one of its official languages.
"Don't impose another language war on us," Mr Stalin said, directing his words at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose party BJP, as a stated policy, favours Hindi as a link among all states.
“The government ought to treat all Eighth Schedule languages as official languages, taking into account the development of science and technology,” said MK Stalin. Schedule 8 of India's Constitution recognises 22 languages, including Hindi, Tamil and English, as official.
Mr Stalin's party DMK — earlier led by his father M Karunanidhi — was among drivers of historic anti-Hindi-imposition protests in the South over 50 years ago.
“Even our neighbouring states will not accept this [imposition of Hindi],” Mr Stalin added.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah heads the Committee of Parliament on Official Language — to review progress in Hindi use — which submitted its latest report to President Droupadi Murmu last month.
Recommending that local languages be preferred over English in all states, the committee divided states and union territories into three groups on the basis of Hindi use.
In Category 'A', where the committee wants "Hindi be used 100 per cent", are UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
PM Modi's home state Gujarat is in category B, along with Maharashtra, Punjab, and the UTs of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The rest of India, including southern states, falls in group 'C'.
It is up to the President to accept the report or not.