DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, is kicking up a storm over the three-language formula in the NEP 2020, crying ‘Hindi imposition’ despite the policy’s clear stance that Hindi is not mandatory. Days after Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin claimed that adopting NEP would impose “2000-year regression” in the state, Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan penned an op-ed for Indian Express fanning linguistic hysteria garnished with a diatribe on Hindi in an apparent attempt at reviving 1960s-style paranoia for political gains under the pretext of protecting the Tamil language.
In the article titled “Dis/Agree: Don’t be fooled – ‘three-language formula’ is about imposing Hindi” published on 7th March, the DMK leader accused the Central government of ‘political extortion’ over the latter’s decision to halt Rs 2,152 crore under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan as sought by Tamil Nadu CM in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The threat, stated in public by the Union Minister of Education, is simple: Implement the NEP in full through legislation in TN’s assembly (including the compulsory three-language formula) or the Centre will not release the Parliament-approved, pre-allocated, funds. Given the lack of a single example to show how this will improve outcomes, we see the threat as pure political extortion. Such an attempt to force the will of the Union government on TN’s elected legislature is in flagrant violation of the Constitution,” the TN minister wrote.
Starting with the supposed ‘learning overload’ on students and increased logistics and staffing costs that would come with adding a third language as directed in NEP 2020, claiming that it would not have any substantial benefits, the DMK leader came to his real chagrin—Hindi imposition.
For this, Thiaga Rajan resorted to fearmongering and claimed that there is “justifiable fear” that a “third language would corrode the use of the native language, sometimes to the point of its practical demise.”
Justified by whom? The DMK leader assumes a zero-sum game where adding a language would automatically kill another, completely ignoring the benefits of multilingualism including increased job opportunities.
“A cursory look at the Home Minister’s statements every Hindi Day, and the multi-fold spending on Hindi promotion, as opposed to other regional languages, will highlight the true intent,” the DMK leader further writes.
This is such a juvenile contention. On Hindi Diwas, what will the Home Minister talk about, promoting Gujarati? It is obvious that Hindi being a widely spoken language in many parts of India and an official language gets prominence, it however, does not mean that other languages are less important or should be eradicated. Even if we look at Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on Hindi Diwas last year, he talked about how Hindi, contrary to the narrative pushed by certain political parties, strengthens other Indic languages and vice versa. Even on Hindi Diwas, the Home Minister highlighted how the Centre is undertaking measures to promote not only Hindi but other local languages. “Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given a new life to all our languages and Hindi by giving an important place to imparting primary education in mother tongue in the new education policy,” Shah said.
The DMK leader is insinuating that somehow the Modi government is aggressively promoting Hindi language, however, he fails to mention that the Home Ministry under even previous Congress governments, has been promoting Hindi as an official language (per the Constitution, Article 343) since 1947. This is not some new-found fixation of the BJP or Modi government. In fact, between 2009-2013, the UPA government spent Rs 349 crore to promote Hindi. The NEP’s Third-Language Formula is an educational guideline, not a Hindu propaganda machine. Remember, correlation is not causation?
Thiaga Rajan’s op-ed is stuffed with emotionally charged rhetoric and cherrypicked historical references to amplify the fear of linguistic subjugation. PTR asserts that the three-language formula is a “threat” to Tamil identity and culture, deeming it a “dagger to our hearts”. He mindlessly links it to a supposed broader political agenda of the Modi government. The DMK minister further accuses the Central government of using “any means as a weapon” to subjugate ancient cultures like that of Tamil Nadu, peddling a narrative of victimhood and invoking a need to resist an imaginary threat.
The DMK leader makes a bold accusation with zero substantiation. What “means”? What “weapon”? The NEP’s TLF is not Hindi-specific as the DMK wants to project it. This “any means as a weapon”, is mere conjecture banking on the anti-Centre sentiment rather than facts.
Thiaga Rajan repeatedly uses terms like “coercive actions” and “imposition”, painting the National Education Policy as an existential threat or rather a blatant attack on Tamil contrary to what it actually is— a flexible educational framework. The DMK leader invokes unfounded fear of cultural erasure suggesting that promoting another language inherently suppresses Tamil and is thus a zero-sum conflict.
Unsurprisingly, throughout the article, Thiaga Rajan deliberately downplays the NEP’s flexibility and instead remains fixated on the perceived intent to impose Hindi. It is apparent that the minister did not engage with the policy’s actual wording but only assumed a hidden ‘agenda’, which aligns with the DMK’s long-standing political stance against the Centre’s imaginary linguistic overreach.
“Beyond the politicisation of fund allocation and adding politically self-serving last-minute conditions for the disbursement of funds, the most troubling examples include: Unprecedented use of Article 293(B) to constrain state borrowing beyond their respective FRBM-equivalent legislation; illegal, covert coercing of bilateral and multilateral lending agencies to adopt lending constraints to non-BJP government-ruled states, and worst of all, the intentional appointment of obdurate governors to thwart the work of elected governments,” Thiaga Rajan wrote.
While the DMK leader laments the alleged “politically self-serving last-minute conditions” for funds disbursement, he did not highlight how his government demonstrates obstinacy in not implementing the Centre’s policies at their whims giving their own set of justifications. This time the justification for waging a language war is the supposed ‘threat’ to Tamil language and identity.
NEP’s three-language formula
While Palanivel Thiaga Rajan asserts that “Hiding behind the fig leaf of the idea that the third language being mooted is not Hindi does not fool anyone”, the National Education Policy 2020 does not hide anything, rather, it is upfront: no language is mandated. The DMK leader’s cynicism dismisses TLF’s flexibility as a ‘trick’ but offers no evidence to prove his claim. He simply passes off his distrust in Centre’s intent as insight.
The three-language formula was implemented as a consequence of an agreement reached by the chief ministers of numerous Indian states at their 1961 meeting. Rather than being a goal or limitation on language learning, it was framed to serve as a convenient starting point for the analysis of the nation’s evolving body of knowledge and emotional integration. NEP 2020 has promoted the same as a means of fostering multilingualism and bolstering national unity. The aim is to provide students with the resources they need to communicate successfully across the country. Additionally, it seeks to promote acceptance of linguistic diversity and expose kids to a variety of cultures and languages in order to build national integration.
However, NEP clearly mentioned, “The three languages learned by children will be the choices of states, regions, and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India. In particular, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in grade 6 or 7, as long as they are able to demonstrate basic proficiency in three languages (including one language of India at the literature level) by the end of secondary school.”
The policy does not require students to take up any one language, instead, it allows the states and learners to choose. The formula underlines that each Indian student must study three languages: a foreign language and two native including one regional. Given the English language’s prominence in post-independence India and its utility as a global link language, English is automatically selected as the foreign language. The NEP makes it clear that this system will be more flexible and no state will be compelled to use a particular language. The students themselves will pick the three languages that can be taught to them, provided that at least two of the three are native to India, its states or its regions. However, the Tamil Nadu government is outrightly opposing the implementation of NEP in state-run schools and asserting that somehow the NEP is not a framework but a diktat. By refusing to implement NEP and its three-language formula, the Tamil Nadu government is stripping the students of their choice to learn a third language, which may or may not be Hindi or Sanskrit.
Amusingly, on one hand, the DMK leader lamented that the Centre has halted the release of funds to Tamil Nadu, on the other, he asserts that “Money alone cannot meaningfully alter employment or growth rates if the prevailing social structures are not conducive to such improvements.” Thiaga Rajan cites the example of Gujarat, PM Modi and HM Amit Shah’s home state, to argue that somehow the GIFT City and allocation of megaprojects has not really increased employment or improved the quality of life of that state’s residents.
This, however, is a half-baked swipe. The GIFT City in Gujarat has drawn over 400+ companies, including global banks like HSBC and tech giants like IBM, and has already created over 20,000 jobs while this number is only increasing. By 2025, this financial hub is projected to contribute 1% of India’s GDP. This is hardly trivial. With this, real estate, retail and service sector are also benefitting alongside improving quality of life.
Media playing with fire by platforming those hell-bent on widening linguistic and regional divides
The DMK has historically thrived on regional and linguistic pride, turning anti-Hindi sentiment into electoral gold since the 19060s. From anti-Hindi protests that toppled Congress in 1967 to the ongoing “language war” spearheaded by MK Stalin, the DMK has mastered the art of weaponising Tamil identity for its political gains. However, the same party that goes berserk against any supposed attempts at introducing Hindi or Sanskrit to Tamil people does not oppose Urdu rather makes poll promises to promote the Urdu language to appease Muslim voters. Apparently, only Hindi and Sanskrit threaten Tamil identity.
While language politics and regionalism have been the political essentials of DMK, the media allowing political leaders to use its platform and reach to peddle a narrative devoid of facts and reasoned critique but only based on insinuations and fearmongering, is alarming. Indian Express handing DMK minister a megaphone to rant about “Hinthi imposition” is peak irresponsibility. The piece blatantly fuels linguistic hysteria, ignoring the flexibility of the three-language formula. By amplifying this diatribe, the media is playing with a dormant fire, and advertently or inadvertently aiding the revival of 1960-like paranoia and chaos. NEP-TLF is not about Hindi hegemony but the promotion of Indic multilingualism, any media outlet platforming any political leader or ‘intellectual’ to twist facts for the furtherance of their apocryphal narrative is not informing the readers but inciting them.
