In the year 1965 – ‘65 …. To be or not to be … yes to Hindi or no to Hindi !!!
A SUDDEN THOUGHT - I recalled from my memory , the happenings , in the year 1965 in my school days ! Many of my age and elders could recall the tragic happenings in that year . Yes. It is about the Anti – Hindi agitation . To recollect the happenings I browsed internet also !
In January 1965 , I was a student of class 9 , my sister Vasanthi in 10th and my younger brother Gopi was in 6th std. ( my other siblings Ramesh and Vidya were not born in 1965 ) . In that year beginning in Madras a big agitation started to protest the national Congress government’s imposition of Hindi language as an official language throughout the country. This was planned when the constitution was written in 1950 , that after 15 years , the bi-lingual , English and Hindi , will be changed to Hindi only , it seems. All the non-Hindi speaking people made a strong protest for this policy. Particularly students community of Madras state were seriously against Hindi and many deaths were recorded officially and unofficially . Self immolation by students in Madurai sparked and spread throughout Madras . Later when I grow I could understand the political gain made by a party with this background , influencing the students to far ahead in the protest!
Why this topic is selected for my blog is , whole of last year I travelled throughout India and crossed almost 18 states and felt the need of Hindi speaking skill and regretted for my weakness and inability to converse. I can read and write Hindi, by the mercy of the concessional policy of the government at that time, after the anti-Hindi agitation, to continue with Hindi in schools. At that time the annual exam score in Hindi is not considered for the total marks for school final , even though we wrote Hindi exam as one of the paper for 50 marks.
My school is so close to my house . I studied in P.S.Secondary School , Mylapore Madras. Myself and my classmates used to come to our terrace after the classes , when Police were targeting students gathering in group on the road and lathi charge them. On a fateful day , tear gas shell was busted in the junction of our street, Thiruvalluvar koil st., and Mundakanni Amman koil st., and we were watching by hiding behind the parapet wall with terror in our eyes. My mother shouted at us to come down . S.Balasubramanian , Ramesh , and few others of my classmates were with me . From the busted shell in the junction, gas was fuming out and irritated our eyes. It was the first time we young students witnessed such acts of police. Of course no one injured. But we were so thrilled to watch police with shield and steel cap running on the roads in front of our house. We have seen many war movies , where people running for shelter and the sounds of gun and rifle echoed in our ears even after coming out of the theaters ! But the live action of police force was seen by our naked eyes during the Hindi agtation.
The agitation went on for few more months . But in the curriculum of ours Hindi was not taken out .We wrote Hindi exam also in our school final ( 11th standard in 1967 ) . DMK came into power with the supporters of anti-Hindi in the year 1967 and the education pattern was changed . But when Mr.Bhakthavatchalam was the Chief Minister during the agitation period , he was very stubborn on students community and he only gave the shooting order on the students. Because of that Congress miserably failed in 1967 election and never came as a ruling party in Tamilnadu.
Many sign boards of Central government and other bearing Hindi letters were tarnished with black paint or tar ( bitumen ) by the agitators. Mylapore and Santhome post office sign boards remained many years in the same condition. In 1967 a new policy was formed by national government to continue with the bi-lingual policy as long as the non-Hindi speaking states wishes.
Today many people of my age and the next generation feel the importance of Hindi when we move out of Tamilnadu. Comedian Vivek sarcastically speaks in movies that Tamilan cannot survive in other states without Hindi.
So, the year 1965 went like that , by the self sacrificing students , self immolation for anti-Hindi. I cannot comment of those who were against Hindi but I felt the need even after so many years and being a senior citizen now , I wish to speak in Hindi to my own colleagues in 20 other states on business.
Learning a language is a gift and let us learn more languages. Mahatma Gandhi learned Sanskrit only to understand Bhagavat Gita and practice . Let us learn a new language and guide our next generation to learn Hindi to live in any corner of India and any other foreign language too for a comfortable living abroad ! Be Indian and Love all Indian Languages !
