'If delimitation is not handled well by the Centre, the southern states are certainly going to challenge it.'
It is only early 2025 but the battleground for the 2026 assembly elections is drawn in Tamil Nadu.
It is evident that the National Education Policy, the 3-language formula put forward by the Centre, and delimitation will be major planks on which the election will be fought.
Are the people of Tamil Nadu behind Chief Minister M K Stalin on the way the Centre is imposing Hindi on them?
Are they worried that with delimitation, Tamil Nadu and the other southern states will lose seats and their representation in Parliament?
Dr Ramu Manivannan is a former head of the department of politics and public administration, and former director of the Centre for Dravidian Research and Studies at Madras University.
Dr Manivannan also served as Fulbright Professor and Community Scholar at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.
"India is a nation of nationalities, or a multinational State. Somewhere the aspect has to dawn into the minds of the ruling elite," Dr Manivannan tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in the concluding segment of a two-part interview.
- Part 1 of the Interview: 'North Will Decide Who Will Rule India In Future'
With issues like the new NEP, the delimitation exercise, imposing Hindi on the southern states, do you feel the division between the north and the south is widening?
Certainly. I believe that India is a nation of nationalities, or a multinational State. Somewhere the aspect has to dawn into the minds of the ruling elite.
Nobody is questioning India's unity or integrity. We feel as much Indian as any other state in this country may feel.
At the same time, you have to understand and respect the cultural, political and historical issues of the making of this nation and how this nation can survive.
You don't expect a Union minister to say if you don't accept this, you won't get funds for your school.
One question Stalin asked was, how many languages north Indian states are teaching in their schools...
These are some of the contradictions in the 3-language policy itself which is only for the southern states and the non-Hindi speaking states.
For the Hindi speaking states, it is 2 languages, but the reality is just one language.
The other day, a national daily quoted a recent data that said 90% of the northern states speak only one language...
It is a well-known fact.
On the other hand, Tamil Nadu has never asked its children not to study Hindi.
Hindi Prachar Sabhas are there in every town, and lakhs of children are learning Hindi.
Has any politician said, shut down all the Hindi Prachar Sabhas? Nobody.
But we are asking one question. How many Dravida Bhasha Prachar Sabhas are there in the northern states?
How many teachers are employed by the Kendriya Vidyalaya or any other central schools to teach Tamil or Malayalam or Kannada or Telugu?
These are the questions we would like to ask.
The central leadership is constructing an idea that Tamil Nadu is very parochial and regional. We are not parochial or regional.
Parochialism and regionalism can be looked at from the other side as well.
The BJP in Tamil Nadu says you are destroying the future of the younger generation by not teaching them Hindi in school.
I have lived in the north, and I have high regard for the people.
The reality is that if you go to the north, you have to learn Hindi. When they come to the south also, you have to still learn Hindi. The aptitude for learning other languages doesn't exist for them. It is because of the political and social education. And the ruling classes are responsible for this.
It will change, and it is changing.
They should understand that we are not against Hindi. We are against imposition of Hindi. We want linguistic democracy as well.
The younger generation is also very proud of their linguistic identity and consciousness.
Will anything like the anti-Hindi agitation of the 1960s happen again?
It can. The awareness of language rights is far stronger today than the 1950s and the 1960s.
Look at Karnataka. Look at West Bengal.
Linguistic pride is much stronger and deeper.
While moving from colonial to independent status, we were driving away the colonial power.
Now, we don't want any internal colonialism.
We are a great nation, but we have to acknowledge and respect each other's rights and responsibilities.
IMAGE: Dr Ramu ManivannanDo you think the stance Stalin has taken in this issue will make the DMK stronger and the BJP weaker?
I think Stalin has reinvented himself and reinvented the role of the state in resisting the force behind the language agenda and also delimitation.
You should understand that it is a 100-year-old tradition of preserving and articulating language rights and identity politics.
Now we are asking, why only Hindi Divas? Why not a day for other languages? We have come that far. We are even saying, there can be many national languages.
Delimitation has brought all the southern states together.
If delimitation is not handled well by the Centre, the southern states are certainly going to challenge it. It is not easy for New Delhi to just overlook or undermine the issue.
Must more serious is, today we have a government at the Centre that is talking one religion, one nation, one language, and one culture. Now on top of that is, one region. Taking on this will be the biggest challenge.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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