Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin launched a blistering attack on the central government over the ongoing three-language row, alleging that the forced promotion of Hindi has led to the extinction of 25 North Indian languages over the years.
In a strongly-worded post on X, Stalin declared, "The push for a monolithic Hindi identity is killing ancient mother tongues. UP and Bihar were never just 'Hindi heartlands'—their real languages are now relics of the past."
The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government has been at odds with the Centre over the three-language policy under the National Education Policy (NEP), which mandates the inclusion of Hindi in school curriculums. Stalin accused the Hindi imposition of being a front for promoting Sanskrit, calling it a “hidden face” behind language politics.
In his letter, Stalin argued that the claim of Hindi as the only unifying language of India is a deliberate attempt to erase linguistic diversity, listing Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi, Magahi, Marwari, Chhattisgarhi, Santhali, and several tribal languages as victims of this linguistic dominance.
"More than 25 North Indian languages have been destroyed by the invasion of hegemonic Hindi-Sanskrit languages," he asserted, crediting the century-old Dravidian movement for safeguarding Tamil language and culture.
