Narendra Modi's Hindi-only-tweets order stirs fears of India language shift

by Guest Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:28 am

Narendra Modi's landslide victory in the Indian general election last month marked a turning point in the country's politics – but it has also resulted in a radical change in the country's language of power.

India's home ministry has instructed civil servants in Delhi to use Hindi rather than English in all their communications on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, it emerged this week. Hindi is to also get priority on all government websites.

But the move has caused concern in regions where Hindi is not the main language, such as the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which was the setting for violent anti-Hindi protests in the mid-1960s.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the state's powerful chief minister – whose party is the third largest in the national parliament – wrote to Modi on Friday asking him to make English the official language.

Another prominent Tamil leader, M Karunanidhi, said: "The attempt to accord priority to Hindi, instead of treating equally all languages … will amount to treating non-Hindi speaking people as secondary citizens."

Politicians in Kashmir – India's only Muslim-majority state – also expressed concern.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/20/india-narendra-modi-hindi-priority-language-fears