Modi wants more Indians to speak Hindi, but some states are shouting ‘No’

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Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed for the nationwide adoption of Hindi, the language of his power base in northern India.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Anupreeta Das

NEW DELHI – In India, the land of more than a thousand tongues, few things inflame passions more than language. Touching the hot button comes with political peril.

Just ask the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

High-profile brawls have erupted recently over Mr Modi’s push for the nationwide adoption of Hindi, the language of his power base in northern India and a symbol of his campaign to unify the country around the ideology of Hindu nationalism.

Late in June, the government of Maharashtra, a state in western India governed by Mr Modi’s party, was forced to retract a policy requiring that Hindi be taught in elementary schools.

Opposition politicians, residents and others had called the policy an affront to Marathi, the region’s native language.

In Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state with a history of rioting over efforts to make Hindi mandatory, the chief minister has raged for months against an education policy pushed by the Modi government, claiming that it is trying to force students to learn the language.

Tamil Nadu sued the central government in May after it said that it would withhold education funds until the state implemented the policy.

“It is common sense that pushing any one language will harm the national integration and unity of a linguistically diverse nation like India,” said Mr Niranjanaradhya V.P., an activist who studies how education