Keep your 'Hindi-ifying' away from education: R Thackeray tells Centre

Mumbai: It seems the “Hindi-imposition” row, which gradually brewed in the southern states, has spilt into the BJP-ruled Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, who was recently met by BJP Chief Minister of the state Devendra Fadnavis, slammed the Centre’s three-language policy on X.

He said that the Center must not bring the policy to education but limit it to governmental affairs.

"Whatever your trilingual formula is, limit it to government affairs, do not bring it to education," he wrote.

He furthered that MNS will not allow the Central government's current efforts to 'Hindi-ify' everything to succeed in Maharashtra.

He wrote, "We are Hindus but not Hindi! If you try to paint Maharashtra as Hindi, then there is bound to be a struggle in Maharashtra. If you look at all this, you will realise that the government is deliberately creating this struggle.”

He also asked, “Is this all an attempt to create a struggle between Marathi and non-Marathi in the upcoming elections and take advantage of it?"

In March, Thackeray had called for the people of Maharashtra to defend Marathi like Tamil Nadu, which defends Tamil. He has called for Maharashtra to take inspiration from southern states in resisting the imposition of Hindi under the National Education Policy (NEP). Speaking to his party members, Thackeray emphasised the importance of preserving regional languages and criticised Maharashtra’s passive stance on the matter.

“Have you seen the southern states? Have you seen Tamil Nadu? See how they have opposed the Hindi language,” Thackeray remarked, highlighting the state’s strong resistance to the three-language formula proposed by the NEP.

His comments come amid ongoing debates over the cultural implications of promoting Hindi at the expense of regional languages.