Tamil Nadu government to table bill seeking ban on Hindi in the state

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government is set to introduce a bill seeking to ban the use of Hindi in the state, with Chief Minister M.K. Stalin expected to present the legislation on the final day of the ongoing Assembly session. The proposed law aims to prohibit Hindi-language hoardings and films across Tamil Nadu.

Earlier this year, the state government had replaced the Indian rupee symbol ‘₹’ with the Tamil letter ‘ரூ’ in its state budget documents, a move that underscored its emphasis on promoting Tamil in official use. The decision came amid renewed debates over the use of regional languages in governance and the DMK’s longstanding opposition to what it terms the “imposition” of Hindi.

Stalin has repeatedly said that the DMK is not against Hindi as a language but opposes any attempt to impose it on the people of Tamil Nadu. He has argued that forcing the language on Tamils amounts to an attack on their self-respect.

The Chief Minister has also accused the BJP-led government of trying to “impose Hindi and then Sanskrit” through the three-language formula proposed in the National Education Policy (NEP). He said Tamil Nadu’s two-language policy, Tamil and English, had contributed to the state’s success in education, skill development and employment generation.

Stalin maintained that the DMK would continue to resist what he described as the Centre’s efforts to undermine linguistic diversity, vowing to leave no stone unturned to protect Tamil and the state’s cultural identity.

The DMK has alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre is attempting to push Hindi through the NEP, a claim the Union government has denied.