Hindi not national language, it is official language, says Ashwin; BJP's Annamalai backs cricketer

Chennai: Former Indian cricketer R Ashwin has said that Hindi is not India’s national language, but only an official language, triggering a debate on social media.

Addressing students at an engineering college on Thursday, Ashwin, retired from international cricket last month, made this comment while seeking to know students’ preference on the language he should speak.

When Ashwin asked students whether he should speak in English, there was a loud cheer but when he said Tamil, the chorus grew louder and the auditorium fell silent when the cricketer uttered the word Hindi.

"Hindi --no response. I thought I will say it (Hindi) is not our national language, but (only) an official language," Ashwin said to a cheerful applause from the students.

BJP leader Uma Anandan, who stoked a controversy in 2022 for praising Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, questioned Ashwin whether he represented India or Tamil Nadu in international cricket. However, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai appeared to agree with Ashwin on Hindi being one of the official languages of India.

“Yeah, it (Hindi) is not our national language and even I am saying that. Not just my friend Ashwin. It (Hindi) is not a national language, but a link language, and a language of convenience,” the BJP chief added.

Annamalai’s comments are in line with the Tamil Nadu BJP’s stand for the past three years that they were against any form of imposition of Hindi. The stand was formulated by Annamalai after he took charge as BJP chief in Tamil Nadu, a state where language is still an emotive issue.

Several X users lauded Ashwin for “stating the obvious truth” that Hindi was not India’s national language and asked BJP and right-wing outfits to stop “imposing Hindi” on non-Hindi speaking states. However, there was also opposition to Ashwin’s statement with many questioning his “claims.”

Tamil Nadu has always opposed “imposition of Hindi” and has faced two violent agitations in 1935 and 1965 to oppose the entry of the language in the state. It is the only state in the country to follow a two-language formula of Tamil and English after the then government led by former Chief Minister C N Annadurai took a policy decision in this regard in 1968.