Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–1940

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Anti-Hindi agitation of 1937–40
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This article is about the anti-Hindi imposition agitation that happened in
Hindi language compulsory in secondary schools
GoalsTo make the government withdraw the orderMethods Resulted in
  • Resignation of the Government (1939)
  • Withdrawal of the order by Madras Governor Lord Erskine (1940)
Parties

Electoral parties
Justice Party

All-India Muslim League
Communist Party of India (partially)

Non-electoral organizations
Self-Respect Movement
Tamilar Padai (rallying)
Karanthai Tamil Sangam

Tamil scholars, Saivite scholars, industrialists and general public

Government of Madras (1937-39)

Electoral parties
Indian National Congress (partially)
Communist Party of India (partially)

Non-electoral organizations
* Hindustani Seva Dal
* Hindustani Hitashi Sabha
Lead figures
CasualtiesDeath(s)2 (Natarajan and Thalamuthu)Arrested1,198DetainedPeriyar (1 year ; released in 6 months)
Annadurai (4 months)
Palladam Ponnusamy (6 weeks)FinedPeriyar fined ₹.1,000† = died in detainment

The anti-Hindi imposition agitation of 1937–1940 refers to a series of protests that happened in

E. V. Ramasamy (Periyar) and the opposition Justice Party (later Dravidar Kazhagam). The agitation, which lasted for about 30 months, was multifaceted and involved fasts, conferences, marches, picketing and protests. The government responded with a crackdown resulting in the death of two protesters and the arrest of 1,198 persons including women and children. The mandatory Hindi education was later withdrawn by the British governor of Madras Lord Erskine
in February 1940 after the resignation of the Congress government in 1939.

Background

Main article: Languages of India

The Republic of India has hundreds of languages. According to the Census of 2001, there are 1,635 rationalized mother tongues and 122 languages with more than 10,000 speakers.

official language. When the Indian Independence Movement gained momentum in the early part of the 20th century, efforts were undertaken to make Hindustani as a common language to unite various linguistic groups against the British Government. As early as 1918, Mahatma Gandhi established the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (Institution for the Propagation of Hindi in South India). In 1925, the Indian National Congress switched to Hindustani from English for conducting its proceedings.[2] Both Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were supporters of Hindustani and Congress wanted to propagate the learning of Hindustani in non-Hindi speaking Provinces of India.[3][4][5] The idea of making Hindustani or Hindi the common language was not acceptable to Periyar, who viewed it as an attempt to make Tamils subordinate to North Indians.[6]

The Indian National Congress won the

Tanjore and North Arcot.[7]
The agitation lasted till the order was withdrawn in February 1940. Two persons -Natarajan and Thalamuthu- lost their lives. Around 1,200 people including Periyar were imprisoned.

This article is part of a series on the
Dravidian Politics
Political Parties
  • State Parties
  • Unrecognised Parties
Union Council of Ministers
Chief Ministers
  • Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
  • Chief Ministers of Puducherry
  • Deputy Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Speakers
  • S. Perumal
  • S. Pakkiam
  • G. Palaniraja
  • V. M. C. Sivakumar
  • Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Leaders of the Opposition
  • Deputy Leaders of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Others
  • Pioneers
  • Various Topics

Support for the agitation

Periyar and Jinnah at Jinnah's residence in Bombay (8 January 1940)[11]
Frontpage of Kudiyarasu dated 20 November 1938. The story is about the Tamil Nadu Women's Conference

The anti-Hindi agitation was backed by Periyar's

Velur.[13] Women also participated in the agitation in large numbers. Moovalur Ramamirtham, Narayani, Va. Ba. Thamaraikani, Munnagar Azhagiyar, Dr. S. Dharmambal, Malar Mugathammaiyar, Pattammal and Seethammal were some of the women who were arrested for participating in the agitation.[14] On 13 November 1938,[15] the Tamil Nadu Women's Conference was convened to demonstrate women's support for the movement.[16][17] Despite the anti-Brahmin sentiments of the backers of the agitation, a few Brahmins like Kanchi Rajagopalachari also participated in the movement.[18]
The Tamil speaking Muslims in Madras Province supported the agitation (in contrast to the
G. D. Naidu.[19] Acknowledging the agitation's popular support, Lord Erskine, the then Governor of Madras wrote to Viceroy Linlithgow in July 1938 that "Compulsory Hindi has been the cause of great trouble in this province and is certainly contrary to the wishes of the bulk of the population..."[7]

Fasts

On 1 May 1938, a young man named Stalin Jagadeesan went on a fast demanding the withdrawal of compulsory Hindi teaching. He became a symbol for the anti-Hindi agitators. In an interview published in Periyar's magazine Viduthalai he declared that his fast was to prove that Tamil Thai (lit. Mother Tamil) still had loyal sons. On 1 June, another man named Ponnusamy began a fast in front of Rajaji's house. Periyar did not approve of fasting as a form of protest. But other leaders of the agitation like C. N. Annadurai used Jagadeesan as an example. Annadurai declared in an anti-Hindi meeting that "If Jagadeesan dies, I am ready to take his place, and die along with ten others. As soon as Jagadeesan dies, you should also be prepared to die". Jagadeesan's fast was called off after ten weeks.[18][20]

Picketing and processions

A major feature of the agitation was the picketing of government offices and the schools where Hindi was being taught compulsorily. A boycott committee was formed on 1 June 1938 to coordinate the picketing. Rajaji's house in

Dina Mani and Tamil Mani. With Periyar's fiery speeches motivating them, the agitators gained response from the Police. The agitation which started relatively small, began to gain momentum.[19]

Tamil brigade

In August–September 1938, a protest march was jointly organised by the Self-Respect movement and the Muslim league. It was flagged of by Periyar and Khaliffullah. The marchers who called themselves Tamilar Padai (lit. Tamil brigade), started from

Trichy on 1 August 1938. They were led by Kumarasamy Pillai and Moovalur Ramamirtham. In the next 42 days, the marchers covered 234 villages and 60 towns. They addressed 87 public meetings and received widespread coverage in the press. They reached Madras on 11 September 1938 and were arrested for picketing government offices. The march succeeded in raising anti-Hindi and pro-Tamil support in smaller towns and villages they covered.[2][7][10]

Natarajan and Thalamuthu

Two persons died during the agitation and were claimed as martyrs by the agitators. Their deaths fueled the protests further. L. Natarajan was arrested On 5 December 1938. He was admitted to the hospital on 30 December and died on 15 January 1939. On 13 February 1939, Thalamuthu was arrested with others for picketing the Hindu Theological High School in Madras. While imprisoned, he fell ill on 6 March and died on 11 March. The government claimed that his death was due to

Amoebic dysentery
and he was already in poor health when he died.

When the issue was raised in the Assembly, Rajaji dismissed it casually. The agitators were incensed by the government attitude and turned the dead men into martyrs. Their funeral processions in Madras were attended by hundreds of mourners and witnessed fiery speeches denouncing the government. Annadurai proclaimed that Natarajan's name and deeds should be inscribed in gold in the history of the world. The agitators praised their sacrifices and claimed that the dead men had refused early release in exchange for ending their activities. In an interview given to the Sunday Observer on 27 January 1939, Natarajan's father K. Lakshmanan said when his son was hospitalized he refused to apologize to get an early release.[18][21][22]

Anti Brahminism

The anti-Hindi movement viewed the Hindi legislation as an attempt by

Brahmins to impose Hindi and Sanskrit over Tamil.[23][24] Rajaji's earlier attempt to translate an English Language Physics book into Tamil using Sanskrit words was viewed as proof of his preference of Sanskrit over Tamil. The anti-Hindi movement portrayed the Brahmin-dominated Tamil Nadu Congress party as a stooge of "Hindi Imperialists" from the North. The resistance of the Brahmin Tamil scholars for removing Sanskrit words from Tamil was viewed by some in the agitation as proof of Brahmin complicity in the attempt to destroy Tamil.[25] Rajaji was identified as an enemy of Tamil. Dravidian movement newspapers carried cartoons depicting Rajaji hurling a dagger at Tamil Thai and disrobing her. Similar banners were displayed in the processions taken out by anti-Hindi agitators. In an anti-Hindi meeting organised in August 1938, Pavalar Balasundaram accused the Brahmin community of "killing Tamil Thai". Rajaji's dismissal of Natarajan's death in the Assembly was denounced as "Aryans laughing while Tamils shed tears for their hero". Rajaji complained that the agitators were describing their opponents "by caste, by their sacred thread, by the tuft of the hair on their head".[2][19][26][27]

Periyar, who had been arrested in November 1938, sent an address from jail which was read out in a rally organised on 29 December 1938. In it he called the Brahmins 'mosquitos', 'bugs' and 'Jews', and said that the abolition of the reign of priests was more urgent than the abolition of zamindari. Kumararajah Muthiah Chettiar, the leader of the opposition, claimed at the rally that Periyar's arrest had "awakened the masses"; Panneerselvam called Brahmins interlopers in the Tamil land, separating them from Tamils. The Hindu referred to "a hymn of hate" in their report of the rally.[28]

Government response

C. Rajagopalachari

The ruling Congress Party was divided on the Hindi issue. While Rajaji and his supporters stuck to their position,[29] Sathyamurti and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan were against it. They wanted Rajaji to make Hindi optional or to provide a conscience clause for allowing parents to withhold their children from Hindi Classes. Satyamurti also disagreed with the use of Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1932 against the anti-Hindi agitators.[30] In a letter written to Mahatma Gandhi on 7 July 1938, he wrote:

I personally believe that where a parent or guardian swears an affidavit before a magistrate stating his reasons that it is against his conscience that his boy or girl should learn Hindustani compulsorily, the child may be exempted. I personally believe very few parents or guardians will claim this exemption. This will expose the hollowness of the agitation and kill it. I wish you to write to Sri. C. Rajagopalachari suggesting this to him. Moreover, I am not very happy over the use by the Madras Government of the Criminal Law Amendment Act against these picketers.[30]

Rajaji defended his action in another G.O. issued on 14 June 1938:

The attainment by our Province of its rightful place in the national life of India requires that our educated youth should possess a working knowledge of the most widely spoken language in India. Government have therefore decided upon the introduction of Hindustani in the secondary school curriculum of our province. Government desire to make it clear that Hindi is not to be introduced in any elementary school whatsoever, the mother tongue being the only language taught in such schools. Hindi is to be introduced only in secondary schools and there too only in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd forms, that is to say in the 6th, 7th and 8th years of school life. It will not therefore interfere in any way with the teaching of the mother tongue in the secondary schools....Hindi will be compulsory only in the sense that attendance in such classes will be compulsory and pupils cannot take Hindi as a substitute for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada, but must learn Hindi only in addition to one of these languages.[2]

He refused to give in to the demands of the agitators. He claimed they were motivated by their "prejudices of anti-aryanism" and "hatred of the Congress".

King Ashoka". During the agitation, a total of 1,198 protesters were arrested and out of them 1,179 were convicted (73 of those jailed were women and some of them went to jail with their children; 32 children accompanied their mothers to prison).[14] Periyar was fined 1,000 Rupees and sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment for inciting "women to disobey the law" (he was released within six months on 22 May 1939 citing medical grounds)[31] and Annadurai was jailed for four months.[32][33] On 7 June 1939, all those arrested for participating in the agitations were released without explanation.[31] Rajaji also organised pro-Hindustani meetings to counter the agitators.[7][19]

Cancellation

On 29 October 1939, Rajaji's Congress Government resigned protesting the involvement of India in the Second World War. Madras provincial government was placed under Governor's rule. On 31 October, Periyar suspended the agitation and asked the Governor to withdraw the compulsory Hindi order.[31] On 21 February 1940, Governor Erskine, issued a press communique withdrawing compulsory Hindi teaching and making it optional.[34]

Impact

See also: Rise of Dravidian parties to power in Tamil Nadu

The anti-Hindi agitations of 1937-40 led to a change of guard in the Madras Province. The main opposition party to the Indian National Congress in the state, the Justice Party, came under Periyar's leadership on 29 December 1938.

Dravidian Movement, such as C. N. Annadurai, started with their participation in these agitations. The agitations stopped the compulsory teaching of Hindi in the state.[2][18]
The agitations also reshaped the Dravidian Movement and broadened its political base, when it shifted from its earlier pro-Tamil stance to a more inclusive one, which was both anti-Hindi and pro-English. In the words of Sumathi Ramaswamy (Professor of History at Duke University),[36]

[The anti-Hindi agitations knit] together diverse, even incompatible, social and political interests... Their common cause against Hindi had thrown together religious revivalists like Maraimalai Atikal (1876-1950) with avowed atheists like Ramasami and

T.V. Kalyanasundaram (1883-1953) and M. P. Sivagnanam with dravidian movement supporters like Annadurai; university professors like Somasundara Bharati (1879-1959) and M.S. Purnalingam Pillai (1866 -1947) with uneducated street poets, populist pamphleteers and college students.[37][38]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Census of India 2001 - General Note". Department of Education, Government of India. Archived from the original on 16 December 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Ramaswamy 1997, ch. 4.21 (Battling the Demoness Hindi)
  3. ^ Nehru, Jawaharlal; Gandhi, Mohandas (1937). The question of language: Issue 6 of Congress political and economic studies. K. M. Ashraf.
  4. ^ Guha 2008, pp. 128–131
  5. ISBN 978-81-7023-369-5
    .
  6. ^ Saraswathi, Srinivasan (1994). Towards self-respect: Periyar EVR on a new world. Institute of South Indian Studies. pp. 88–89.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g More 1997, pp. 156–159
  8. ^ Venu, E.Es. (1979). Why South opposes Hindi. Justice Publications. p. 54.
  9. ^ Ravichandran & Perumal 1982, p. 174
  10. ^ a b Baliga, B. S. (2000). Madras district gazetteers, Volume 10, Part 1. Superintendent, Govt. Press. p. 244.
  11. ^ More 1997, p. 172
  12. ^ Irschick 1986, pp. 212–20
  13. OCLC 46735231
    .
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-253-22049-3
    .
  15. ^ Ravichandran & Perumal 1982, p. 175
  16. ^ Ramaswamy 1997, ch. 5.22 (The Woman Devotee)
  17. ISBN 978-81-86706-50-3
    .
  18. ^ a b c d Ramaswamy 1997, Chapter 5.30
  19. ^ a b c d Irschick 1986, pp. 220–226
  20. ^ Kannan 2010, p. 52
  21. ISBN 978-81-85604-37-4
    .
  22. ISBN 978-81-901964-1-3
    .
  23. ^ Kannan 2010, pp. 50–51
  24. ISBN 978-0-7619-9439-8
    .
  25. ISBN 81-87477-05-9
    .
  26. ^ Ramaswamy 1997, ch. 5.24 (The Brahman Devotee)
  27. ^ a b Kannan 2010, p. 53
  28. ISBN 978-93-85890-33-8
    .
  29. ^ "Aran International e-Journal of Tamil Research | அரண் பன்னாட்டுத் தமிழாய்வு மின்னிதழ்". aranejournal.com. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  30. ^
    ISBN 978-81-317-1684-7
    .
  31. ^ a b c Ravichandran & Perumal 1982, p. 176
  32. ^ Baliga, B. S. (2000). Tamil Nadu district gazetteers, Volume 2. Superintendent, Govt. Press. p. 85.
  33. ^ Thirunavukkarasu, K (September 2008). "The son who named his mother". Kalachuvadu Magazine (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 27 June 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  34. ^ Sundarajan, Saroja (1989). March to freedom in Madras Presidency, 1916-1947. Lalitha Publications. p. 546.
  35. ^ Kandasamy & Smarandache 2005, p. 109
  36. ^ "Prof. Sumathi Ramaswamy Faculty Webpage". Department of History, Duke University. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  37. ISBN 9780199267484
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  38. S2CID 144462193.[dead link
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