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Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin was at a private engineering college during the graduation ceremony in which he weighed in on the language debate.
Ravichandran Ashwin opens up on language debate (Photo: CNN-News18)
Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired from international cricket last year in the middle of Australia tour, has weighed in on the debate of Hindi being a national or an official language.
Attending the graduation ceremony at a private engineering college in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, his home state, Ashwin said that Hindi is “not a national language, but an official language”.
What Did Ravichandran Ashwin Say On Hindi Language?
As Ashwin took the dais to speak, he confirmed how many of the attendees were those understanding English, Tamil, and Hindi.
“English students in the house..give me a yay. Tamil (students cheer loudly)…okay..Hindi (very little noise from the crowd).. I wanted to say Hindi is an official language and not the national language,” Ashwin said.
Language Debate In India
The Constitution of India terms Hindi as an official language. September 14 is observed as Hindi Diwas to commemorate the Constituent Assembly of the country giving Hindi the status of official language of the Union government.
According to the Census 2011, 43.63 per cent of Indians spoke Hindi as their mother tongue.
The Opposition has repeatedly accused the BJP-led Centre of attempting to “impose” Hindi on the non-Hindi speaking states, primarily in the South.
Last year, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the celebration of Hindi Month in the state, alleging an attempt to “belittle other languages”.
“I strongly condemn the celebration of Hindi Month valedictory function along with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan. The Constitution of India does not grant national language status to any language. In a multilingual nation, celebrating Hindi Month in non-Hindi speaking states is seen as an attempt to belittle other languages,” Stalin tweeted.
More to follow…
