A massive backlash has now forced Home Minister Amit Shah to clarify that he had not called for any forcible imposition of Hindi, but had asked for Hindi to be learnt as a second language after the mother tongue. Shah’s comments created a predictable storm south of the Vindhyas where north Indian Hindi ‘imperialism’ is universally loathed. Imposition of Hindi is unacceptable, thundered DMK chief Stalin and actor Kamalhaasan among others.
Yet the entire Hindi versus Tamil debate is actually a parade of rather old ghosts. Truth is, today it is not Hindi, but English which should be every Indian’s second language. English is now the biggest asset in the job market and there’s a mass thirst for good grammatical English, Read More
