No space for Hindi then, now, or ever, says Stalin

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There was no space for Hindi in the past, nor is there now, and there never will be, DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Sunday, on the occasion of Language Martyrs Day.

In a social media post, Mr. Stalin said no more lives would be lost over the language struggle. “The Tamil sentiment among us will never die. Let us continue to oppose the imposition of Hindi,” he said.

Hailing Tamil Nadu as the only State in the country that loved its language with its life, Mr. Stalin recalled how the State had come together to oppose the imposition of Hindi with full vigour on every occasion. The State had protected the right and identity of all language families in the Indian subcontinent, he added.

He paid tribute to the language martyrs who laid down their lives fighting against the imposition of Hindi and in defence of Tamil.

Later in the day, Mr. Stalin unveiled the busts of Thalamuthu and Natarasan, who were the collective face of the anti-Hindi protests of the 1930s in the then Madras Presidency. The busts have been installed at the government building — also named after these activists — in Egmore in Chennai.

Dressed in black attire, the Chief Minister also paid floral tributes at the memorial of these activists at Moolakothalam in Chennai. He also paid floral tributes at the memorial of late activist S. Dharmambal. He took part in the Language Martyrs rally and raised slogans, an official release said. He witnessed a photo exhibition put together by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.

Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, Ministers M.P. Saminathan, Ma. Subramanian and P.K. Sekarbabu; Chennai Mayor R. Priya; North Chennai MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy; legislators S. Sudharsanam, Thayagam Kavi, R.D. Shekar, Joseph Samuel, A. Vetriazhagan, R. Murthy, K.P. Shankar, K. Ganapathy, S. Aravind Ramesh, A.M.V. Prabhakara Raja and senior officials took part in the event.

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami paid tributes to the language martyrs, and the AIADMK’s student wing organised events in their memory.

(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416. and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050).