The unbearable lightness of being a language-hypocrite

What amazes me about the ongoing “language war” between TN and the Centre is the canard about policy  “imposition” … It makes me think we Indians have really no sense of our own history … And hence, our lack of shame about ourselves as a people.

We forget that throughout history we had no qualms about being “language slaves” : we would quickly learn the language of our rulers even if it was “imposed” upon us … either through policy blandishments or policy diktats. 

When the Persians invaded us , the state language was changed to Persian. We had no problems learning Persian .. 

When the Afghans invaded us , the state language was changed to Arabic. We adapted and learned Arabic . 

Then came the Mughals … and a bastardised form of Persian+Arabic called Urdu became the de jure and de facto State language.  We Indians meekly accepted it for centuries …. No one really complained too much about “imposition”. No one went to the streets to riot about it. 

Then came Pax Britannica …. The English imperialists imposed on all of India their great imperial language : English . Without knowledge of English it was made clear to us , no progress for us as a nation would be possible . 

All of us then went like blind suicidal lemmings to plunge into the cultural abyss of the Englishman’s world. We had no problems with embracing a foreigner’s language . .. our political masters who came from halfway across the world to colonise us. At that time we slaves didn’t ever think we were all being made slaves to a language  …. 

But fast forward to today … to 2025 …. 

A policy called NEP is simply asking we Tamils to learn 3 languages in our schools …. State mother-tongue , another Indian vernacular and English… And lo and behold ! That suddenly becomes “imposition”! Suddenly , we all have become righteous, proud and un-slavish language-warriors ! Oh what great heroes we are !! 

Can anyone in India other than we Tamilians ever be such unbeatable hypocrites! Oh, the unbearable lightness of hypocrisy!

Sudarshan Madabushi