Let's assume for a minute I agree with the basic thrust of your argument.

If we need a national language that is inherently Indian, then lets pick something that a majority of Indians have to learn. It should be equally easy/ difficult for people from most states, but should also have a large number of native speakers, who can teach the language and help with administration.

I speak neither language, but let's say that Odia or Malayalam become the national language. I will gladly accept either, because it does not give a natural advantage to 40% of this country while being a disadvantage to 60%.

Of course, people from Orissa or Kerala will have an advantage, but they are both smallish states, and I would be happy if they get disproportionate power in the Union.

What say, Hindi fans? Will you accept Odia or Malayalam as the national language?

No one has remotely suggested that. Or are you referring to fake claim of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 taking away the rights of an Indian citizen on the basis of their religion. The Act doesn't even talk about Indian citizens.

Stop being such a snowflake. Just because someone criticises someone else doesn't mean they want to annihilate their rights. It is a debate. Strong language and stronger arguments will be a part of it.

Here is the thing. Europeans do learn Latin. As do Americans. Language is an instrument of communication across past, present, and future. Understanding our past requires us to learn classical languages in a rigorous, methodical manner. It enables us to be in communion with our forefathers and how they thought over the same issues that we are now working with. So even when a particular language cannot serve as a medium of communication in the present tense, it is still a valid form of communication through which we are participating in a discourse of understanding and revelation with our cultural past.

to answer your question we have to delve into a more fundamental query - what is the purpose of language? if I answer it as being able to communicate effectively to more people I would suggest a language spoken by many not a few, with easier grammar and adequate media presence (and no not oneoff viral youtube hits).

Asking an Indian to learn Sanskrit today to work it as a link language is like asking an European to learn Latin.

When Tamils migrate to UP or Delhi, are they shown the same courtesy by the locals? Practice what you preach. Every state has got its own culture and language. If you're migrating to one, then be prepared to learn it, or else focus on a common language, which isn't your mother tongue.

The principle of one-person-one-vote has already been violated when they first froze the distribution of seats in the parliament! A voter in Tamil Nadu is already over-represented in comparison with a voter in Uttar Pradesh. So much for being a democracy.

Please familiarise yourself with debates in constituent assembly. Or read VP Menon. The very concept of states emerges after the creation of the union when princely states and colonial provinces were harmonized into states. Tamil Nadu, as it stands today, did not exist in 1947. It is one of the successor states to Madras. Therefore, it is the Union that precedes and determines the states.

Feel free to share share your quantitative analysis of how BJP’s propaganda is worse than DMK’s. The last time I checked, no one in BJP has made a soft case for secession like those in DMK. The very intent of calling an Indian language like Hindi an “imposition” is nothing but dog whistle.

Just because NEP is a policy does not make it irrelevant. The Union enjoys precedence over policy-making when it comes to education. Even NEET-UG or JEE are components of that policy. Does that mean a state can choose to not recognise them? No. Does that mean that a state can refuse to implement a lawful policy while demanding the discretion to use as it sees fit the funds attached to that policy? No.

1. NEP is a policy, not a law, so Union has no precedence. At best it has advisory value.

2. BJP has done much greater damage with it's fake narrative of "Hindus are in danger"

3. There is no threat of secession. TN Govt and CM has not made any such statement.

4. One person one vote remains unchanged whether delimitation happens or not.

5. As per Art 1 of the Constitution India is a union of states. Without states there is no union.

take a rupee note and read the scripts (if you can read anything apart from eng) check how may ways the word rupee is represented in other languages

what we need at the moment is a third language in Hindi speaking states where it is some other official language (and no, not sanskrit)

Firstly I don't speak Tamil, neither am I from south india.

It's not about competence in imposing that's besides the point. The recent outrage has a context which will require you to read the history. The following statement of yours does not show that you are appreciating the current events in the proper context.

"Hooligans aside, it has not been imposed by anyone on anyone."

Read the history. The hate is a reaction, to the present imposition and the past imposition. The past imposition failed cause of resistance. This one will fail too.

There is no need to impose any language or culture on one another. Let people choose. If they want to learn another language or get familiar or practice another culture so he it. However, it should be a free choice. Hate will beget hate. Imposition will only divide us. Funnily they want to "link" us.

You cannot have a coherent national identity when every decision is reduced to it job-related utility. It is ridiculous to argue against Hindi while arguing for English in the same breath. Why the false distinction? More people speak Hindi than English and yet you would rather prefer to learn English, a language which is anyway spoken by a small minority and is completely divorced from cultural traditions of all Indians. Why? Because it makes access to employment easier? So you are willing to sacrifice your own cultural identity just so that you can have a slightly easier life? I don't blame you for thinking like this. It actually proves my point that the single, greatest reason for why Indian languages are struggling is because their own speakers consider them irrelevant.

It upsets you that there are regions in the country with greater population than yours and who are comfortable in speaking a single language and its associated dialects. But that is no reason to accuse them of imposing themselves upon you. It is a historical fact that the freedom struggle was primarily led by people in the central and northern Indian subcontinent while the political and economic elites in peninsular region were happy to piggyback on their coat-tails to achieve domination in their provinces. The region of Bengal has contributed immensely to freedom struggle but even they lack the kind of hatred that Tamil Nadu and its elite have against Hindi without reason. Even then, no one has forced Hindi on you. But it seems that you just want every Hindi speaker to abdicate their own culture and language just because you have already done so with yours. That is not a fair expectation. This is one nation and that does not mean that it should only have one language. Not at all. But it also does not mean linguistic identity should be used (like it is being used in TN) to divide national identity by putting people into these mutually exclusive silos. The state of Tamil Nadu is singular in its hostility to a single language today. The evidence for Hindi imposition is mostly anecdotal and consists of no more than a few errant public sector employees or a few uncharitable private folks who are always looking for a fight on any issue, including language. That is what gets picked up on news and over internet. A large majority is simply trying to make an honest living. Sometimes there can be misunderstandings over language but that is no reason to judge and condemn an entire community of its speakers. Learn whichever language you want. But stop distrusting your fellow man just because he has recently migrated to your neighborhood and cannot speak in your tongue.

Deliberate obstruction of NEP (when education is a concurrent subject with Union precedence); creating a culture of false fear among the citizens that “Aryans” are coming to destroy “Dravidians”; threatening to secede if the constitutional obligation of doing delimitation in accordance with the principle of one-person-one-vote is not subverted in favour of a particular state, thereby turning Indian democracy into a consociational polity which is contrary to democratic principles. Shall we go on? Or do you need to see actual bloodshed on the ground before you realise the dangerous game that the government of Tamil Nadu is playing?

It is certainly not natural. It is imposed to a huge extent. Most of the PSUs and banks offering services demand that the customers speak in Hindi rather than their mothertongue. Public infra is being connected closely with Hindi even in states where Hindi is not the prevalent regional languages. People not knowing Hindi are being told to leave the country. Imposition does not only mean that you have to speak it on gunpoint. It is a simple argument. Hindi is the mother tongue of a group within the country. Nothing more than that. People not knowing it are not missing out on any great repository of knowledge etc. There is no reason why any Indian citizen will have to learn a third language other than their mother tongue and a common language. That common language should not be Hindi because that would give the group of people whose mother tongue is Hindi an unfair advantage. Hence it should be English especially given the usefulness of that language outside the country and it being the means to access a huge knowledge repository.

The growth of Hindi across the subcontinent is natural. Hooligans aside, it has not been imposed by anyone on anyone. If Indians were actually that competent in imposing languages on each other, then you would not be writing here and worrying about the relevance of your language. The fact is, Indian languages are struggling because their own native speakers have not done the work to keep them culturally and economically relevant. When was the last time anyone called for who won the Sahitya Academy award in their language? When was the last time someone read novels in their mother tongue. You are blaming the wrong side, fellow.

Do read up about Hindi imposition. It will help educate you a lot.

It's sad you have reduced it to his name. It's about choice! His father exercised his choice. Wasn't forced on by Russian.

If you want Hindi to be loved and appreciated then stop IMPOSITION!

Let's be proud about rich and diverse culture, let's not be monolith.

You aren't dumb enough to believe that Hindi is being popularised by BJP for the good of the nation. We all know why they want to shove it down people's throat.

Most BJP members and supporters can't seem to wrap their head around "imposition" and "respect for other cultures". A closer study of these two terms/phrases can guide you to the real problem lest you will talk about a Russian name.

South Indian states benefited from many Nehruvian policies that favoured industrialization of southern regions - for e.g., freigh equalization schemes as per which raw material costs were the same for transportation to southern regions even though that was costly because of distance. After benefiting at the cost of North India, now they are imagining things only to immunize their votebanks against pan-national politics.

The state of Tamil Nadu also has no inherent legal claim to exist in perpetuity. If Tamil Nadu wishes to go the way of Kashmir and obstruct the functioning of the constitution, then it is safe to say that the rest of the country will show the same united resolve that it did during the abrogation of article 370. Personally, I think Tamil Nadu will probably be better governed as a union territory.

You want to be free but do you have the courage to fight and bleed for the same? Because that is the only way you will get what you want. It will not be pretty, you don't have the cards (to borrow from Donald), and in the end, it is more likely that not only will you not win the fight but that your state will cease to exist.

Feel free to fantasize. You couldn’t fight the British then but you think you can fight the Union now? Laughable nonsense. India is an indestructible union of destructible states. Even if we allowed you to pursue your little experiment, an “independent” Tamil Nadu, with no navy of its own, and surrounded by rest of India, will finally have the reality check if just how much the rest of this country has contributed to its economic development. Maybe then you will get over your xenophobia. For far too long, the peninsular India has survived the historical invasions of mediaeval Indian history because there was a northern and central India that could absorb them. If anything, Tamil Nadu has actually failed to take advantage of having a coast and instead wasted so much of its time and energy over the hateful Dravidian ideology that was less about ending care discrimination and more about concentrating power among the already dominant land-owning castes.

As a fellow South Indian, I and everybody else around me do not want or support any kind of secession.

Even if we successfully secede, what would be the language of the new union? Tamil? Telugu? Kannada? If at all, we manage to secede, all south Indian states would form separate countries (proper balkanization), because we have nothing else in common than "race," which nobody cares about.

Kannadigas, Malyalis, and Telugu would worry more about Tamil imposition and superiority in this hypothetical new Dravidian state than we worry about Hindi imposition.

Also, if separate countries are formed, we all will fight each other to death for water and disputed border territories.

A separate southern states union is not desirable nor ever possible.

if we move out of the north indian belt which has eaten its own languages like maithili, pahari etc. to stick to kashi hindi, we would find that most indians use their local lingo to describe rupee, no one in Bengal for instance says rupee, everyone calls it taka. So, please stop agitating over a state budget and read up for exam.

The good people of TN have very legitimate concerns on several issues. Be it Delimitation which rewards the States who have performed pathetically and poorly (no surprises who they are), devolution of State's share of GST and taxes, NEP and several other issues. TN has one of the finest healthcare systems in the country primarily due to many indigenous medicos graduating from medical institutions in the State and continuing to practice there. TN would be far better of as an independent country rather than being lumped with certain other savage States and their populace who are the real burden on the country.

I think one thing is being missed here is that, the symbol being used is a letter in tamil for Ru, like रु in Hindi. So they're not making a new symbol but I guess not using the new one.

In all honesty the ₹ is an elegant symbol, ironically designed by a tamil himself, and should be mandated all across the country.

Ok. So Hindi is bad. But you’re named after Josef Stalin. So Russian is fine?

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/tamil-nadu-replaces-rupee-symbol-in-state-budget-amid-massive-row-with-centre-7914619#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll_Imagetopscroll