The fight over the three-language policy between the Centre and Tamil Nadu took a new turn Wednesday after Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused the state’s ruling DMK of worshipping a man who once dismissed Tamil as a “barbaric” language that “cannot even help beggars get alms.”
She did not name E.V. Ramasamy or Thanthai Periyar, the originator of the Dravidian movement.
“I do not want to name him, but the moment I read the passages, anyone with a small, faint familiarity with Tamil will know who I’m speaking about. So when this person speaks about Tamil and much horribly, there’s no objection. On the contrary, they would keep his photo. They will also say he is our Dravidian icon,” Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha.
But did Periyar, the social revolutionary, call Tamil a ‘barbaric language’?”
In his book Thamizhum, Thamizharum (Tamil and Tamil People), what he wrote was:
“I say Tamil is a barbarian language. Many get angry with me for saying so. But no one ponders over why I say so. They say Tamil is a 3,000 to 4,000-year-old language and they boast about this. Precisely that is why I call Tamil a barbarian language. People should understand the term primitive and barbarism. What was the status of people living 4,000 years ago and now? We are just blindly sticking to old glories. No one has come forward to reform Tamil language and work for its growth.”
Periyar was demanding the modernisation of Tamil. He did much for Tamil, experts say. He initiated alphabet reform and was part of the Tamil Isai movement that resulted in Tamil songs being sung in sabhas.
Sasikanth Senthil, MP and former IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, summed up the irony in a post on X:
“First, the Education Minister called Tamilians ‘undemocratic and uncivilized.’ Then, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey claimed ‘Sanskrit is older than Tamil.’ And now, with the Finance Minister’s speech, the BJP has reached its climax—misquoting Periyar out of context while conveniently ignoring who actually called Tamil ‘Neesa Bhashai’ and Sanskrit ‘Deva Bhashai.’”
Sitharaman’s remarks come amid an escalating battle between the Centre and Tamil Nadu over the New Education Policy’ encouraging learning three languages including Hindi in schools.
The Union finance minister accused the DMK government of creating a “political mess” and denying children their “right to learn” for its opposition to the three-language policy.
DMK MP Kanimozhi hit back, saying: “The finance minister and all the ministers have got an agenda and taken it upon themselves to insult the Tamil Nadu government. Yesterday, the finance minister made it look like all the schemes given to Tamil Nadu have been given in charity.”
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said, “Tamil Nadu is very clear and well served by the two-language formula - English and Tamil. English connects us with the world of commerce and science and Tamil preserves our culture and identity. If anyone wants to learn a third language, it is of their own accord. There is no reason to make it compulsory…”
CPI MP P. Sandosh Kumar called Sitharaman “infamous for such controversial remarks”.
“In her attempt to blindly support BJP, she is always acting against the interest of southern states. She should introspect this personally because she is the finance minister, she should treat all the states equally. It seems that she is having a special kind of vengeance against southern states,” Kumar said.