An octogenarian set himself on fire in southern India to protest against the language policy of the New Delhi government, accused of wanting to impose throughout the country the use of Hindi, a language mainly spoken in the north, police said Sunday.
Language is a hot topic in India, where there are hundreds of them, with English serving as the official vehicular language while state governments use regional languages. According to the last census, in 2011, only 44% of Indians spoke Hindi.
Last month, a group of parliamentarians led by influential interior minister Amit Shah reportedly recommended making Hindi the official national language, including for education.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, for his part criticizes the use of English which he considers due to a “slave mentality” and promotes the use of Indian languages.
But his opponents accuse him of wanting above all to impose Hindi, which displeases the populations in the south of the country where Dravidian languages are spoken, a family completely different from those of the Indo-European languages of which Hindi is a part. .
Police say MV Thangavel, an 85-year-old farmer, doused himself with fuel and set himself on fire on Saturday in Salem, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, while holding up a sign that read : “Modi government, stop imposing Hindi. Why should we choose Hindi over Tamil with its rich literature? […] This will harm the future of our youth”.
Mr. Thangavel killed himself in front of a local DMK party, in power in Tamil Nadu and of which he was an activist, said a police official.
MK Stalin, the leader of this party critical of the Modi government, offered his condolences to the family of the deceased, but asked that no one else commit suicide. “We must not lose one more life,” he implored, urging his supporters to “fight against the imposition of Hindi politically, democratically.” “Let’s not let narrow-mindedness ruin a beautiful country of diversity,” he added.