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When I was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court (2004-2005), I was once invited to Anna University, a prominent university in Chennai, to give a talk.

Among the things I said to a packed hall of about 300 to 400 students, teachers and others was that I advise Tamilians to learn Hindi.

This statement prompted some students to immediately stand up and say “You are trying to impose Hindi on us. We will oppose that to our last breath.”

In response to this I said “You have accused me of trying to impose Hindi on Tamilians. So let me tell you a story.

I am a Kashmiri. After I did my LL.B. from Allahabad University in 1967 I thought that before I start law practice I should know more about my country. Since Tamil Nadu is in the southernmost part of India, whereas Kashmir was in the northernmost part, I decided to go there. So I took admission in a one-year diploma course in spoken Tamil in 1967 in Annamalai University, which is in southern Tamil Nadu, and spent one year there (staying in Kambar Hostel).

This was at a time when the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu was at its peak, and Annamalai University was one of the centers of the agitation. The students of Annamalai University would often march from the university to the Chidambaram railway station two miles away, shouting ‘Hindi Odiha’ ஹிந்தி ஒழிக (down with Hindi) on the way. I too was among these students, and I too shouted ‘Hindi Odiha.’

When we reached the Chidambaram railway station we went to the railway platform and blackened the Hindi signs there. I too did the same.

Now Hindi is my mother tongue, which I love. But I did this because I was, and still am, totally opposed to its imposition on anyone.”

Having said this, I said to the audience “I have opposed Hindi imposition in deeds, whereas you do it only in words. Have any of you marched on the streets shouting Hindi Odiha, or blackened signs in Hindi? I doubt any of you have. So who among you has opposed Hindi imposition more than me? Don’t ever, ever accuse me of trying to impose Hindi. I am only recommending that Tamilians should learn Hindi, not imposing it. So don’t twist my words.”

Having said this, I then gave my reasons why I advise Tamilians to learn Hindi.

The truth is that Hindi is already India’s national language, if not de jure, at least de facto. No doubt Article 343 of the Indian Constitution declares Hindi only as the Indian Union’s official language, not the national language of India. But in fact it is the lingua franca of almost the whole country.

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Hindi is the first language of several states such as UP, MP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and even the Andaman Islands. But even in several states where it is not the first language, it is understood and spoken. Thus, in Gujarat, everyone speaks Gujarati, but all Gujaratis also understand and speak Hindi. In Punjab, Punjabi is spoken, but all Punjabis also speak Hindi. In Kashmir, Kashmiri is the first language, but all Kashmiris also speak Hindi. In Bengal, Bangla is the first language, but all Bengalis also speak Hindi. In Telangana, Telugu is the first language, but everyone there also speaks and understands Hindi. All Maharashtrians understand and speak Hindi, along with Marathi. So also in many parts of Odisha, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, etc. Nagaland has 18 tribal dialects, but all Nagas also know Hindi.

In fact Hindi is spoken even in Pakistan, though they call it Urdu. I speak to many Pakistanis on WhatsApp, and we talk in simple Hindi called Hindustani or khadiboli.

The problem is really in Tamil Nadu. Here also Tamilians were learning Hindi up to the 1960s, the language being propagated by Hindi films and taught by the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabhas. This stopped when some stupid north Indian politicians tried to impose Hindi, which created a reaction. But that was a long time back, and now many Tamilians are learning Hindi.

I have been advising Tamilians to learn Hindi as that is in their own interest. I tell them that if they don’t know Hindi they will have a lot of difficulty once they come out of Tamil Nadu and go to other parts of India. For example, if they go to Delhi, they will have a lot of difficulty. The taxi or auto drivers who have to take them from Delhi airport to their hotel or wherever they are staying normally do not know English. In fact English is known to only 10 to 15 percent of the elite society in India. So it is in their own interest that Tamilians learn Hindi.

I will conclude by narrating two incidents.

Once when I was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court I was sitting in the Madurai bench of the High Court, I went in the evening to a market in Madurai. In a shop I heard a Tamilian shopkeeper speaking to a customer in fluent Hindi. I was surprised, and told the shopkeeper in Tamil (which I had learnt a bit) ‘Evvalavu nalla Hindi pesreenga eppadi?’ (How are you speaking such good Hindi?). He replied in Hindi that politicians have their own agenda, but I have to do business, and many of my customers are Hindi speakers. This shows that Hindi is spreading in Tamil Nadu on its own, due to economic reasons.

The second incident also happened when I was Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. I was invited to give a talk in ‘Gulbarga University,’ which is in northern Karnataka. I flew from Chennai to Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, and from there went in a taxi to Gulbarga. A professor of Gulbarga University had come to Hyderabad to accompany me on the taxi to Gulbarga. On the way I heard the professor speaking to the taxi driver in Hindi. I was surprised, and said to the professor “You are both south Indians. Why are you speaking with each other in Hindi?”

The professor replied “My mother tongue is Kannada, and I don’t know Telugu. The driver’s mother tongue is Telugu, and he does not know Kannada. But we both know Hindi, and that is why we are speaking in Hindi, otherwise we would not be able to communicate with each other.”

This proves that in fact Hindi is the link language of India.

That is why I advise Tamilians to learn Hindi. This does not mean I am telling them to give up Tamil. Tamil is a great language and has a rich literature, which Tamilians are rightly proud of. But I also recommend they learn Hindi.

At the same time I recommend north Indians to learn Tamil and other languages of India.

The author is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India. 

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.)