I have now lived for about 9 years in North India. One of the reasons I got my first job, as a Counsellor, in Bihar was because I knew Hindi. Hindi was compulsory in our school till Class 8. Like every other subject, I studied it with perseverance. Apart from adding to the weight of the school bag and the burden of another subject to study and write exams on, I am unable to recollect what 'harm' Hindi actually caused me.
Learning Hindi, helps me enjoy Hindi movies and programmes on TV and also helps with everyday conversations with those who don't speak English in North India. Having said this, I have seen through my own eyes, people who did not know a tittle of Hindi, come to North India and master the language in 'less than 6 months'. I know a Tamil friend who picked up Hindi enough to stand and preach among people who knew no other language than Hindi. I am yet to encounter people from TN, in my 9 years, who have 'suffered' as a result of not knowing Hindi. But even the ones who do, do not suffer any more than North Indians struggling for the first few weeks/months in Tamil Nadu.
In conclusion: I did not suffer from learning Hindi as a subject; I have not seen Tamil people suffering from not knowing Hindi too.
But the present discourse is not about my experience. But one of public policy. 'Including', and I use the word advisedly, Hindi in Tamil Nadu curriculum, I do not think will cause the kind of worry that it is perceived to be. The additional 'privilege' of knowing another language continues to be elitist in TN. And Hindi does have a wider currency in this country than any other language. On the other hand, spending a vast amount of tax resources in including Hindi as part of the curriculum (Government) seems to be fixing something that is NOT broken at all. There are several other pressing issues, TN and other non-Hindi states might spend their energy on. Add to this, the sinister political motives of Hindi being bandied about as the ONLY unifier and identifier (horrors!) of the country, defacing milestones with Hindi and the repetitive obnoxiousness repeated by even State governors about Hindi being the national language. All deplorable.
As a Tamil person living in Delhi, I speak Hindi when I go to restaurants and shops here. As a migrant labourer in Delhi, I try to speak the language of the masses here. I go to Chennai and again have to speak in Hindi. The migrant labourers there force me to talk in Hindi as they are no good with the language of the masses there. This is the Hindi hegemony I am against. Screwed both ways - we are. I guess the solution lies somewhere between a high handed #Imposition and a very paranoic #Resistance to Hindi.
