Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan does not seem to have understood that he is standing in the shoes of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad who, according to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, made the most significant contribution to Nehru’s The Discovery of India, whose running theme is our millennial civilisation’s unique ability to forge unity out of diversity.
Pradhan, of course, belongs to the Savarkar-Golwalkar-Modi school that seeks unity through uniformity. Hence, the first draft of the National Education Policy (NEP) that sought to compulsorily impose Hindi on all States receiving funds for education through the “Samagra Shiksha” route. Thanks, in large measure, to Tamil Nadu’s steadfast refusal to move from a two-language policy (Tamil and English) to a “three-language” formula, that malignant Hindutva intention was thwarted but as Pradhan’s recent indiscretions reveal, not rejected in the Hindutva mindset.
Hence, Pradhan’s statement at—of all places—the Kashi Tamil Sangamam, which has set the cat among the pigeons, was preceded by Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that “secessionists” in the south are endangering national unity. The so-called “secessionists” Amit Shah has indicted are almost all Tamilians and all the Tamil Nadu parties, bar the minuscule BJP. Sinking their bitter internecine differences, these parties have come together on the Hindi issue. Now, a war of letters has broken out between Fort St. George (the seat of the Tamil Nadu State government) and the Union government, with Pradhan showing little awareness that it is the BJP’s insensitivities that are threatening the nation’s integrity.
Pradhan does not appear to appreciate that Hindi is the regional mother tongue of a part of the country. Converting that regional mother tongue into the national tongue is both to distort our nationhood in favour of those who learn Hindi as their mother tongue and to discriminate against those who learn Tamil or other Dravidian languages as their first language. Such discrimination might have been elided were one of the four Dravidian languages—Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam—made the third language of education in Hindi-speaking states. But in actual practice, the northern states of the Yamuna-Gangetic plain have got around this by resorting to Sanskrit as the third language when Sanskrit is not the root language of the Dravidian tongues.
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English is not the mother tongue of any significant group of Indians. So, almost all of us have to learn it. This provides a level playing field for all Indians but in practice, South Indians of all hues lead the North in what has been called the “global link language”. It accounts for the South’s pre-eminence in information technology (think Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, let alone Silicon Valley). As the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Saravanan Annadurai has said, “Tamil Nadu students are educated enough to migrate globally without needing Hindi.” It also accounts for the South’s pre-eminence in modern manufacturing, with Tamil Nadu alone contributing “9 per cent of India’s GDP” (according to Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu). Tamil Nadu’s two-language formula has neither stood in the way of its spectacular economic and educational progress— “maximum gross enrollment ratio” (as per Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin)— nor the contribution that Tamil Nadu’s “top doctors and scientists educated in Tamil medium government schools” (also Udhayanidhi) are making on the global stage.
Punishing virtue, rewarding vice
It is particularly insensitive of Pradhan to challenge the two-language policy in education on the very eve of the coming countrywide census scheduled for 2026. For, if we persist with an unmodified version of “one person-one vote” democracy, the South is likely to be severely punished by the census with the loss of numerous seats in Parliament (for its virtues!) while the North is endowed with hugely increased political clout (for its vices!) How fair is that?
But first, what are the virtues and vices I am writing about? Let us begin with fertility rates. Tamil Nadu was the first and most successful State to confront and overcome the Malthusian horror that was bruited about during the 1950s and 1960s. Under the Congress’ K. Kamaraj and then under successive Dravidian party Chief Ministers, Tamil Nadu has brought down fertility rates to the current level of 1.4. Other southern States have followed suit.
“Late Lateef” northern States, on the other hand, are still well above the replacement rate of 2.1. So, should the South be punished by loss of relative voting strength in Parliament because it has hugely benefited the nation by showing the way to controlling population growth? Also, the South has done so well in economic growth that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Chief Economic Advisor (no less) has suggested that the South should compare itself to the developed economies instead of highlighting its outstanding performance relative to the dismal picture in States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar!
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, speaking at a conference in Cuddalore district on February 22, 2025. In response to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan exhorting Tamil Nadu to learn to respect the Constitution, Stalin shot back: “Which article of the Constitution is he referring to?”
| Photo Credit:
KUMAR SS
As it is, where Tamil Nadu gets 60 paise from the Union government for every 100 paise (Re.1) it contributes to national revenues, Bihar receives about 360 paise for every 100 paise it generates to the national kitty. Yet, the Union Finance minister presents a “Budget for Bihar” with “nothing” being given to Tamil Nadu by way of any State-specific scheme (Thennarasu). See what I mean by punishing virtue and rewarding vice?
The Justice Sarkaria report stated that India had stabilised Centre-State relations thanks largely to the “flexibility” in its Constitution, in contrast to the “rigidity” of the US Constitution which, within “four score and twenty years” of its adoption, led to the American Civil War (1861-65), pitting North vs South in the bloodiest war in human history (until that grim figure was overtaken in the two World Wars of the 20th century). Instead of relying on the genius of our inbuilt constitutional flexibility, the Union Education Minister lectures Tamil Nadu on learning to respect the Constitution. As Chief Minister M.K. Stalin shot back: “Which article of the Constitution is he referring to?”
Far worse than Pradhan’s ignorance of constitutional provisions is his threat to Tamil Nadu that the Union government will continue withholding Rs.2,152 crore of Samagra Shiksha funding if the State continues to refuse the three-language formula embedded in the NEP. Quite correctly, Stalin calls this “brash blackmail” and warns that “Tamizhar will not accept such arm-twisting”, adding “if such arrogance continues, Delhi will have to face “Tamils’ unique nature”. Nearly 40 lakh students and 32,000 staff in Tamil Nadu have been suffering due the Centre’s “blatant coercion”, as per The Hindu’s editorial on February 19.
Moreover, as Stalin has pointedly reminded Pradhan, the inclusion of education in the Concurrent List does not give the Union the right to ride roughshod over State policies that relate not only narrowly to education but impinge on broader questions of State pride, Tamil identity and self-respect, and Tamil Nadu’s outstanding linguistic-cultural heritage. Why should “classical Tamil”, that enjoys with Sanskrit the highest recognition in the Constitution as a classical language, be subordinated to the narrow, chauvinistic, xenophobic Hindutva political creed of prioritising “One Nation, One Language” over celebrating the rich diversity of Indian languages and dialects?
Consensus, not coercion
Pradhan, as Union Education Minister, needs to be educated in recent Tamil history. It was Rajaji’s (as C.R. Rajagopalachari was popularly known) relentless pursuit of Hindi through the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha that led to his political marginalisation. His pre-eminent place in Tamil Nadu’s polity was challenged by E.V. Ramasamy Periyar’s march from Tiruchi to Chennai in the late 1930s which first undermined this great national freedom fighter’s political standing in his home province. The immediate beneficiary was Kamaraj, but even he was defeated by a 27-year-old student in the 1967 Assembly election. That election sparked the replacement of the Congress by the Dravidian parties in the Tamil Nadu government that has already lasted 68 years.
This dramatic overthrow of the old order was largely fuelled by the anti-Hindi agitation that broke out in 1965, which marked the end of the 15-year period the Constitution had originally bequeathed to English with the intent of then replacing English by Hindi in our administration and as a link language. Indira Gandhi rushed to Madras (now Chennai) and succeeded in quelling Tamil outrage by forging the compromise that Tamil Nadu could continue its two-language formula while other States took what course they wanted. Her heroic endeavours were rewarded when the then united DMK in the critical 1971 election propagated Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi’s famous slogan: “Nehruvin magal varuga/Nilayaana aatchi tharuga” (Welcome to Nehru’s daughter/Who will give us a stable government hereafter).
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It is that delicate balance that has preserved the emotional integrity of the nation. Fifty years later, Pradhan and his saffron cohort are bringing India that is Bharat to its 1860 moment. Or, bearing in my mind the Pakistani example nearer our time and nearer home, perhaps, more germanely, our 1970 moment. Defying Justice Sarkaria, a rigid and false interpretation is being given to the Constitution. The NEP is being grossly misused through bluster and bullying to cow down a State government that in this matter has the full backing of almost all Tamilians and certainly all State parties (except, of course, the BJP). The NEP’s three-language formula must be delinked from Central funds for education. Other vital matters of discord, such as the Centre’s refusal to release funds sought from the National Disaster Relief Fund, are also crying out for a non-partisan response.
Most important of all, the Narendra Modi government must open inter-State consultations to reach a consensus on how the outcome of the 2026 Census is to be handled in a way that does not punish virtue and reward vice. Pradhan is a bit player in this vital national game. The responsibility for keeping the nation together rests with the Prime Minister.
Writer and three-time MP Mani Shankar Aiyar served 26 years in the Indian Foreign Service and was a Cabinet Minister from 2004 to 2009. He has published nine books, the latest, A Maverick in Politics, the second part of his memoir.
