How Do Indians Feel About Hindi Being Imposed on Them?

Home Minister Amit Shah said that India should have one unifying language and that was Hindi.

On 14 September, on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Home Minister Amit Shah called for Hindi becoming India’s raj bhasha or national language.

(Image: Altered by The Quint)

“Do not make an inclusive India an exclusive one. All will suffer because of such short-sighted folly.”

Kamal Haasan, Actor-turned-politician

On 14 September, on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Home Minister Amit Shah called for Hindi becoming India's raj bhasha or national language.

Some have called this a much-needed push for Hindi, while others called it ‘Hindi imposition’ in a multilingual country. We’ll hear, today, from the Centre, Opposition leaders, as well as language experts.

Who’s opposed to the move? Well, Opposition leaders and people from states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal and, most surprisingly, Delhi-NCR!

Soon after Shah made his “Hindi language is best language” statement, #StopHindiImposition began trending on Twitter.

How trendy are we talking about? Well in about 48 hours #StopHindiImposition had a reach of 482 million… or 48.2 crore people. Listen to the podcast for the rest of the story.