Video Editors: Md Ibrahim and Vivek Gupta
Cameraperson: Sumit Badola
On Saturday, 14 September, Union Home Minister Amit Shah once again appealed to the nation to ‘mind its language.’
Shah’s renewed push for Hindi as the national language, on Hindi Divas encountered fierce resistance online.
The outcry raged on social media with hashtags like #StopHindiImposition, capturing a snapshot of the palpable opposition and anger among Indians.
The Quint, put this hashtag under the scanner to explore what it can tell us about the online resistance to the language proposal. A common criticism was that Shah was breaking the promise of India’s ‘unity in diversity’ fabric enshrined in the Constitution.
“No shah, sultan or samraat can renege on their promise” Kamal Haasan had lashed out in a video opposing the proposal to make Hindi the national language.
However, four days later, on 18 September, Shah said he did not push for Hindi over regional languages. "I have just made the request. I fail to understand what is wrong in that,” the home minister said at an event in Jharkhand.
This new clarification, however, does not appear to have altered the anti-Hindi sentiment.
Not surprisingly, this renewed push has encountered a thorough push back from the southern Indian states. Tamil Nadu, in particular, was not amused at all and used the hashtag nearly 50 thousand times between Saturday and Monday evening.
However, among the usual suspect states a not-so-usual suspect – Delhi NCR region was second, only behind Tamil Nadu, in engaging with the hashtag, using it nearly 25 thousand times in the same 48-hour period.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)