Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan stated that the Hindi language was a ‘little child in diapers’ compared to older languages such as Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit. The ongoing debate and opposed Hindi imposition across the nation, mostly South, is bringing in more controversies.
Kamal quoted at a college event, ‘Among the family of languages, the youngest one is Hindi. We will have to take care of Hindi because it is our child too. Compared to Tamil, Sanskrit and Telugu, it is still the youngest language.’ He later clarified his opinion that he has compassion and kindness towards the Hindi language, but it should not be imposed or forced on others, especially on non-Hindi speakers. ‘Don’t stuff it down our throats,’ he said.
Simultaneously, the same day, MK Stalin has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make Tamil an official language of the country. He raised the request after PM spoke on how he took the responsibility of preaching people outside the country that Tamil was ‘one of the ancient languages’.
Kamal’s statement caused outrage among a few netizens that he insulted Hindi and showed his anti-Hindi imposition stance in the wrong way. While a few others went on to support his leader. The statement has now stirred controversy, leading to many counter-productive statements from Hindi-speaking countries.
