There was no space for Hindi in the past, nor is there now, and there never will be, DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Sunday, on the occasion of Language Martyrs Day.
In a social media post, Mr. Stalin said no more lives would be lost over the language struggle. “The Tamil sentiment among us will never die. Let us continue to oppose the imposition of Hindi,” he said.
Hailing Tamil Nadu as the only State in the country that loved its language with its life, Mr. Stalin recalled how the State had come together to oppose the imposition of Hindi with full vigour on every occasion. The State had protected the right and identity of all language families in the Indian subcontinent, he added.
He paid tribute to the language martyrs who laid down their lives fighting against the imposition of Hindi and in defence of Tamil.
Later in the day, Mr. Stalin unveiled the busts of Thalamuthu and Natarasan, who were the collective face of the anti-Hindi protests of the 1930s in the then Madras Presidency. The busts have been installed at the government building — also named after these activists — in Egmore in Chennai.
