AR Rahman's tweet triggers debate over Hindi remark by Amit Shah

The main opposition in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK on Saturday said people may learn Hindi of their own volition but the imposition of the language is unacceptable. An image posted by Oscar-winning music composer A R Rahman in the Tamil language has meanwhile led to an animated debate on the social media on languages. 

Quoting Dravidian icon, the late C N Annadurai, AIADMK top leader O Panneerselvam said if needed, people willing to learn Hindi may do so voluntarily. However, foisting Hindi on people is never acceptable, the AIADMK coordinator tweeted. The former Chief Minister said his party stood firm in the two language policies of Tamil and English in keeping with the ideology of Annadurai. "#StopHindiImposition," Panneerselvam said.

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Meanwhile, several Twitter users linked Rahman's post appears to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remark on Hindi and subsequent reactions from several quarters. Reacting to Amit Shah's statement on April 7 that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languages, Chief Minister M K Stalin had said that it would wreck the nation's integrity.

The Rahman posted image's caption 'Tamizhanangu' is obviously a pointer to invocation song to mother Tamil. A line, appearing as a footnote to the image, is from a popular poem by celebrated Tamil nationalist poet Barathidasan and it denotes that the Tamil language serves as the root of the rights of the Tamil people. 

An artistic depiction of a white saree clad woman in the centre, against a background of red, is seen as a subtle reference to mother Tamil and opposition to the imposition of Hindi. While a section of social media users lauded Rahman saying he has posted this image with a red background to denote opposition to Hindi and full support for Tamil, there were others who questioned him on the intent behind posting the image. 

A user, replying to the top-notch musician alleged that Rahman built his career, earned money and fame and everything by doing Hindi movies and now started targeting Hindi. On Thursday, Presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in Delhi, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided that the medium of running the government is in the official language and this would definitely increase the importance of Hindi. 

(PTI report)