India, a country of 1.3 billion people, has 22 official languages. Its most-spoken language (Hindi) is sometimes mistaken as the national language.
But it's not. India has no "national language" though Hindi has become the unofficial leader of the pack. And that is a problem.
People hailing from India's four southern states are ranting about the imposition of Hindi in their lives. They say that a uniform language isn't a requirement for a unified nation.
The #StopHindiChauvinism hashtag has exploded on Twitter.
Interestingly, one of the southern states — Tamil Nadu — is home to Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai, who on a recent visit to the country had spoken about his problems with Hindi during college days.
Hindi is the most-spoken Indian language in the U.S. Hindi is also the language of the world's biggest film industry, Bollywood.
While the Hindi supremacy is likely to stay, for now, angry South Indians have their say.
Here are some tweets.
Hindi is an indo-European lang..Dravidian lang are native to India ..stop imposing a foreign lang on my doorstep #StopHindiChauvinism
— Nirmal Raj (@nirins4u) April 5, 2017
Dear Southies kudos to you for stopping the Hindi onslaught. Love from - A Bihari who lost his language i.e. Bhojpuri. #StopHindiChauvinism
— Rogue Academic (@rogueacademic88) April 3, 2017
It is not about North India vs South India, it is Hindi Imposing Hindi Chauvinists vs Free People. #StopHindiChauvinism
— Voice of South (@South_Indians) April 5, 2017
Depriving servcs in ur lang& arguing Hindi wud serve d purpose fr all is d biggest bigotry statemnt one has come across #StopHindiChauvinism
— Ramachandra M (@nanuramu) April 5, 2017
I'm a born telugu.
With my own interest, I lernt Hindi, English n Tamil.
Any north guy learnt telugu with own interest?#StopHindiChauvinism— OnlyTFI™|SPYder (@OnlyTFI) April 3, 2017
if Northies dont have the ability to learn English, they should try harder. Not bring others down to their level #StopHindiChauvinism
— இரா.தீபக் (@rdeepakk) April 3, 2017
How will U manage in NorthIndia without learning Hindi?
Just like U manage in SouthIndia without learning our language#StopHindiChauvinism— புலி Arαşαη (@PuliArason) April 3, 2017
#StopHindiChauvinism Being an Odia , I am against unnecessary imposing of Hindi. It ruins our mother tongue when people speak mixed language
— A ଆନନ୍ଦ (@ACrazy_boy) April 3, 2017
#StopHindiChauvinism No more Hindi invasion,we are sufficient with our mother tongue and English.End the three language policy
— Krantikara (@Krantikara) April 3, 2017
We hope peace prevails soon.