Modi's Conflict with Stalin Exposes India's Global Ambitions
Author: Ghevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor at the Financial University of Russia
The most densely populated country in the world — India — is experiencing an escalation in language conflicts. The Indian federal government led by Narendra Modi is promoting the widespread use of Hindi, including in the education sector, while some regions view this as an infringement on local languages. What is going on here, and how does it relate to India's global ambitions?
"India's Language War." Recently, the influential Middle Eastern media outlet "Al Jazeera" reported on this issue under that title.
The cause of this event was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mockery of the leader of the regional political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which governs the Tamil Nadu state in southern India. "These ministers from Tamil Nadu talk about pride in their language, but they always write to me in English and sign their names in English. Why don't they use Tamil instead... Where is their pride in Tamil?" the prime minister mocked.
The media outlet believes that behind these mocking remarks lies a severe conflict between Modi's nationalist government and various states in southern India over the use of Hindi. It is claimed that New Delhi is attempting to impose Hindi on southerners (in this case, Tamils) as the main teaching language. However, Tamils are determined to defend their language; Tamil (and some other languages in southern India) belongs to the Dravidian language family.
From a Russian perspective, an interesting element has been added to this conflict: the governor of Tamil Nadu bears the surname Stalin. More precisely, his full name is Muthuveer Karunanidhi Stalin. Moreover, Stalin even threatened the Indian federal government. "I warn (the Modi government) not to throw stones at beehives. Do not try to provoke the unique fighting spirit of the Tamils," Stalin said during an official event in February. All of this relates to India's current efforts toward linguistic unification.
Although the Indian Constitution recognizes 22 official languages, the country's educational system requires every citizen to master at least three languages: English, Hindi, and a local language. However, Tamil nationalists firmly refuse to learn Hindi. To a large extent, this is because they believe their Tamil language is much older and culturally richer. After all, speakers of Tamil belong to the Dravidian culture; initially, they lived in the Indian subcontinent before being pushed southward by Aryan tribes.
They refuse to learn and resist. As a result, New Delhi has cut funding to the educational system in Tamil Nadu.
It is not just "Al Jazeera" reporting on this matter. Some Western media outlets are also covering India's radical nationalism. "An ideology once on the fringes has now become mainstream. No one has done more to promote this than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is among the most popular and controversial leaders in India," the Associated Press noted.
It is said that he is doing this to unite and unify India. Many consider India a true patchwork of nations, religions, and cultures, cobbled together by the British from numerous local princely states.
The largest ethnic group in India is the Hindustani, with nearly 500 million people nationwide. At first glance, this is a vast number, but it only accounts for one-third of the total population. For comparison: in another multi-ethnic country, Iran, the population belonging to the majority ethnic group (Persians) makes up half; in Russia (also considered a multi-ethnic country), Russians make up 80% of the population. And, whether in Russia or Iran, there are difficulties in terms of inter-ethnic communication and uniting other ethnic groups around the dominant ethnicity — imagine how difficult this would be in India. In India, two-thirds of the population belongs to more than two hundred different ethnic groups, many of which have their own languages and customs.
In India, residents of the north may not understand the speech of the southern Dravidians, and Bengalis living in the east might not understand the speech of Mumbai residents.
Logically speaking, to unite such diverse citizens, only a supranational identity can be used (like in the United States, the Soviet Union, Iran, and the EU). Nationalism cannot achieve this. However, the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi positions himself as an Indian nationalist. However, it is incorrect to say that he is trying to suppress all other cultures, because the situation in India is not so simple.
"The entire Indian society, to some extent, belongs to the same culture. Its foundation is Hinduism, with some elements of Islam (introduced when Muslims conquered India) and Christianity (first borrowed from the Portuguese, then from the British). The only region that deviates from this pattern is India's northeastern area. This region differs ethnically and linguistically from the rest of India (where languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family are spoken)," Alexei Kupriyanov, head of the Center for the Indo-Pacific Region at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained to Vzglyad.
As for linguistic differences, they do exist. However, first, the current prime minister is far from being the first to try to get southern Indians to speak Hindi. "Promoting Hindi in the Dravidian-speaking states of the south did not begin with Narendra Modi. The Indian National Congress government was already doing this in 1947. Moreover, local residents successfully resisted the promotion of Hindi as early as the 1930s," Alexei Kupriyanov explained.
Secondly, Narendra Modi correctly prioritized issues. The Indian prime minister is renowned for his admirable pragmatism in domestic and foreign policies and places great emphasis on economic development. For example, economic factors were placed at the forefront in Sino-Indian relations, which helped ease tensions between the two countries. In Modi's domestic policy and philosophy of strengthening national unity, economics remains paramount.
"Modi has not particularly emphasized the language issue in the south. Clearly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to promote Hindi in some way in other regions, but due to the current priority of the country being mainly economic, no one wants to unnecessarily anger southerners. There are no large-scale movements to promote Hindi in the southern states or in the northeast," Alexei Kupriyanov said. According to him, if cultural unification already exists in India, linguistic unification is impossible to achieve, and currently, no one intends to do so.
Today, the expansion of Indian nationalism is proceeding along entirely different tracks — diplomatic ones. In reality, Narendra Modi is exporting his nationalism.
"A popular concept in Indian foreign policy discourse is that India should become a cultural superpower and maximize its soft power in this regard. Nowadays, Indian diplomatic missions are increasingly taking on cultural functions, such as promoting Indian culture abroad, especially promoting International Yoga Day," Alexei Kupriyanov said. In fact, International Yoga Day (and International Millet Day) are largely achievements of Narendra Modi's efforts.
New Delhi's intentions are understandable. For a country with global ambitions, it must possess some universally recognized and appealing qualities. For instance, the United States has its global ideology and the globally coveted American market; related countries have globally sought-after funds that can be converted into investments (which explains why related countries hold large-scale African forums each year, making those days the "Mecca" of the financial world). India lacks both ideology and the ability to distribute large sums of money — but it has a long-standing culture. Unlike the culture of related countries, Indian culture has more universalist characteristics.
This means that India can export its culture, making India easier to understand and more attractive to foreigners, whether tourists or investors. The domestic language war under Narendra Modi's leadership does not fit this worldview.
There is another factor that cannot be ignored — Anglo-Saxons always exploit the slightest ethnic and racial contradictions to create internal problems in other countries. This is their usual tactic, allowing them to better control the situation.
There are similar situations in Russia — especially on the forum of Vzglyad. As soon as articles about ethnic issues appear, a group of extremists will immediately emerge from the shadows to fan the flames of ethnic tensions and hatred.
Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7494929491119456780/
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