From terming Hindi ‘chutney on the leaf’ to becoming its strong opponent

In 1937, C. Rajagopalachari, as the head of the Madras Government, proposed to introduce mandatory learning of Hindustani in Classes VI to VIII. A landmark public meeting “Even if everybody gives up this fight, I am not going to give up this battle,” Rajaji said amid cheers in an hour-long speech on December 22, 1967, at a public meeting held in Madras, according to a report published in The Hindu. The Congressman-turned-Swatantra Party leader strongly believed that Hindi could not conquer the Tamil people with the help of the majority of votes in Parliament and “a few disturbances here and there”. According to The Hindu archives, Rajaji felt that students in Madras were continuing their agitation against Hindi imposition in December 1967 even after a Minister had appealed to them to stop it, since they probably felt “the elders were not fighting it properly”. A report of the news agency, United News of India, published in the January 30, 1968 edition of The Hindu, said he felt that the Madras government, in its resolution on the language adopted by the Assembly, should have demanded the continuance of English as the sole official language of the Indian Union and as the link language among the States.