On March 3, 1918, after attending a convention of Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Indore, Mahatma Gandhi issued an appeal for six Tamil and Telugu youths to come forward and learn Hindi and propagate the language in the Madras Presidency. “I trust that you agree with the Sammelan that Hindi and Hindi alone, whether in Sanskrit form or as Urdu, can become the language of intercourse between the different provinces... If we are to realise the Swaraj ideal, we must find a common language that can be easily learnt and that can be understood by the vast masses. It has always been Hindi or Urdu and is so even now as I can say from personal experience, I have faith enough in the patriotism, selflessness and the sagacity of the people of the Madras Presidency to know that those who at all want to render national service or to come in touch with the other Provinces, will undergo the sacrifice, if it is one, of learning Hindi,” Gandhi said.
This appeal eventually led to the formation of the Chennai-headquartered Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS), which has turned 115 years old this month. Although DBHPS was formally created as a society in 1927, the organisation considers June 17, 1918 — when the first Hindi classes started in Madras — as its founding day.
Pracharaks trained
Gandhi’s 18-year-old son Devadas Gandhi was the first to conduct the Hindi classes here. Within a year, the classes gained traction and pracharaks were trained and sent out to Kumbakonam, Salem, Tiruchi and Machilipatnam. In a letter of Devadas published in The Hindu on August 23, 1919, he said there were invitations for pracharaks in Mangalore and Guntur as well.
As the classes expanded, there were apprehensions as well. In the same letter, Devadas tried to address these concerns by saying, “It must be clearly understood that it is not the purpose of the movement to replace the great languages of the South.” Such assurances had to be periodically given by many Congress leaders, including Gandhi, who at that time strongly felt the need for a “national” language to bring about unity. Heeding Gandhi’s call, many Congressmen lent support to the teaching of Hindi. One of them was, interestingly, rationalist leader Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, who later quit the Congress and became a staunch opponent of Hindi imposition. According to its history published by the Sabha during its centenary year in 2018, Periyar gave a building he owned in Erode for running one of the first schools for training Hindi pracharaks in 1922.
In 1927, when DBHPS was formed to manage its expanding operations, which included a printing press and departments to formulate curriculum and textbooks, conduct examinations and publish a magazine, Gandhi became its first president. He remained so until his death in January 1948. Although the Sabha was growing with hundreds of pracharaks, its reach in the present-day Tamil Nadu did not seem satisfactory in that period. The secretary of the DBHPS in 1931 announced special incentives for those from Tamil Nadu wanting to learn Hindi or become a pracharak. “Tamil Nadu has been lagging behind the other provinces — namely, Andhra, Kerala and Karnataka — in regard to the number of people who have taken to the study of Hindi,” he said.
The Sabha moved to its present location at T. Nagar in 1936 on a piece of land given by the Madras Corporation. Jawaharlal Nehru, who inaugurated the building, stressed that the learning of one’s mother tongue need not be subordinated to Hindi, which, he added, was the common language that would unify the nation.
Presiding over the convocation at DBHPS in March 1937, Gandhi said, “...those who recognise the place of Hindi as the national language will take to its study with enthusiasm and earnestness...,” while reiterating that “Hindi cannot take the place of different provincial languages, nor is that the aim of Hindi prachar”.
Later that year, C. Rajagopalachari, who became the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, made Hindi compulsory in schools. The decision led to the first major movement against Hindi imposition. In October 1937, Rajaji’s address at DBHPS, after he laid the foundation for a new building, was interrupted by continuous questioning by some members of the audience opposed to his views. He replied that as an ardent lover of Tamil, he felt convinced that it would not suffer because of the compulsory study of Hindi. His order for compulsory study of Hindi was revoked after the Congress government resigned in 1939.
In 1946, Gandhi participated in the Sabha’s silver jubilee celebrations and stayed on the campus for 10 days. The building where he stayed is one of the Gandhian heritage sites in the country. He said that though the Sabha had made significant progress, its efforts were only a drop in the ocean, considering what remained to be achieved. He appealed to everyone to learn Hindustani, a nomenclature he preferred to Hindi at that time.
Parliament passes Act
The agitations against Hindi imposition, which intensified again in the mid-1960s, caused some difficulties for the Sabha. In 1964, Parliament passed the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha Act, according it the status of an institution of national importance. The Act prevented the Sabha from being amalgamated or dissolved without the permission of the Union government. There was an attack on the premises in December 1967. In January next, it issued an appeal not to treat it as an alien institution but one that is south Indian in its composition and functioning.
G. Selvarajan, general secretary, DBHPS, said the Act was enacted in a way to protect the institution against the backdrop of the intensifying anti-Hindi agitations. In December 1986 and February 1993, there were two minor explosions on the premises. The responsibility for the second blast was claimed by one ‘Tamizhaga Elaignar Ezhuchi Maiyam’, which warned of more such attacks.
P.N. Ramkumar, a senior manager, who has been with the Sabha since 1986, recalls that all the male employees were asked to stay on the premises for a few days after the 1993 incident to keep vigil. “Anonymous threat letters used to be a regular affair once. It does not happen any more,” he said.
Citing the statistics collected by DBHPS during its centenary celebrations, Mr. Selvarajan said there are around 20,000 registered pracharaks in the five southern States and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep. Roughly eight lakh persons take the Hindi exams, from Prathmic to Praveen. The Sabha also runs eight schools, four postgraduate centres, 31 Hindi teacher training colleges, (a majority of them are located outside Tamil Nadu), a law college at Koppal and an Ayurvedic medical college and a homoeopathic medical college in Dharwad.
This uniquely placed, historically important organisation has survived more than a century by trying to stay relevant. It is looking with uncertainty the changes that are likely from the National Education Policy, which placed importance on interdisciplinary institutions, and the gradual decline of government funding.
