Hindi is not the national language; Tamil oldest language in the world: Sonu Nigam

Singer Sonu Nigam has come out against imposition of Hindi as the “national language” in the country. The Padma Shree awardee said that Hindi cannot be imposed over non-Hindi speaking people as the it has not been mentioned as a “national language in the Constitution.”

Nigam’s comments come in the wake of the controversy following a Twitter exchange between Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn and Kannada actor Sudeep Sanjeev last week.

Also read: Sudeep-Devgn row lays bare language limitations, darker side of social media

“As per my knowledge, Hindi is not written as a national language in the Constitution of India. I have consulted experts regarding this also. Hindi is the most spoken language in the country, I understand that. Having said that are we aware that Tamil is world’s oldest language? There is a debate between Sanskrit and Tamil. People say Tamil is the oldest language in the entire world,” NDTV quoted Nigam.

‘Why a Tamilian should speak Hindi?’

During an interaction with Sushant Mehta, the Founder and CEO of BEAST Studios, the singer said, “We are creating disharmony in the country by imposing a language on others, saying you are a Tamilian, you should speak Hindi. Why would they? People should have the right to decide the language they want to speak.”

“Chodo yaar (Leave all this)…A Punjabi should speak Punjabi, a Tamil should speak Tamil. If they are comfortable in English, they will speak in that language,” Nigam, who has sung songs in over 32 languages, said to a loud applause, NDTV report said.

“Even in our courts, the judgments are in English. The flight attendants also prefer the language,” the Padma awardee said while sharing an incident during a flight where the cabin crew member kept speaking in English despite his reply in Hindi.

Heated debate

The heated debate over Hindi as a national language rose anew when Union home minister Amit Shah last month said that people of different states should communicate with each other in Hindi, and not English. The statement was criticised by several south leaders who had warned that any attempt to impose Hindi would backfire. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan and Telangana minister K T Rama Rao were among the leaders who spoke out against Shah’s remarks.

The debate heated up last week following a heated exchange between Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn and Kannada actor Sudeep Sanjeev. While Sudeep pointed out that Hindi was not our national language, Devgn questioned why movies in south Indian languages were dubbed in Hindi. The exchange sparked a debate on social media, with politicians joining in too. Devgn, a section of Karnataka leaders alleged, had “blabbered as a BJP mouthpiece”.

Also read: Karnataka politicos rally behind actor who questioned Hindi’s status as national language