PMK Founder Dr. Ramadoss in a statement said: ‘While we have been stressing the importance of promoting our mother tongue Tamil on International Mother Language Day for the past 26 years, it is unfortunate that the Tamil Nadu government has not taken any steps to make Tamil a compulsory subject and medium of instruction.
It is a futile exercise to celebrate this day if we do not help Tamil grow, the PMK said. Even before International Mother Language Day, the PMK had been demanding that the Tamil Nadu government make Tamil a compulsory medium of instruction and subject in the state.
Since the day the International Mother Language Day was observed, I have demanded every year that Tamil should be the medium of instruction and a compulsory subject. On this day in 2023, I inaugurated an 8-day awareness campaign near the Tamil Annai statue to press for these demands. But the Tamil Nadu government has not responded to them. Mother tongues are the medium of instruction in schools and colleges all over the world. Tamil Nadu must follow this standard for our language.
A Long-Standing Struggle
But Tamil Nadu is the only state where you can graduate without having studied Tamil or learnt Tamil. What is the DMK government doing about it?
25 years ago, in April 1999, 102 Tamil scholars began a hunger strike demanding that Tamil should be made a compulsory medium of instruction. The Tamil Nadu government agreed to make Tamil the medium of instruction up to the 8th standard and issued a government order to make it compulsory up to the 5th standard.
But a few months later, the High Court ruled that the government order was void. The Tamil Nadu government then moved the Supreme Court in 2000. The case is now 25 years old, and the state government has neither initiated a trial nor passed a new law to compel Tamil as the medium of instruction.
Political and legal battle for Tamil as medium of instruction began with the declaration of International Mother Language Day. More than 25 years after, Tamil is yet to find its rightful place. Through my continuous efforts, in 2006, the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi brought in the legislation to make Tamil a compulsory subject up to 10th standard.
The guidelines said Tamil should become a compulsory subject in Class 10 public examinations from the academic year 2015-16. But this has not been done. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court, and the Tamil Nadu government has not taken any steps to expedite hearing and make Tamil a compulsory subject.
While the Tamil Nadu government and political parties are rightly resisting the trilingual policy, it is equally—if not more—justified and important to make Tamil a compulsory subject and the main medium of instruction in the state.
He said the Tamil Nadu government should use its existing power to introduce Tamil as both the medium of instruction and as a compulsory subject. Opposition to the trilingual policy without action would be opportunistic politics and a betrayal of Tamil.
So the Tamil Nadu government must take up the pending Tamil language cases in the Supreme Court and make Tamil a compulsory subject and medium of instruction in all schools across the state, he said.
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