In a recent interview with Tamil Janam news channel, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi alleged that the DMK government has systematically created a hostile environment for linguistic minorities and migrant workers, claiming this extended even to the denial of opportunities for children to learn their mother tongue in schools. His comments came in the context of a broader discussion on what he described as political attempts to project Hindi-speaking communities as a cultural threat to the state.
The Governor was responding to a question about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks during the Bihar election campaign, where he had stated that Biharis were being harassed in Tamil Nadu. Asked whether he had received “concrete evidence” of such harassment, he said he had no desire to “reopen a wound, a healing wound,” but went on to describe what he termed a sustained, politically driven atmosphere of intimidation between 2022 and 2023.
According to Ravi, the climate of hostility began when “senior ministers in the state government… had articulated their anti-Hindi position by speaking migrant laborers using the expression like panipuri selllers – “This is a guy who only bihari or the Hindi speaking guys are only fit for selling panipuri.”
He said that in April 2023, posters appeared across various parts of the state, featuring photographs of a political leader “threatening these Hindi speaking migrant laborers setting the deadline for them to leave Tamil Nadu.” He added, “Some of those posters are still with me… I have seen those posters myself.”
Ravi said these threats triggered “massive exodus” among workers in “labor intensive industries, construction, texile, printing,” which he said “heavily suffered” as a result. He described visiting several districts to meet frightened migrant workers: “I tell the people, don’t worry, people are very nice and hospitable.” He said he raised the issue with police officials, asking, “What is this hate campaign?”
Despite assurances from local officials, he stated that “some of the migrant laborers were assaulted, physically assaulted,” prompting him to issue a public message on May 5 to calm fears. “You don’t have to worry about it. People are so nice here they will not trouble you,” he said, recalling the social media appeal.
The Governor argued that the fear among migrants “was not ill-founded because there were evidence of open threat against them and some of them assaulted.” Industrial operators, he said, told him that their workforce had collapsed: “We are trying to get them back. They are not coming.”
He claimed the state government attempted “damage control” only after the economic impact became evident, maintaining that the climate of hostility had been built up which started from the middle of 2022, and it went on till mid 2023.
Governor Ravi repeatedly emphasised that Tamil Nadu’s people were not responsible. “People love them. People of Tamil Nadu who are very affectionate… know the worth of these migrant laborers.” Instead, he blamed “the perverse politics… projecting them as one those who have come to destroy our culture, our language,” which he said created imaginary fears leading to real consequences.
The remarks were made in a broadcast where Ravi also criticised the DMK government for preventing linguistic minorities from studying their own mother tongues in Tamil Nadu’s schools, linking this with what he described as an ideological push to frame non-Tamil linguistic groups as cultural outsiders.
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