The ruling DMK has always harboured resentment towards the Hindi language, and whenever given the opportunity, it has made slurs, derogatory remarks, and spread hate not only against the language but also against Hindi-speaking people of North India. Likewise, this time, DMK General Secretary and Minister for Water Resources, Duraimurugan, expressed his hostility towards Hindi-speaking people during a DMK public meeting in Chennai East District, Thiru. V.K. Nagar North Area, on 11 March, while celebrating Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s birthday.
He called the Hindi language as “peeda”, a Tamil slur word which means bad omen. Duraimurugan, stated that learning Hindi would bring dosham(inauspiciousness), theetu (impurity), and misfortune. “From that time on, we have been opposing it. If we say we are opposing, it is not the language itself that we oppose. In our community, there are people who learn multiple languages—multilingual poets. However, if you study this particular language, you will face Dosham (inauspiciousness), Theetu(impurity), and misfortune. If you study English, you will go up (progress), but if you study Hindi, you will go down (decline).”
He further said, “No matter how much you learn Hindi, you cannot speak like them. Even though I know to speak Telugu, I cannot speak like them (Telugu people). We can speak, but we cannot speak like them. Likewise, what I said in the beginning, the abolition of Hindi means… Keep one thing in mind… Consider a man who is at home with his wife and having children and has brought a saraku (a courtesan or a second wife), do you understand the implication? Say, he has brought a second wife then they (the first wife) will lose her privilege and the second wife will be given preference. Likewise, what did he do? He tried to impose on us and we said no.“
Then he claimed that North Indians call us barbarians. He said, “He says we are barbarians. North Indians dare to call us barbarians! We are at the pinnacle of civilization. We were the ones who wove clothes from rat hair and sent them to Greece, Persia, and the Far East. Our kings crossed the seas and raised our flag as far as Vietnam. We are the ones who studied Agam and Puram, who delved into Kalingathuparani and Tolkappiyam, the scholars of literature, the creators of civilization, the practitioners of hygiene. And yet, a minister looks at us and calls us barbarians? Hey, you are nothing but a person who doesn’t even bathe—nothing more! You don’t bathe.“
To substantiate his point and mock North Indians, Duraimurugan, the General Secretary of the DMK, shared a story. He recounted that a man once tied a bull and announced that anyone who touched it would receive 1,000 rupees. A few people attempted but stopped halfway, saying they couldn’t do the task and turned back. “Then, a North Indian was asked to do the same—go, touch the bull, and return. As he approached the bull, however, the bull suddenly pulled away and ran off. The reason? The bull itself had wounds and was reeking, and our men (Tamils), unable to tolerate the smell, backed away. But in a twist, the bull fled—not because of its own stench, but because it couldn’t bear the stench of the North Indian!”, he said.
Even he goes on to ridicule North Indians, equating them to pigs and piglets for having many children, exercising his individual right. However, the DMK minister and general secretary, whose party advocates for individual rights, mocks them by saying, “Our guy says ‘we two, ours one,’ but he (North Indians) has produced (kids) like pigs there.“
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