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People Are Pushing Back With #StopHindiChauvinism, As Hindi Appears On Highway Milestones In Tamil Nadu

Stirring up a hornets' nest.
UniversalImagesGroup via Getty Images | @ramkiramasamy / Twitter

Like the early rumblings of a long dormant volcano, Hindi language politics is surfacing once again. And, in keeping with the times, the action now has shifted to the micro-blogging site, Twitter. Echoing protests from decades ago, Twitterati is protesting the Central government's move to impose the language on non-Hindi speaking states.

The hashtag #StopHindiChauvinism which originated in Tamil Nadu, spread like wildfire and has been trending since yesterday.

While, this isn't the first time that the Internet is witnessing the #StopHindiChauvinism campaign, recent reports of highway milestones in Tamil Nadu being repainted to replace English place names by those in Hindi has triggered the movement.

According to a report in The New Indian Express, English signs on highway milestones in Vellore and Krishnagiri have been replaced by Tamil and Hindi milestones by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). This allegedly violates the NHAI's three-language policy for road signage — vernacular of the particular State, Hindi, and English.

The report adds that workers have been erasing English names on milestones on the Chittoor-Vellore National Highway and replacing them with names in Hindi. Adding to the confusion is the shoddy translation job — Gudiyatham, for instance, now reads as Kudhiyatham.

Some also used the hashtag to convey that divisions over the so called imposition of Hindi were being deliberately created.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.