AR Rahman Shares Post On 'Beloved Tamil' Amid Row Over Amit Shah's Hindi Remark

Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman on April 8 posted about “Beloved Tamil” on his social media accounts. The musician shared an illustration of “Thamizhanangu” or “Goddess Tamil”, a word from Tamil Thai Vaazhthu or the Tamil national anthem which was penned by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai and composed by MS Vishwanathan.

Rahman’s post came amidst strong reactions from Tamil political parties to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that people of different states should communicate with each other in Hindi and English.

AR Rahman Beloved Tamil Post

The illustration that Rahman shared on his social media had a line written by a modern Tamil poet of the 20^th Century Bharathidasan from his Thamiliyakkam, a book of Tamil poems that read, “Beloved Tamil is the root of our existence.” He shared the illustration on all his social media accounts including Twitter.

Amit Shah's Statement

“Now the time has come to make the Official Language an important part of the unity of the country. When citizens of States who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah was quoted saying by the Ministry of Home Affairs at the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee.

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The statement from Shah drew ire from many leaders from Tamil Nadu, including the state’s Chief Minister MK Stalin. The CM said that the BJP government was constantly trying to destroy India’s pluralistic identity. He also said that the Minister’s statement was destroying India’s unity.

“Does Amit Shah think that ‘Hindi state’ is enough and Indian states are not needed,” Stalin tweeted and later also wrote, “You are making the same mistake again and again However, you will not succeed!”

The music composer has not commented on the language debate for the first time. In 2019, when the government was planning to make the three-language policy mandatory for all states, Rahman wrote, “AUTONOMOUS | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary,” with a link to the word’s meaning in the dictionary. His tweet triggered a popular hashtag, ‘#autonomousTamilNadu’.

He had also tweeted, “Good decision. Hindi is not compulsory in Tamil Nadu. The draft has been corrected,” praising Tamil Nadu’s two-language policy.