Changing demographics of Tamil Nadu: why are more and more people speaking Hindi in TN?

Shweta Narayan, an environmental activist, from Bihar, living in Chennai, said something that shows how Chennai has changed in recent years, both in character and composition. "When I first came here in 2003, I didn't know Tamil and that was a big problem, since people would basically not speak anything else. Even when I went to the beach in the evenings I would hear Tamil all around me, and the older people I met used to discuss news in the US, since their children had gone to study there."

A few years later, she got the shock of her life one day when travelling in an auto-rickshaw. "I was trying to speak to the driver in Tamil (she'd learnt since then), and he kept replying in Hindi." And to complete the picture, she says that when she goes to the beach now, she can hear more people speaking in Hindi than in Tamil.

As stories go, this is a random observation. But in another sense, it is deeply illustrative. Put simply, there are two trends at play here, and they could come to define Tamil Nadu for many years to come — Tamils going out and seeking better jobs for themselves and the flow of labour coming in from other states.

Expat Tamils
Apparently, Tamil Nadu has now overtaken Kerala as the state that sends the most number of workers overseas, both to the Middle East and to places like Malaysia. No systematic study has been done but there are indicators. Professor S Irudaya Rajan of the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the country's foremost experts on migration, estimates that there at least 2 – 3 million Tamils living out of the country. The state is now second only to Kerala in terms of remittances received from abroad.

"Because they are moving to other parts of the world, there is going to be a scarcity of labour in Tamil Nadu. For instance, in some time, you'll find that there won't be electricians or welders who are local guys. You'll find that these are people coming in from the less prosperous districts of states like Orissa or West Bengal."

In Chennai, such changes are already evident. You need only look around to notice that most of the people who work in restaurants, beauty parlours or even the city's numerous construction sites are from out of town — from the Northeast or states like Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal.

Tamil Nadu is also witnessing a period of unprecedented economic growth, that's not confined to Chennai. A major concern, Rajan says, is falling fertility rates. As a state, so to speak, we're not getting any younger. People are living longer and having fewer children. "Today, about ten people out of a hundred are over the age of 60 and in 20 years time, that proportion could change dramatically. One out of three people could officially be classified as old."

Mimicking the West
Strangely enough, these are issues that are common to several, more developed regions like Europe and America. And like them, it's possible that the continued economic growth of Tamil Nadu could hinge on the continued inflow of labour, and crucially, on the state's ability to provide a conducive, welcoming environment for them to live and work in. For a state renowned, especially in the north, for linguistic chauvinism, this is a potentially tricky situation, but the attitude towards non-Tamils is already changing.

M Vijayabaskar, assistant professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, has worked on rural labour markets in the state, particularly in the Tiruppur region. He says that about 10 years ago, people said they preferred to hire workers from the south, especially women, because they were reliable. On a recent visit though, he found contractors and factory owners showing the same preference for labour from other states. Local labour is now seen as unreliable, because people come and go depending on the agricultural season, while migrant workers stay on.

Not many know this, but several traditional industrial centres in Tamil Nadu are already being run, in large part, through outside labour. This is evident, says K Pandia Rajan, MD of Ma Foi Randstad, when you look at the Sinhalese foremen in the garment factories of Tiruppur, or the large number of Oriya workers now employed by paper factories in places like Sivakasi.

Incoming labour
Professor Raman Mahadevan, of the Institute for Development Alternatives in Chennai, sees the flow of outside labour linked to other trends — of agrarian distress in other states and of the 'silent' social revolution that's taken place here. With the diversification of industry and the success of the public distribution system, the average Tamil worker can choose not to settle for the back-breaking labour that once may have been necessary to survive.

Along with the state's labour department, the IDA recently conducted two surveys in brick kilns around Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram. Their surveys showed that 50 per cent of the workers came from Andhra Pradesh, 20 per cent from Orissa and five to 10 per cent from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Contractors who have their own connections now do more than 50 per cent of the hiring. "But if you want to understand how labour comes in from these states, you just have to go to the train station and see what's happening on platforms where trains from the north and the east arrive," says Mahadevan.

The squeeze in local labour is by no means restricted to smaller towns and industrial centres. Padam Dugar, director of Dugar Housing, builders of flats and townships along the Old Mahabalipuram Road, says that a significant portion of the labour now coming in for construction is from out of town. "With the level of infrastructure development in the state, Chennai is no longer the commercial hub for workers. Also, as education has gone up in the state, quite often, the second generation workers want to do something different.''

Interestingly, Vijayabaskar adds that while interviewing workers in Tiruppur he found that many of them were saving money to go to Malaysia or to the Middle East. ''Even workers from small villages are now able to imagine a career abroad."

Whether it's the new, upwardly mobile Tamil or a series of contractors with cell phones, labour markets in Tamil Nadu have already seen significant changes. But while some would argue that this represents a healthy, even desirable free exchange of labour between states, Mahadevan emphasises that there is also a heavy element of debt bondage involved.

Going grey
By 2025, south India's population will begin to grey. According to a report titled the 'Indian Demographic Scenario 2025' from the Population Research Centre, Institute of Economic growth, New Delhi, the average age in the region will be 34 years in 15 years as opposed to 26 years in 2000 but more importantly, nine per cent of the population in south India will be 65 years and older. Add to that Tamil Nadu's falling birth rate, and the region will soon be facing a shortage of adults in the productive age group. On the other hand, north India will have a relatively young population with a median age of 26 and only four per cent of the population will be 65 years and over.

Flying, far far away.
Rs 41,400 crores is the amount Tamils working abroad sent home as remittances between 2006 and 2008. This is second only to Kerala, says professor S Irudaya Rajan. Rajan works with the Research Unit on International Migration at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. However, he does point out that the absence of reliable data on the socio-economic profile of Tamil migrants, both inter-state and international, is cause for concern and should be taken up for research by the government. One of the major areas in which remittances arrive from abroad, he says, is in the housing market. "I remember going to a flat opening in Thiruvananthapuram where about 110 of the 120 flats being sold, were to non-resident Keralites who wanted to buy homes," he says. While the proportion is not quite so high in Chennai, builders in the city, like Padam Dugar say it is a trend that's on the upswing for new flat complexes coming up in several newer suburbs such as along the Old Mahabalipuram Road, an extension of the IT corridor.

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2010/09/changing-demographics-of-tamil-nadu.html

Look Rashmun. When TN is liberated all these Hindians will be shipped out. So donty woory. Bye

A very Hindi town in Tamil Nadu
Yogesh Kabirdoss

GUMMIDIPOONDI: Native Tamil businessmen in a tiny industrial town in the state, bordering Andhra Pradesh, have become keener on learning Hindi and Odia. Shopkeepers now ensure their stores’ names are displayed in Hindi as well. Thanks to Gummidipoondi steel plants’ growing labour demand, the town, situated about 50 km north of Chennai, has seen recent a spurt in the number of migrants from Odisha.

Keeping in mind the 15,000 odd strong population from Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha, shops here have begun selling DVDs of recent Odia movies and mobile phone memory cards that have the latest Ollywood earworms.

Gummidipoondi’s Odisha connection dates back to over two decades with the establishment of heavy industries here in the late 1980’s. Steel plants started attracting hard-working labourers from remote villages in Odisha, opening the doors for large-scale migration.

“Cashing in on the migrants, many small accommodation facilities for labourers spruced up. We are even thinking of starting an association for migrant labourers who are subjected to exploitation,” said K K Dhalay, a shopkeeper from Odisha and a resident of Gummidipoondi for over 20 years. Over 300 people from Gummidipoondi participated in the Utkal Divas celebrations in Chennai recently, he proudly added.

“We are trying to familiarise ourselves with Hindi to communicate with people from north India. I can speak basic Hindi words like ek, dho, theen (one, two, three) and pani (water),” said Ravichandran, who runs a pharmacy on G N T road. Stores here even sell Hindi magazines and varieties of paan.

http://expressbuzz.com/thesundaystandard/a-very-hindi-town-in-tamil-nadu/393391.html

wats ur point? Fraench spoke German in 1943. okay

Parents opt for Hindi over Tamil in TN schools
Ajitha Karthikeyan | TNN

Chennai: Their grandfathers took to the streets, raised slogans and even went to prison, protesting against the “imposition” of Hindi in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s. More than four decades later, many Tamil kids are studying the “rashtra bhasha” even before they can pick up the alphabets of their mother tongue.

Raj and Aruna did not think twice when they got a note from their son’s school to specify the second language they wanted their kid to learn from first standard onwards. Their unanimous choice was Hindi.

In fact, about 90% of their son’s classmates will be studying Hindi as the second language, as young parents feel their children’s horizon should extend beyond the boundaries of the state.

“At a time when we are talking about a global village, we cannot say no to Hindi anymore. Once we cross the state’s borders, we need to know Hindi for survival. I don’t want my son to be handicapped due to lack of knowledge of Hindi,” said Raj, a software professional.

“Unlike those in government jobs, people working in the private sector have to shuttle from one state to another. Hindi comes in handy at such times,” said Aarthi, a HR manager in a private firm.

However, the new-found love for Hindi is not going down well with the older generation. Soundararajan, a retired state government employee, regrets that his grandchildren are’t learning Tamil. “I am not against Hindi, but feel that children should learn to read and write their mother tongue first.”

“We have been advising parents to opt for Tamil as it is the state language. Though we tell them that their children still get to learn Hindi as a second language in the upper classes, parents clamour for Hindi,” said a teacher working for a leading CBSE school.

State public works minister Duraimurugan, one of the prominent student leaders who participated in the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965, said only the elite prefer Hindi over Tamil.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwOS8wMi8wMyNBcjAxMTAx&Mode=HTML&Locale=english

Chennai says it in Hindi

In a city once bitterly opposed to the northerner’s tongue, Hindi is finding followers — private tutors give lessons in apartment complexes, and young enthusiasts gingerly try Kabir on their tongue. Even auto drivers will not snarl at you if you speak in Hindi

Fourteen-year-old Swati Ramanan has a new literary crush: Munshi Premchand. “The first story by Premchand that I read and loved was Idgah. That must have been six months ago,” she says in English, before self-consciously switching to somewhat accented Hindi. “Main ab unki ek aur kahani padh rahi hun, ‘Bade Bhaisahab’ (I am now reading another story of his, called ‘Elder Brother’),” she says shyly.

Swati lives on the seventh floor of a tall apartment complex in Kodambakkam, Chennai. Like any teenager, she likes Katy Perry, Harry Potter and skinny jeans. Of late, she has been scarfing up Hindi books that her parents — both work in the IT industry — buy her on their trips to Delhi and Mumbai. In her room is a green felt board with a few Hindi dohas pinned on it alongside cartoon cutouts. They flutter in the evening breeze as Swati talks about her passion for a language far removed from her native tongue Tamil. It all started with snatches of Hindi news overheard from her neighbour’s radio. “It sounded so elegant,” says Swati, pausing to rummage for the Hindi word for ‘elegant’. “I knew I had to learn to speak and write like that.”

Swati attends a reputed CBSE school not far from her home. Hindi is her third language of choice, after English and her mother tongue, Tamil. “My friends opted for Sanskrit and French because you can get better grades that way,” she says. But Swati’s mother, Ananya, takes a broader view. “I have lived in Mumbai for two years. Hindi is necessary if you want to move to other states. People living in south India are increasingly aware of this,” says the 44-year-old, who watches Star Plus and Zee TV to help polish her Hindi. “We enjoy watching Hindi stand-up comedy — there is no equivalent of this on Tamil TV,” she says.

It has been a full decade since the last anti-Hindi agitation in Chennai. The self-professed guardians of Tamil culture haven’t vanished. Indeed, not too long ago, English signboards on some railway routes were smudged off in an act of Tamil pride, says a resident of Tambaram suburb. S Doraiswamy, a retired executive who has lived in Thyagaraya Nagar, Chennai, for close to two decades, says common English words are increasingly being translated into forbidding Tamil — for instance, some bakeries call themselves veduppagam (literally, a cooking room). “There are two sets of people in Chennai today. Those who go out of their way to introduce new ways of asserting the Tamil spirit; and the middle and upper middle classes who want to learn Hindi and to make sure their children don’t miss the Hindi bus,” says Doraiswamy.

http://cdn.indianexpress.com/news/chennai-says-it-in-hindi/830371/0

As writer Raji Cherian points out, while a Bhagyaraj film may have caricatured north Indians in the past, today a film like Vaaranam Aayiram has actor Surya, who plays an army major, unselfconsciously spouting Hindi dialogue. In a scene in the film where the hero rescues a kidnapped child from a don's den, the don asks, "Tu police hai?" and Surya responds, "Haan, main police hoon. Aur ek minute mein policewale surround kardenge."

The film's director, Gautham Vasudev Menon, says such usage is just an easy reflection of a multilingual culture: "The hero was in Delhi, and the script demanded Hindi be spoken. I did not give it much thought, it was automatic. That's the essence of this country, we speak a mix of languages." Art critic and writer Sadanand Menon points out that with Tamil cinema now being made for a pan-Indian audience, "it was inevitable that Tamil cinema would have a smattering of Hindi".

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?240235

Changing demographics of Tamil Nadu: why are more and more people speaking Hindi in TN?


Because Tamil nadu is under Hindian occupation. Only after British occupation of TN, Tamils learned English in large numbers. Onbly after French occupation of Pondicherry, Tamils there learned French.

We will end Hindian occupation of Tamil nadu

It is good to know that Hindi is being received better these days in Tamil Nadu (Konjam Hindi, Apr 20). I myself was raised in a staunch anti-Hindi Madras. It was so bad that my Arya Samaj-run school received three bomb threats in seven years because it promoted Hindi. Thanks to my parents, I was forced to choose Hindi and Sanskrit in school. Subsequently, due to my mother’s efforts and my own interest, I learnt to read Tamil as well. The dmk had been propagating the lie that the spread of Hindi would make Tamil extinct. All my fellow South Indians continue to speak their mother tongue with the same ease with which they speak Hindi. Karunanidhi himself, when asked why his grand-nephew was being given so much importance in Delhi, remarked that it was because he had good command over Hindi. So, obviously he has a different yardstick when it comes to his family. It’s high time we started looking beyond petty politics and learned to adapt and embrace other languages and cultures—assimilating them into ours without forsaking ours.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?240235

Maha Kavi Bharati Yar?? (Who is Subramanya Bharati?)
December 12th, 2009 · 9 Comments

Tamil Nadu is celebrating the birth day of our Super Star Rajnikanth on 12th December. People were reminded about this “auspicious birth day ” for the last one week. Neither TV channels nor FM stations can neglect such an auspicious day. All the media were busy planning special programs and none of them missed to celebrate this day. It is unfortunate that Bharati was born on 11th December!!! No one remembered his birth day including those who say “Uyir Tamilukku, Udal Mannukku”. You may wonder why I am so concerned about such unknown person.



Subramanya Bharati was a patriotic poet of India born on 11th December 1882 in Ettayapuram of Tamil Nadu. He was fluent in many languages including Telugu, Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Kutchi, French and English and frequently translated works from other languages into Tamil. He fought for the freedom of India along with other Indian leaders.

The politicians of Tamil Nadu have forgotten or not finding any use of Bharati, a great Tamil poet and Indian freedom fighter, worth to celebrate the birth day! For the last seven years, I have not seen a single program on Bharati’s birthday celebration worth remembering in Tamil Nadu.

In contrast, the north Indians from Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (may be many more states) had been celebrating the birth day of Subramanya Bharati regularly. I was an office bearer of Tamil Sangam at Rourkela and Ranchi in 1980s and 1990s. We were reminded and supported by those Odia and Hindi speaking governments about Bharati’s birthday and they liberally gave financial support to celebrate this great Tamil Mahakavi and freedom fighter’s birth day. We arranged drama, concert, dance etc based on Subramanya Bharati’s songs and biography. Such program was well attended by top executives of government organizations, district collector, DIG, other local politicians and of course the members of the Tamil Sangam (association). Tamil politicians might have eliminated Hindi language from Tamil Nadu school curriculum but the North Indians still love and celebrate Subramanya Bharati’s birthday. Bharati is remembered as a student of BHU (Benaras Hindu University), as a patriot and a great poet of Tamil, a classical Indian language!!!

Vande Mataram,

Jai Hind.

http://sakthidaran.learningprofessor.info/blog/?p=1353

Kayalvizhi wrote:Changing demographics of Tamil Nadu: why are more and more people speaking Hindi in TN?


Because Tamil nadu is under Hindian occupation. Only after British occupation of TN, Tamils learned English in large numbers. Onbly after French occupation of Pondicherry, Tamils there learned French.

We will end Hindian occupation of Tamil nadu

you seem to live in a world of your own buddy......