If Sardar Patel tamed the Princely states to establish Indian sovereignty, over the years, more than any other thing, Hindi has kept the country united. We know that the stiffest opposition to Hindi was in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The Bengali Bhadralok were highly critical of Hindi films under the plea that it would contaminate their native culture. Still we know that the Bengalis in general preferred to see Bollywood films so enthusiastically that Talliwood film industry was pushed to its nadir.
More violent was the anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu where some committed self-immolation to register their protest. Despite that, not only the Cennai cinema halls regularly run houseful shows of Hindi films but many Tamil heroes and heroines have been catapulted to international heights after shifting to Bollywood. More than that, blockbusters in both Hindi and Tamil have been dubbed in swapped versions. Chennai Express, Chennai Café and similar other films have shown the popularity of Tamil themes. If you search the net, you will be surprised to see innumerable institutions, committed to popularize Hindi in Tamil Nadu with reputable publications to their credit.
The other day I was tuned to a FM radio channel, in which Ram Yadav, a famous radio announcer was telling about the state of Hindi in Germany, where he has been living for last thirty years. He said that till some years back, Hindi was being taught in 22 universities whereas today the number has slumped to 7 only. However, since the Bollywood started making ground in Europe, the youth has suddenly become fans of Hindi films. The Hindi dances and songs of these films are so popular that even in small towns there are arrangements to teach the Bollywood dance steps and music tunes. He added that even in some local functions, Hindi film songs are played on loudspeakers and the youth dance to those tunes on the stage. They are the fans of Mumbai actors including Shahrukh Khan. Hindi, thus is once again the craze of the youth. Let us acknowledge that no power can stop the ascendant Hindi in India. Even the Diwan-e- Ghalib reached several times more hands when published in Devanagari script.
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