As the riots spread, police responded with lathi charges and firing on student processions. This further inflamed the situation. Acts of arson, looting and damage to public property became common. Railway cars and हिंदी name boards at railway stations were burned down. The Bhaktavatsalam Government considered the situation as a law and order problem and brought in para military forces to quell the agitation. Incensed by police action, violent mobs killed two police men. Five agitators (Sivalingam, Aranganathan, Veerappan, Muthu, and Sarangapani) committed suicide by pouring gasoline and setting themselves on fire and three more (Dandapani, Muthu, and Shanmugam) died by consuming poison. In two weeks of riots, around 70 people were killed (by official estimates). Some unofficial reports put the death toll as high as 500. A large number of students were arrested. The damage to property was assessed as one Crore (1,00,00,000) Rupees.

On 28 January, classes in Madras University and Annamalai University were suspended indefinitely. Within the Congress, opinion was divided - On 31 January , a group of Congress leaders including Mysore Chief minister S.Nijalingappa, Bengal Congress leader Atulya Ghosh, Union Minister Sanjeeva Reddy and Congress president K. Kamaraj met in Bangalore and issued an appeal not to force हिंदी on non-हिंदी speaking areas as they believed it might endanger the unity of the country. Morarji Desai refused their demands regretting that हिंदी was not made official before the हिंदी-विरोधी protests crystallized. He said Congress leaders in Madras should convince people there and no regional sentiments should come in the move to forge the integration of the country. Union Home Minister Gulzari Lal Nanda agreed with Bhaktavatsalam's handling of the agitation and commended him for standing "hard as a rock".

Rioting continued through out the first week of February. On February 6, student representatives met Bhatavatsalam to find a compromise. But the talks failed and violence continued unabated. Processions, fasts, general strikes, burning of हिंदी books, destruction of हिंदी name boards, agitations in front of Post offices became commonplace. In a Union cabinet meeting on 11 February, C. Subramaniam, the Minister for Food, demanded statutory recognition for इंग्रजी as official Language. When he was voted down, he resigned along with another minister from Tamil Nadu (O. V. Alagesan).

१९६७ चा अधिकृत भाषा (विधेयक) कायदा
१९४०-१९५०चा सत्याग्रह
दोन महिने जनक्षोभ
ब्राह्मणविरोधी चळवळ