The Indian National Congress won the 1937 elections in Madras Presidency. C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) became the Chief Minister on 14 July 1937. He was a supporter of propagating हिंदी in South India. Even before the elections, he had expressed support for हिंदी in a newspaper article ("Sudesamithran", 6 May 1937): "Government employment is limited. All cannot get it. Therefore one has to search for other jobs. For that and for business, knowledge of हिंदी is necessary. Only if we learn हिंदी, the south Indian can gain respect among the others." On 11 August 1937, within a month of coming to power, he announced his intention to introduce हिंदी language teaching in secondary schools by issuing a policy statement. This move followed lobbying by pro-हिंदी organisations like "Hindustani Seva Dal" and "Hindustani Hitashi Sabha". These organisations had earlier convinced many Congress led local governments to introduce compulsory हिंदी in schools in the early 1930s. Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and the opposition Justicy Party led by A. T. Panneerselvam immediately opposed the move. An हिंदी-विरोधी conference was organised on 4 October 1937 to protest the announcement. On 21 April 1938, Rajaji went ahead and passed a government order (G.O) making the teaching of हिंदी compulsory in 125 Secondary schools in the Presidency. Rajaji's persistence was viewed by opponents as an attempt to destroy Tamil and promote हिंदी. They started state wide protests against Rajaji and हिंदी. The agitation was marked by protest marches, हिंदी-विरोधी conferences, observing a हिंदी-विरोधी day (1 July and 3 December 1938), fasts against government policies, black flag demonstrations and picketing of government offices and institutions. It was active in Tamil speaking districts of the Presidency - Ramnad, Tinnevely, Salem, Tanjore and North Arcot. The agitation lasted till the order was withdrawn in February 1940. Two persons -Thalamuthu and Natarajan - lost their lives. Around 1,200 people including Periyar were imprisoned.

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डिएमकेचे हिंदीविरोधी धोरण
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