Describing the New Education Policy (NEP) of the Modi government as one based on Sanskrit which upholds the “varnashrama dharma” (four-fold caste division), Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Monday made it clear that this was the reason for the state being steadfast in its opposition to the NEP.

He was reacting to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s view that the NEP had placed strong emphasis on Indian knowledge systems, including Sanskrit.

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Addressing the conclusion of the 1,008 Sanskrit Sambhashan Shivirs in the national capital, Shah had also said that Sanskrit is the ‘mother of nearly all the Indian languages and its promotion closely tied to the country’s cultural and educational agenda’. The BJP stalwart had also claimed that Sanskrit was the most scientifically structured language and its revival would have a cascading effect on all Indian languages and dialects.

“We are aware that the real intent and purpose of NEP is to send Hindi first, paving the way for Sanskrit subsequently. Hence, we don’t want the NEP which is built on the bedrock of Sanskrit, upholding Varnashra Dharma,” he wrote in a post on ‘X’.

The DMK Government of MK Stalin has been opposing NEP, terming it as a tool of Hindi imposition and inimical to social justice. Further, Sanskrit and Hindi are seen as hegemonic by the Dravidian ideologues. This has led to a war of words between the DMK and the BJP.

The BJP-led Union Government had withheld funds to the tune of Rs 2,192 crore under the Samagra Sikshya Abhiyan (SSA) and for the PMSHRI Schools on the ground that the state government was not implementing the teaching of Hindi.

Chief Minister M K Stalin had asserted that the state was not only ready to forego the funds, but would not budge even if it is offered Rs 10,000 crore.