The anti-modi sentiment didn’t grow overnight. It’s a long story post-independence. When the Constitution was framed, Hindi was adopted as the official language of India and English was considered as an associate official language. It was written that after 15 years, Hindi will become the sole official language of India. The new Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950.
Efforts by the Indian government to make Hindi the sole official language after 1965 were not acceptable to many non-Hindi Indian states. These states wanted the continued use of English. Resistance to this mainly came from the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and the North-eastern states. As 26 January 1965 approached, much resistance was noticed in Madras by the student unions. Violence broke out, along with lathi charges, and police firing.
Seeing all this, the then PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri gave assurances that English would continue as an associate language.
PM Narendra Modi and his party policies openly support Hindi as an official language. Tamils are not against the ‘language’ but with its ‘imposition’. The state does not stop anyone from learning Hindi. There are Hindi Prachar Sabhas across the state. There are also students who willing learn Hindi.
The government is warned that if they continue their imposition, Tamil Nadu may demand a separate state of theirs.