'Hindi not our national language': Ravichandran Ashwin adds fuel to language debate

Ravichandran Ashwin adds fuel to language debate (Source: X/myrecchennai)

Ravichandran Ashwin has sparked a major debate on social media after his comment on the Hindi language, which has gone viral on social media. The carrom-ball specialist, who retired from international cricket as the second highest wicket-taker among Indians in Test, made the remark while addressing students during a graduation ceremony in a private engineering college in near Chennai.

Ashwin during his address asked students if they were willing to ask questions in Hindi, in English or Tamil. A clip of the same has gone viral in which Ashwin can be heard saying: "English students in the house - give me a yay," which was met with a loud cheer from students. He then asked "Tamil?" which generated a similar response. However, the audience kept mum when Ashwin asked "okay, Hindi?"

Observing the same Ashwin in Tamil said: "I thought I should say this. Hindi is not our national language; it is an official language."

Tamil Nadu: Former off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin says, "...I thought I'd say it all. It's (Hindi) not our national language; It's an official language. Okay, anyway"(09/01/2025) pic.twitter.com/bR47icWZEU
IANS (@ians_india) January 10, 2025

Ashwin, who retired midway during the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy, also touched upon Team India's captaincy. "When someone says I can't do it, I wake up to accomplish it, but if they say I can, I lose interest," Ashwin was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Ashwin, who himself is a B. Tech graduate in Information Technology from SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, also shared learnings from the same and encouraged students to never give up and remain persistent even in times of doubts.

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"Had any engineering staff told me I couldn't become captain, I would have worked harder," the former India spinner said. "If you are a student, you will never stop. If you aren't, learning will cease, and excellence will just be a word in your cupboard," he added.

Ashwin will now be back in action during the Indian Premier League, which gets underway from March 14. The upcoming season will see him reunite with his former franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after being roped for Rs 9.75 crore.