Economic exploitation of Tamil Nadu and other non-Hindi by the Indian government. Discusses how the Tamil people and Tamilnadu are short changed in food subsidies.
Rice, Wheat and Hindi
TAMIL TRIBUNE, April 1999 (ID. 1999-04-03)
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Since the British colonial rule ended over the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the Indian parliament is dominated by politicians from the Hindi heartland (Hindi belt). They not only impose their language on non-Hindi people they are also slowly bleeding the rest of the Indian states economically. Partisan allocation of central government funds for industrial and other projects is one way but that is not all. The Indian government uses myriad indirect means to fleece most non-Hindi states. Here is an example.
Former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Dr. D. S. Tyagi, in his book "Managing Indian Food Economy", tells how states away from the Hindi heartland are discriminated in food subsidies. Government of India gives 60% subsidy for wheat whereas the subsidy for rice is only 39%.
This significant disparity in food subsidy is not a fluke. There is a definite, calculated reason for this. The staple food of people living in the Hindi heartland and nearby areas is wheat. As you move farther away from the Hindi heartland, you see that the staple food is rice. People of West Bengal in the East and Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the South eat primarily rice. That is the reason why the Indian government, dominated and controlled by Hindi politicians, favor wheat to rice in subsidies.
What does this difference in subsidy mean in practical terms? A Hindian can buy 100 Rupees worth of wheat for just 40 Rupees (the Indian government is paying the remaining 60 Rupees) whereas a Tamil has to pay 61 Rupees to buy 100 Rupees worth of rice. A Tamil is paying more than one-and-a-half times compared to a Hindian. (Hindian: A person whose mother tongue is Hindi.)
Here is another perspective of the same thing. For 100 Rupees, A Hindian can buy 250 Rupees worth of wheat. But, for 100 Rupees, a Tamil can buy only 164 Rupees worth of rice. In other words, Tamils' food buying power is only 65.4% of Hindians; that is, Tamils' buying power is less than two-third that of Hindians. This is because of the huge disparity in Indian government subsidies to wheat and rice. For a poor family this difference in food subsidies means whether their children go to bed hungry or not.
Consider two poor families, one a Hindi family and one a Tamil family. Let us say that they are doing the same work and earn the same money. Because of the difference in central government subsidy, the Tamil family will be able to buy less than two-third the food as the Hindi family! Is it just? Is it reasonable? Is it fair?
But, in the name of Indian Unity, as patriotic Indian citizens, let us all subsidize to feed the Hindians with our sweat and labor.
Long Live India!RELATED ARTICLE
Economic Discrimination of Tamil Nadu
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