Actor-politician Kamal Haasan has responded to Home Minister Amit Shah’s exhortation on the use of Hindi across the country with a pithy video asserting the need to respect all languages. Shah had courted controversy on the occasion of Hindi Diwas where he urged all Indians to embrace Hindi as the language that unifies the nation in the eyes of the world.

Kamal’s response to the video runs just under two minutes. He alludes to the history of the country and the promises enshrined in the Constitution to the people who hold various languages as their mother tongue. He says, “India was formed as a result of the unification of many empires by many kings who relinquished their thrones but the one thing that many people across states refused to give up was the ways of their language and culture.”

“The unity in diversity is a promise that we made when we made India into a Republic. Now, no Shah, Sultan or Samrat must relent on that promise. We respect all languages, but our mother language will always be Tamil.”

Referring to the successful protest staged by the Tamil people on the ban on Jallikattu, Kamal said that the protests and victory were small in scale in comparison to what could happen if tamils were to take to the streets to defend their language. He added that such an event was unnecessary for Tamil Nadu and India at large.

Kamal said that most Indians don’t sing the national anthem in their own language but for the Bengalis. He added that the reason we are happy to do so is because the author of those verses embraced and acknowledged the importance of the languages and cultures that make India and accorded them their due respect.

He finished by saying that India is a feast of variety and that forcing a certain thing would be detrimental and unwelcome.

“We are capable of seeing unity in diversity. Long live Tamil, long live the Tamil people and long live India.”