‘If You Beat Me…’: Maharashtra Governor Says Violence Over Marathi 'Harmful' For State's Growth
Maharashtra Governor Radhakrishnan expressed concern over rising violence due to language differences, warning of negative impacts on investment and industrial growth. He recounted a personal experience of witnessing violence against Hindi speakers in Tamil Nadu.
Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan on Tuesday expressed concern over the surge in violent incidents linked to language differences, highlighting that such events could have damaging long-term consequences for the state, particularly in terms of investment and industrial growth.
His remarks come amid the ongoing language row in Maharashtra, which began over the state government's decision to introduce Hindi across all schools from Class 1 to 5. This sparked several incidents of violence targeting non-Marathi speakers in the state, with members of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) allegedly involved in such incidents.
Speaking at an event, Radhakrishnan emphasised the need to respect all mother tongues as he recalled a personal experience from his tenure as an MP in Tamil Nadu. He recounted witnessing an incident on a highway where non-Tamil speakers were allegedly attacked for not knowing the local language.
Radhakrishnan narrated: “One day on a highway, I saw some people beating someone. I immediately asked my driver to stop the car and I got out of the car. After seeing me, those who were beating ran away and people who were getting beaten up stood there. I asked them what the problem was, he was telling in Hindi and I could only understand maar maar (beaten up). I called the hotel owner and I asked him, he explained to me that they don’t know Tamil, those people were trying to beat them and asked them to speak only in Tamil.”
“If you come and beat me, can I speak in Marathi immediately? It’s impossible. I said sorry to them…I paid for their food and only left after they sat in a lorry,” he added.
He further clarified that he was sharing that incident because such kind of hatred would drive away investors, who would not feel confident to come and invest in the state, harming Maharashtra in the long term.
“Why I am telling this? If we spread this kind of hatred, then which investor will come? No investor will come, no industry will come. In the long run, we’re doing harm to Maharashtra,” he said.
He also shared his own difficulty in understanding Hindi, which he said posed a personal challenge for him. Underlining the importance of multilingualism, the governor said: “I'm unable to understand Hindi, and that is an obstacle for me…We must learn the maximum number of languages, and we should be proud of our mother tongue, there’s no compromise on that."
#WATCH | Mumbai, Maharashtra: On the Marathi language row, Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan says, "... When I was an MP in Tamil Nadu, one day I saw some people beating someone... When I asked them the problem, they were speaking in Hindi. Then, the hotel owner told me that… pic.twitter.com/mkLtdAO3Bx
— ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2025
Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan also echoed similar sentiments, saying that beating and forcing someone for not speaking in Marathi would have a negative impact on the state.
“Definitely, Marathi is our mother tongue, and it is our priority, but if we force someone else to speak Marathi or beat them, that is also not right for our state. We also go out, and what will we do if someone tells us to speak in Tamil or Bengali,” ANI quoted Mahajan as saying.
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