Looking at the geographical positioning of the state of Tamil Nadu(TN). TN lies deep south, the land down under. Hindi has penetrated into the states of Karnataka but not much beyond. We don't much hear people complaining that the auto-rickshaw driver in Cochi OR Trivandrum did not speak in Hindi.
This is an utter mis-conception and "rumor has it" subject to insensibly say, "They don't speak Hindi in Chennai".
Agree! that TN demonstrated the anti-Hindi riots in the 1960s. Hasn't the Andhra Pradesh(AP) government silently demonstrated the same when in the rule of N.T.Rama Rao he converted every government notice into Telugu literal? At that time, the AP State and local bus route display boards where converted into Telugu. There was no display of English or Hindi below it. Only small font sized Urdu! Never did they say, "AP is anti-Hindi". That was just a political vote bank agenda move. Most of the Telugus speak Hindi because of the Hyderabadi/Nizami connection. But beyond the Telangana region, you can barely hear an utter of Hindi in the state of AP. English is much spoken as a medium of communication with the tourists/visitors.
Remember! times have changed in the state of TN. An auto-rick driver may not converse back to you in Hindi. Not because, he hates Hindi but because he was barely educated or followed Hindi. Remember! he would atleast care to drop you at your destination. It is the mindset of the non-local to pick a fight with them if he doesn't respond back in Hindi and the anti-Hindi attitude the Tamils had earlier demonstrated. If you politely speak to an auto-rick driver in Chennai he doesn't care for more than the fare he could make.
A Chennai based college friend of mine was once travelling in a local Bangalore bus. He was a little obese at that time and didn't have the flare to speak Hindi. When the driver braked the bus suddenly, he accidently fell on the bus conductor. In frustration, the conductor yelled out at him, "Kuthe ke bache". My friend was smart enough to lament back at the conductor in Hindi, "Bache ke Kuthe". That was the smartest Hindi punch line I ever heard. He was a Tamilian.
Around 790 million speak Hindi nationwide in India. There are bit more than 77 million Tamil speakers around the world. Hence, Tamil is a minority. Hindi is spoken in around 14 states in India. Who is to blame for NOT being able to emerge Hindi as a national language nationwide? Central or Local government?
The TN local High-School syllabus carries Hindi as a second/third language. It is the controversies that the TN based politicians stir that make the Tamil's sound as Anti-Hindi.
