New Delhi, March 17 -- What's in a symbol? A lot, if one goes by last week's political storm over Tamil Nadu's substitution of India's rupee sign ' Rs.' with a similar sounding letter in the Tamil script for the logo of its state budget. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman called it an example of "language and regional chauvinism" that reflects a "mindset that weakens Indian unity."

In Chennai, the state's ruling party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, said the idea was to give the local language importance this year. Politically, the context is fraught: it combines Centre-state tensions with long resistance in the southern state to any hint of Hindi dominance. Practically, we could view it as just another heritage play and draw comfort ...