On the account of Hindi Diwas, which was marked on September 14, Kannada film star Darshan Thoogudeepa spoke up against the imposition of Hindi at the expense of Kannada. He highlighted that the union government was promoting Hindi, which is one of the 22 official languages in the country, using the tax collected from Kannada-speaking people. Condemning this, he also said that imposing Hindi is also an attack on Kannada, an attack against their cultural identity and that the imposition must be protested.
Taking to Twitter, Darshan said, “For self-respecting Kannadigas, Kannada is the state’s language. Until our dying breath, we will stand for the Kannada language. Kannada is truth; Kannada forever.”
Darshan added a short statement to his tweet, which said, “For many years, the imposition in terms of learning Hindi has been seeing a rise. Already, many people at the borders of our state have not been speaking Kannada. If we don’t protest this and stay quiet, there will be a day when we will lose our Kannada identity and that time seems to be approaching very soon. Using Kannada taxpayers money to celebrate Hindi Diwas is condemnable. Hindi Diwas is celebrated by some North Indian states. Pluralism is the basis for the existence of India. Imposing Hindi, which is spoken by people in some North Indian states, is an attack against our cultural identity. We will fight for Kannada rights until our dying breath.”
ಸ್ವಾಭಿಮಾನಿ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಭಾಷೆ.
— Darshan Thoogudeepa (@dasadarshan) September 15, 2020
ನಮ್ಮ ಕೊನೆಯುಸಿರಿರುವವರೆಗೂ ಕನ್ನಡ ಪರವಾಗಿ ನಿಲ್ಲುತೇವೆ. ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ಸತ್ಯ, ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ನಿತ್ಯ pic.twitter.com/YfnGUaTToL
Darshan’s statement comes after his colleagues in the Kannada film industry, actors Prakash Raj, Chethan and Dhananjaya also spoke up against Hindi imposition, sporting t-shirts against Hindi. The widespread opposition to Hindi imposition was recently started by Thoothukudi’s DMK MP Kanimozhi.
In an interaction with TNM on Monday, actor Prakash Raj, who has worked in movies of multiple languages, including Hindi, had said, “Hindi and English should be taught as languages but should not be forced as a medium of instruction. I know many languages but my learning and perception of the world are strongest in my mother tongue.”