On September 14, which is celebrated as Hindi Day, a group of celebrities and actors sported T-shirts with messages that read ‘Hindi Gothilla’ (I don’t know Hindi) and ‘Nange Hindi Baralla, Hograppa’ (I don’t understand Hindi, go ahead) to voice their support against Hindi imposition. Actors Prakash Raj, Chethan and Dhananjaya were among those who took to social media with T-shirts that was reminiscent of a similar campaign in Tamil Nadu.
The campaign in Tamil Nadu, which was kickstarted by Thoothukudi’s DMK MP Kanimozhi, received a wave of support on social media and the neighbouring state of Karnataka. T-shirts as part of this campaign had slogans such as “Hindi theriyathu, poda!” (I don’t know Hindi, go man!), “I am a Tamizh Pesum Indian” (I am a Tamil speaking Indian) and “I am Indian, I don’t speak Hindi”.
“Kanimozhi started it with the T-shirts and it was good. We are encouraging more people to come forward and use their platforms to voice this issue. It is good that more people are coming forward to highlight the issue this year,” actor Prakash Raj said in a conversation with TNM.
Prakash Raj, an actor who speaks and acts in multiple languages, said that Hindi should not be enforced as a medium of instruction. “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 is strongest in my mother tongue,” he said.
ನನ್ನ ದೇಶ ಭಾರತ
— Dhananjaya (@Dhananjayaka) September 14, 2020
ನನ್ನ ಬೇರು ಕನ್ನಡ
ಎಲ್ಲ ಭಾಷೆಯನ್ನು ಗೌರವಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ
ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷೆಯನ್ನು ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರೀತಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ
ಯಾವುದೇ ಹೇರಿಕೆ ಸಲ್ಲದು.#StopHindiImposition #ServeInMyLanguage @dr_bhushana @PoornaMysore @baadalvirus @ImSimhaa @SathishNinasam pic.twitter.com/Ro3nPwaktg
ಹಲವು ಭಾಷೆ ಬಲ್ಲೆ.. ಹಲವು ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಬಲ್ಲೆ..ಆದರೆ ನನ್ನ ಕಲಿಕೆ..ನನ್ನ ಗ್ರಹಿಕೆ..ನನ್ನ ಬೇರು..ನನ್ನ ಶಕ್ತಿ...ನನ್ನ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆ..ನನ್ನ ಮಾತೃಭಾಷೆ ಕನ್ನಡ #ಹಿಂದಿ_ಹೇರಿಕೆ_ಬೇಡ ..NO #HindiImposition #justasking pic.twitter.com/B8RWHt8dVC
— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) September 13, 2020
The social media campaign not only coincides with Hindi Day but also comes at a time when the National Education Policy (NEP) mentioned the three-language formula and the translation of the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification was done in Hindi but not other languages.
Earlier, in September, the Union government told the Delhi High Court that it objected to publishing the draft EIA in languages other than Hindi and English, stating that doing so would lead to “translation and interpretation issues”, resulting in the “obfuscation” of the words used in the draft. The Ministry of Environment also contended that the law does not require notifications to be published in local languages.
Other concerns highlighted by ‘anti-Hindi imposition’ activists include the use of only Hindi and English in services like banking and examinations for government jobs. Recently, a resident of Tarikere in Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru district had highlighted how the local branch of the State Bank of India had stopped using Kannada.
My father is a farmer studied till 10th standard who has been transacting with SBI, Tarikere for over decades. Suddenly kannada disappears from bank usage. No body notified, how the hell they expect that 73 year old man to learn a new language to avail basic services like banking https://t.co/pY831USP2F
— Prasanna (@prasannaaz1) September 2, 2020
“Consider simple daily-life acts like going to a bank or getting a gas cylinder. What will someone in a rural part of Karnataka do if he has to deal with officials in English or Hindi? He or she might be someone who does not converse in either language in his hometown. Why should they learn it? This will lead to the demise of regional languages,” Prakash Raj said.
He also highlighted the diversity of India’s languages and culture and questioned the need for a common language in all states. Comparing the language diversity to the diversity in Indian cuisines, Prakash Raj said, “Consider the cuisine in Karwar, Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram. They are towns on the same coastline of the Arabian sea but the dishes you find in each of these places are unique. Can these unique dishes all be cooked in the way they are by adding the same masala?”.
Prakash Raj unsuccessfully contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from the Bengaluru (Central) constituency.
Pro-Kannada activists said there was a swell of support for the campaign this year compared to previous years. “The support has increased this year because there are more people voluntarily coming forward to voice their opinions about how regional languages are sidelined in favour of Hindi,” Arun Javagal, an activist from the Kannada Grahakara Koota, a pro-Kannada organisation, said.
Activists shared a slew of social media posts with the hashtag #Serveinmylanguage to show their support for regional languages.
Last week, Chakravarthy Sulibele, a columnist and the founder of the ‘NamoBrigade’, a youth organisation that canvassed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha elections, also questioned why the translations of the draft EIA notification were not done in regional languages.
“If you have no problem translating it into Hindi, then definitely you shouldn’t have a problem translating in Kannada, too. We have more number of original words in Kannada than Hindi,” Chakravarthy Sulibele said in a tweet.
If you have no problem translating it into Hindi then definitely you shouldn’t have problem translating in Kannada too. We have more number if original words in Kannada than Hindi. @narendramodi ji this is unacceptable. Please look into it. pic.twitter.com/GQOFZ8xsS7
— Chakravarty Sulibele (@astitvam) September 7, 2020
Politicians in Karnataka, including Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, have also spoken out against ‘Hindi imposition’. In a series of 10 tweets, Kumaraswamy said, “In India, which has a diverse culture, Hindi is being forced upon Kannadigas and speakers of other languages. Today’s Hindi Day is also such a misdemeanour. There is a strong opposition of from the self-respecting Kannadiga to Hindi Day.”
ವಿವಿಧ ಭಾಷೆ, ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ, ಪರಂಪರೆಗಳನ್ನು ಒಡಲಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡ ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ, ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರೂ ಸೇರಿದಂತೆ ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷಿಕರ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಿಂದಿಯನ್ನು ಬಲವಂತವಾಗಿ ಹಲವು ಮಾರ್ಗಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಹೇರಲಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಇಂದಿನ #HindiDiwas ಕೂಡ ಅಂಥದ್ದೇ ಅಪಮಾರ್ಗ. ಭಾಷಾ ಅಹಂಕಾರದ ಸಂಕೇತವಾದ ಹಿಂದಿ ದಿವಸಕ್ಕೆ ಸ್ವಾಭಿಮಾನಿ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ಪ್ರಬಲ ವಿರೋಧವಿದೆ.
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) September 14, 2020
1/10
'ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗನೇ ಸಾರ್ವಭೌಮ' ಎನ್ನುವ ಮಾತಿಗೆ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಸಹಮತವಿದೆ.
— Dinesh Gundu Rao/ದಿನೇಶ್ ಗುಂಡೂರಾವ್ (@dineshgrao) September 13, 2020
ಕೇಂದ್ರ ತ್ರಿಭಾಷಾ ಸೂತ್ರದ ಮೂಲಕ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ಮೇಲೆ ಬಲವಂತದ ಹಿಂದಿ ಏರಿಕೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವುದು ಖಂಡನೀಯ.
ದೆಹಲಿ ಹುಕುಂ ಪಾಲಿಸಲು ಶಿರ ಬಾಗಿಸಿ ನಿಂತಿರುವ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರ, ತ್ರಿಭಾಷಾ ಸೂತ್ರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸೊಲ್ಲೆತ್ತದೆ ಇರುವುದು ರಾಜ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ದ್ರೋಹ!!
Pro-Kannada activists from various organisations also held a protest over the issue in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Bengaluru’s Anand Rao Circle. While this protest organised by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike passed off without incident, another protest by members of 'Karunadu Sevakaru', another pro-Kannada group, vandalised a signboard at the KSR Railway station in Bengaluru.