Bengaluru: Recently the Namma Metro is facing conflict between Hindi speaking people and those resisting the language’s imposition on non-Hindi speaking states down the Vindhyas. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (large number of group of members) recently held a protest in front of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation(BMRC) office. They are demanding to end to the practice of trilingual announcements and signage (in English, Kannada and Hindi) in the newly-launched Metro.
Kannadiga groups are arguing that the Centre hasn’t similarly insisted on triple-language announcements and signage across Metro trains in Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu that have stuck to just English plus the regional language.
When the news in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the hashtag #StopHindiChauvinism began spread on Twitter. When DMK leader MK Stalin noticed that the numbers of milestones on highways were being written in Hindi by replacing English signage. From history we can see that, Tamil Nadu has always come up with emotive responses whenever there has been attempt at the imposition of Hindi. While framing of Constitution of India, there was lots debate goes on that where Hindi should be adopted as official language of India or not. Finally, the proposal was accepted with a slender one-vote margin. This was supposed to replace English in 1965 as the language of government but the status quo had to prevail in light of violent protests and agitations in many states.
“Hindi was India’s national language and that it “is our misfortune that we give too much importance to English.” The BJP’s vice presidential candidate could not be further off the mark. India is a melting pot where people speak 122 major and 1,652 other languages. The citizens of every state are free to decide on the language of communication and as a result, the country can boast 22 ‘official’ languages, said Information and broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu.
In west Bengal there was such disruption when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announced that Bengali language will be compulsory in schools then the state’s Nepali-speaking areas gave rise to fresh demands for Gorkhaland.
