Hindi vs Kannada: A battle for identity

In July 2017, several stations of Bengaluru Metro Rail came under attack, almost simultaneously. Kannada activists, mostly representing Karnataka Rakshana Vedika, sprayed black paint on the Hindi signage at the stations while shouting slogans against the imposition of Hindi. Soon after, the Metro authorities decided to be safe than sorry — restricting the names of the stations to English and Kannada.

Usually, such protests would be dismissed as an act of parochial Kannada organisations who do not have a larger worldview. They also tend to be taken over by rowdy elements, who use muscle power to get their point across. But this protest was unique. Its supporter base also included software professionals who were concerned about the Kannada language not being given its place of pride.

Vasant Shetty and Vallish call themselves linguists. Their day jobs see them at a tech firm and a start-up respectively. What binds them together is the feeling of angst that Kannada is being pushed to play second fiddle to Hindi, even in Karnataka. Their argument is that Hindi cannot be the link language for Kannadigas.

“Union government-run banks, post offices, railways all have sidelined Kannada. Now you have staff that cannot even converse in Kannada. Cheques, challans, tickets are not issued in Kannada. So Hindi has taken the place of Kannada and that has created a sense of fear and insecurity among people about Hindi,” says Vasant Shetty.

But it is not merely about the language. Closer to state Assembly elections, it has got intertwined with the Kannadiga identity and pride. More so because the feeling is gaining ground that a Kannada speaker is considered inferior to someone who articulates in Hindi.

“In a diverse country like India, the government must respect multiple identities. It cannot be said you have only one identity – Indian – and wash out everything else. One identity cannot be pitted against the other. If you are an Indian, agree to Hindi. To say if you are a Kannadiga, you are less Indian is not going to help us associate with the idea called India,” says Vallish.

This is not a healthy situation. The fact that a Kannadiga has to assert his Indian-ness is a commentary on the faultlines that have shown up. This feeling of being treated as a lesser citizen is very strong in the south Indian states, not just a Bengaluru.

The problem with a one-size-fits-all approach is that if there is a perception that homogeneity is being shoved down the throat, it will be opposed fiercely. What needs to be recognised is that Kannada, like any other regional language, is not a mere medium of communication. It is an emotion.

The alternate view, however, is that turning states into islands of regionalism is not healthy for the concept of India as a nation. There is also a risk in taking the Kannada-language issue too far because if it is perceived as an anti-Hindi pitch, it undermines the contribution of an outsider to Bengaluru and Karnataka’s development. Political analyst Sugata Raju points out that today 60 per cent of Karnataka’s revenue comes from Bengaluru.

“This is the engine that is running a very backward area like north Karnataka. If you start accentuating the debate then there may be divisions within the state which you may not be able to handle politically,” says Sugata Raju. But what would worry the BJP this election season is the perception of the party being cow-belt focused, for this reason, the anti-Hindi sentiment and anti-BJPism tend to overlap.

Language has become an important issue in this election because of the manner in which the Congress has played the regional identity card, giving the BJP a taste of its own medicine.

The BJP’s emphasis on nationalism, ‘one nation, one flag’, is being countered by the Congress playing the Kannadiga identity card, almost like a regional outfit. Just as Narendra Modi used the Gujarati ‘asmita’ card when he was CM, Siddaramaiah is using Kannadiga pride to undercut the BJP’s image of being a Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan party.

The BJP, at least its Karnataka unit, realises the trap being set by Siddaramaiah and insists on being as committed to the Kannadiga identity as the Congress. Among other things, it points out that the naming of the Bengaluru airport after Kempegowda was its contribution.

Hindi vs Kannada, as the language issue has, unfortunately, been positioned, also reflects itself in the north vs south divide over the allocation of funds. After Amit Shah alleged that central funds given by the NDA regime were being gobbled up by a “corrupt” Congress government, Siddaramaiah hit back by pointing out that for every rupee that Karnataka gives to the Centre by way of taxes, it gets only 47 paise in return. The point being made is that Karnataka is subsidising the bimaru states while struggling for funds to develop its own backward areas.

Which is why I see this Karnataka election as a test for the people of the state. Their choice will be their commentary on their identity, their pride and what they approve of and what they detest. And hopefully, there will be important learning for everyone involved.

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