Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka N.V. Anjaria said on Monday that he too is an ardent supporter of mathru bhasha, the mother tongue, while pointing out that he had learnt that Jnanpith awardee Kannada litterateur Kuvempu’s view was that the children in Karnataka should mandatorily learn Kannada along with English.
“While Gujarati is my mathru bhasha, Kannada will be my karma bhasha,” he said, while responding to the ceremonial welcome by the Karnataka State Bar Council on him assuming office of the Chief Justice on his transfer from the High Court of Gujarat.
“It was a pleasure for me to know that in literature, Kannada poet Kuvempu and Gujarati poet Umashankar Joshi were jointly conferred the Jnanpith award in 1967,” said Justice Anjaria.
He also said that Gujarat and Karnataka are connected as the Chalukya dynasty of the Kannada kingdom ruled Gujarat. “I am told because of this there are certain words in Gujarati that are borrowed or influenced by Kannada,” he pointed out.