JOIN US'Hindi gottilla’: Actors join drive for Kannada primacy
Several celebrities have taken to social media to express their opposition to the imposition of Hindi.
The central government observes September 14 as Hindi Diwas, and many in Karnataka are up in arms over Kannada being totally eliminated from the stationery and signage of many establishments.
While actor Prakash Raj sported a T-shirt that had ‘Nange Hindi Barolla Hograppa’ written on it, Chetan Ahimsa wore a t-shirt with ‘Hindi Gottilla’ inscribed on it. Dhananjaya’s t-shirt announced India was his country and Kannada his origins.
Others like actors Sathish Ninasam and Rishab Shetty registered their protest on their Twitter handles.
The actors say that they are not against any language, but take pride in their own language and culture. “We are not opposing any language. All we are saying is that we respect Kannada language first and place it on top before all other languages. As actors, we may act in different languages but we owe allegiance to our mother tongue,” Sathish Ninasam told Metrolife.
He also points out that Kannada is one of the oldest languages and must be given due respect and prominence.
“There are many people from other states staying in Bengaluru, we have never insisted they converse in Kannada. We don’t force our culture on them, instead we try to speak to them in a language that they are familiar with and also try to learn new languages,” he adds.
Our languages must be given importance, asserts director and actor Rishab Shetty, because our cultures spring from them.
“In fact, each district in Karnataka has a different dialect. The culture and language of every state must be protected and preserved for posterity,” he says.
One of the first actions taken by the new national government six years back was to insist that all social media accounts be run only in Hindi, says actor Chetan Ahimsa.
“This reveals Delhi’s inherent disregard for and even non-acknowledgement of non-Hindi languages. Only when the non-Hindi states cried foul did the Centre modify its decision as meant only for Hindi states. To this day, the formula instituted in Karnataka divulges the Delhi agenda of making non-Hindi speakers second-class citizens,” Chetan says.
He adds that the fight for language equality demands that all 22 languages of the 8th Schedule (including Kannada) be given official standing and Articles 343-351 that call for Hindi primacy and Hindi Diwas (351) be amended immediately.
“Today’s linguistic struggle is not between those who speak Hindi and those who don’t; instead, it is a clash between those who are imposing a monolithic notion of the nation versus the rest of us who fight to retain India’s innate plurality,” he adds.
‘Agenda to kill languages’
Multilingual actor Prakash Raj says he speaks seven languages because Kannada is his mother tongue, and it allows him such cosmopolitanism. “But my strength and my roots lie in Kannada and nobody can take that away from me because my history, culture and identity comes from there,” he says.
He believes the push for Hindi derives from a suspect motive. “Why should we learn it? There is a clear agenda to kill regional languages. We have to understand that agenda and protect our identity,” he says. Prakash was among the stars to wear t-shirts with a message reversing the common Hindi refrain in Bengaluru, ‘Kannada gotilla’, to ‘Hindi gotilla’.