Hindi Gotthilla: New credo for new generation of Kannada activists

A wave of ‘anti-Hindi imposition’ sentiment is gaining momentum in Karnataka on the back of social media campaigns by pro-Kannada activists who range across the ideological spectrum from the Left to the cultural Right.

T-shirts with the slogans, “Hindi Gotthilla Hogo. Naavu Kannadigaru, Naavu Dravidaru” (We don’t know Hindi, go away. We are Kannadigas, we are Dravidians), reminiscent of a similar campaign in Tamil, cropped up on social media recently. The T-shirt campaign was followed up by another one, #ServeInMyLanguage, that made the case for government services to be available in Kannada for Kannada-speaking people.

While such campaigns have come and gone, what differentiates this current round of social media-led agitations is bigger numbers of ‘volunteers’ running them and better planning to facilitate a bigger online impact. Groups such as the Kannada Grahakara Koota that were behind the #ServeInMyLanguage hashtag, for instance, co-ordinated to amplify the message on Twitter on Friday, which soon became one of the trending topics. And it’s not limited to social media alone. The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike has planned to hit the streets on September 14 to protest against the celebration of Hindi Diwas.

Also Read | 'Hindi Theriyathu Poda' t-shirts set Tamil Twitter on fire

The issues driving the current upsurge in ‘anti-Hindi imposition’ voices include the mention of the three-language formula in National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, bank forms and signboards only in the two official languages and the translation of the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification into Hindi but not other regional languages. Meanwhile, the old bugbears of an undue advantage to Hindi speaking candidates in exams for Central government jobs and services and the use of only Hindi and English in Bengaluru’s Metro services also persist.

“Voluntary participation of individuals in social media [campaigns] has increased as more people became aware of how regional languages were sidelined to thrust Hindi upon them,” Arun Javagal of Kannada Grahakara Koota told DH. He pointed out that support for this movement was more substantial than those in the past as linguistic groups from across India were joining in.

For these activists, the language policies of the Centre are a threat to the linguistic identity of regional groups and a conspiracy to keep them away from policymaking. This, they feel, goes against the ideals of democracy and India’s federal structure. They say they are prepared for a long fight to change this. “Articles 343 and 351 of the Constitution should be amended to ensure equality to regional languages and a sustained campaign is necessary for the same,” Javal said.

One of the surprising voices joining these debates is Chakravarty Sulibele, the founder of the ‘NamoBrigade’. The staunch supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken issue with the manner in which the draft EIA Notification has been
circulated.

“If you have no problem translating it into Hindi then definitely you shouldn’t have a problem translating in (sic) Kannada, too. We have more number of original words in Kannada than Hindi.@narendramodi ji this is unacceptable. Please look into it,” he tweeted on
September 7.

Among the few political leaders who have spoken out against the Centre during such campaigns is Congress MP G C Chandrashekhar. Reacting to the Centre’s stand over the recent language controversies, he quoted Field Marshal K M Cariappa, who said that non-Hindi speakers had the right to protest against Hindi imposition on
them.

Amidst all of this the Kannada Development Authority (KDA), a state government body charged with ensuring the use of Kannada in disseminating information about Central government schemes and projects, is trying to toe the middle line. T S Nagabharana, Chairman, KDA, said that Karnataka had written to the Central government to ensure three-language policy in all Central government schemes and information provided by ministries.

He held that if the Centre implemented the same three-language policy as in the NEP, many issues could be sorted out. It remains to be seen if new gen Kannada activists will be amenable to this position.