The Kannada Language Row – A Kannadathi’s Perspective

You, yes you, who have come to Bangalore – for better livelihood and a better life. You dream of better education, better job and improved living standards – for yourself, for your kids and even your aging parents. 

It has been a year since you came. I speak to you in Kannada and you say you don’t know. I smile and say it’s ok. I immediately switch to a language you speak. So, if you speak Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and if I know those languages, I converse with you in that language. I make you feel comfortable in the new city and make you feel welcome. If I don’t know your language, then I make use of broken words of every language I know, mix it up with sign language and try and speak with you. The intention is to be inclusive.

A few years later, we meet again. I speak to you in Kannada. You say you don’t Kannada. I am surprised. Why hasn’t she learnt at least a few words, some basic sentences? Is that too much to ask for? But I smile and again reply in the language you know.

A decade later, we meet again. I speak to you in Kannada. You say you don’t know Kannada. Really? After all these years? Now, I am not just surprised but sad and angry.  How many years does it take for someone to pick up a few sentences in any Indian language?

If you have to go to Germany, to study or to work, you take classes to learn the language. Same is the case with Japanese, Spanish and French. I know of people who have learnt Arabic, the toughest of all languages within a few years of going overseas. 

You go to Tamil Nadu; they will make you learn Tamil in under 6 months. Same with Kerala. The only states that don’t force you to learn their local language are Maharashtra and Andhra & Telangana, besides, of course, Karnataka. In MH, AP & TL, the thinking is you don’t “need” Marathi or Telugu. Hindi will suffice. Almost everyone converses and understands Hindi. The people too are very friendly and don’t come down too hard on the ‘outsiders’ for not knowing the local language.

Is the warm and welcoming nature of the locals making people take the local culture and language for granted? They want to settle in the city and enjoy all the perks the city offers but refuse, knowingly, arrogantly, to learn the language and assimilate. Why this arrogance and refusal to not want to blend in?

I blame the locals for not making their language “cool”. I blame the locals for not insisting on speaking in the local language, with everyone and at all costs. I blame the locals for being too friendly, easy-going and accommodating towards the outsiders. When they don’t care, why should you?

Migration is not new to Bangalore. It has been happening from the 1970’s itself. If you watch old Kannada movies, you can find Malayali, Telugu and Hindi characters in the stories, speaking in, either their language, or in heavily accented Kannada. But it peaked in the 2000s. I came to Bangalore in 2001 and I have seen the transition the city has undergone. In 2002 I lived in a remote locality called Venkatapura. Our neighborhood grocery store person was a Malayali. The Mallus had already come and successfully set up their business in a place nobody knew or even heard of, back then. The area also had a lot of youngsters from North-East India, living together in big numbers. 

So, NO - migration is not a new phenomena. But the speed at which it has happened in the last decade and a half is unbelievable. Almost every train and bus that comes into Bangalore brings a new set of settlers, job hunters, livelihood seekers, students. Hitherto unknown areas have sprung up in and around the city. Thousands of apartments and housing colonies everywhere. Even the locals are not aware or heard of names of some of the areas. In certain areas, there are no locals, just outsiders. Some dominated by NE, some by Mallus, some by Tamils. 

When we walk around, we can hardly recognize if this is Bangalore or some other state.

I know of people who are in Bangalore since 2009 and don’t know a word of Kannada. If the locals had harassed or forced them to learn Kannada, as the news reports claim, would they have not learnt it by now? After two decades? 

Many of my friends and colleagues have bought apartments here. They have even got their parents to live here. Apparently, parents have better safety and security in this new city than in their own native place where they grew up and lived for so many years. Or all their life. Their children study here, their jobs are here, their entire life is here. Many don’t even visit their native places anymore as it is too “hot” there and uncomfortable. They are so adjusted to Bangalore now.

And yet, ask them to speak one line in Kannada and they say, I don’t know Kannada.

The reason you, without remorse or shame, say that you don’t know the language is because you do not care or respect the language of the land you have made your home. You came here only to enjoy all the benefits. You have the audacity to even criticize the city the slightest chance you get. You do not care for the culture or the people. 

If people had forced you to learn Kannada, in 10 years, wouldn’t you have risen to advanced levels of fluency? If we had forced you, you would have become expert and fluent speakers. 

No, we did not force. 

We thought you would own this place, this place you call “home”. We thought you will love this place. We thought you will appreciate all the things the city has given you. And in return, you will yearn to “belong” to the city and not remain “an outsider” forever. 

But boy! We were so wrong. 

Learn each other’s language. We have taken the trouble to learn yours. Why can’t you do the same? We can now speak in at least five languages. Can’t you learn just one?