What's in a Language?
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| Namma Metro's official logo (Courtesy: www.abrandnewstory.com) |
One would think that 40 years later, language wouldn’t be a
problem in India, and everybody would learn to accept and respect the other’s
language, but sadly, that isn’t the case. While on the one side we have reached
Mars and boast of having one of the world’s fastest growing economy, but on the
other we have constant infighting on issues like food & language. Beef is
food for some people, and Kannada is the mother tongue of a million people,
whereas India is home to a billion.
Bangalore as a city can be best described as an overgrown village,
even without the traffic woes & frothy lakes. Pavements disintegrate into
their constituent blocks midway on main roads, roads are plagued with potholes,
traffic lights & zebra crossings go missing at intersections and tall
apartment blocks clumsily spring up in the middle of modest independent houses.
The one thing going for us in this city other than its trees, is the Metro, as
it cuts on both money & time spent yawning while being stuck in traffic. Travelling
from Malleswaram to Jayanagar had reduced to a mere 15 minutes, as compared to
the 40-minute gruelling car ride. Three days into the inauguration of the Green
line (which took six years to come into fruition), the metro was filled with
more office-goers than joyriders, and Namma Metro was piled with accolades. But
over the past few days, the issue that seems to be plaguing some commuters is
not the surprising absence of escalators towards the platform at certain
stations, but the multilingual signboards. There have been news reports on people
blacking out Hindi/ non-Kannada signs on not only metro boards, but display
boards of shops as well . There was also a video of people from the Karnataka
Rakshana Vedike organisation questioning the manager of a retail store
regarding the choice of the music playing in the shop. Apparently they had
heard nobody speak in Kannada & no Kannada film songs playing.
Maybe it’s me, but I don’t understand what the issue is. I
never understood it when it happened in Mumbai, and I don’t understand it now.
Apparently these people think that by not promoting Kannada, the language will
go extinct. A basic Google search reveals that the population of the entire
state of Karnataka is about 64 million and the population of Bangalore is 1/8th
of that. The population of Kannada-speaking families outside the county is not
known. Even if one makes the insane assumption that nobody speaks Kannada in
Bangalore, there is no way that the language will go extinct. I also don’t
understand how putting Hindi signages along with Kannada is the ‘imposition’ of
the former language. In fact I refuse to understand how this, with its numerous
hashtags, is a matter that requires discussion, especially when we have other
topics to discuss about. Like how Delhi Metro managed to map nearly the entire
city, ploughing through NCR within 8 years whereas Bangalore Metro took 7 years
to merely connect the north to south and east to west, all the while leaving
the airport & the main IT hubs disconnected. Or like how it takes an
excruciating 45 minutes to travel 7 kms. Or like how it is a pain to walk on
the roads in the city, unless one stays around Cubbon Park or Lalbagh. Or like
how garbage lies at every corner of every lane in the city. Language and food
are a part of our culture, and should be cherished & respected, but never
enforced or imposed. It would do us all good to change our perceptions and
focus on the issues that really matter instead of fighting over our languages
and banning our food.
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