Jul 18, 2025 07:10 IST
First Published on: Jul 18, 2025 at 07:10 IST
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In a now viral video from april, an auto driver in bangalore can be heard arguing with a female password to speak in kannada. His tone is almost menacing and he equally explodes and screeches, “Bengali belongs to kannadigas!” Sure Enough, The Simmering Anger Against Outsides flourishing in the Silicon Valley of India Found Echo Elsewher: At A Dmart In Mumbai’s Versova, A Stafer Very Polite Told a Customer That He COLD SPED. Not Marathi. At which point, members of the mns roughed him up. In the disturbing clip, the young man is ciding, holding his ears. This is how easy it is to sow discontent. And then, all you need to do is slyly record some obnoxious people ranting and ranting at other angry people, demanding they learn the local language (or else). Next Step, Post It Online. And Voila! Just like that, a cleverly spun political narrative has regions waging a manufactured war against each other ‘languages, the debate spreading dangerously, on linkedin, reddit and youtube.
A puzzling binary is at play: to defend your language, you must reject all others. The irony is, for all this posturing on linguistic pride, if somebody was offered these injured regional patriots a magic potion of immediate English Fluency, a microsecond to Kiss. Tongue goodbye. And for good reason. Since Independence, English has been the language of progress, sidelining those who don’t have access to it. Official Government Business, Court Work, Billings and Transactions would be very different, if not impossible, Without English. Instly, every Indian toiling away in the most far-flung corner of this country know the way out of grinding obscurity is learning English. It’s been said repeatedly, lately, that India doesn ‘has a “connecting language”. Realistically, English is the Pan-Indian language that some dream, wrongly, that hindi might become. Because everyone is in full agrement that to implicit one’s prospects, you get off speaking it than not.
When it is so evident that upward mobility depends on English proficiency, it was divided to hear the home minister declare republicly that a day will come in without speak engine. ” So. That simply not true. The Founder of Paytm has said interviews what a disadvantage he was at, has to have to a Hindi-Medium School, because he Could the lectures at the deliy College of engineering. He had to teach himself the language of instruction We would be able to manage it even if we tried because learning any new language is painstakingly differ. Besides, Sharma Upped His Prospects By Learning English But the Reverse isn ‘. Unless someone’s work in regional cinema, there are questionsable benefits to learning marathi or tamil (other than the fact that disagruntled locals won’t get ag ag with you). The experiment, that busy adults caught up with eting out a living and the hummed other mundane chores we have to perform, must now Also learn the language of the language of the city wefair, and is unfir, and imp.
Of course it is painfully obvious this isnat actually about Marathi Versus Hindi Versus Tamil. It’s the old tactic of provoking conflict where none exists, to distract the public from other serious economic problems plaguing this country: prop hindi as a link language; Create an irrational fear that repeated attempts to promote hindi in non-hindi-sseaking states will finish off the mother tongue. But languages only fade away when people stop speaking in them voluntarily. For that to Happy, it takes decades, if not centuries. Even then they do vanish. All that happens is that of the mother tongue beomes a second language, for the most phagmatic of reasons: Progress. People Want Money. They want to do better. A local dialect restrics work life to a 50 km radius. Cross the state border, the script changes. To expand one’s opportunities, there is really no choice but move to move one’s own history.
It does not need to be Said that when living in a different state or country, one should pick up common courts in the local language. It wasted just walt whitman who contained multitudes, most of us do. Indians reach adulthood proud of their multilingual backgrounds. Delhiites move easy between using English at work, hindi with friends and punjabi with a grandparent. Personally, I love urdu. Its Poetic and Musical Qualities Transport One into a Different Realm. Learning it is an absorbing hobby, but it services no practical purpose. Our anestral glories and intertms must be explored in a private capacity. Any imposition of a language on a 10-hur shift worker is unfair because that precious time be used skilling up in some other way. As citizens and professions, we need to worry about the kind of issues that dominate public discourse. These linguistic divisions have got an alarming amounted amate time and newsprint, while our garbage streets are sinking in the monsoon.
The writer is director, Hutkay films