Prakash Raj, Darshan Thoogudeepa Speak Against Imposition of Hindi

Kannada film industry too seem to have joined the protest against Hindi imposition with actors Prakash Raj and Darshan Thoogudeepa registering their voices. Both the actors took to social media to raise their voice against imposing Hindi.

Raj, who has acted in South and Hindi films tweeted that he would work in all languages but his roots lie in Kannada. He also posted a picture of himself wearing a t-shirt with the writing “nange Hindi baralla hograppa”.

Actor Darshan who works in the Kannada film industry tweeted that Kannada is the national language for proud Kannadigas and it was wrong to celebrate Hindi Diwas with the tax money of Kannadigas.

Darshan’s tweet comes a day after a section of pro-kannada activists on Monday damaged the name board at KSR Bengaluru city railway station protesting imposition of Hindi.

The t-shirt campaign also follows Tamilians including actors sporting t-shirts with similar slogans – “Hindi theriyaathu poda” and “I am Tamil speaking Indian” that also extended to the political space.

Also, with increasing job losses locally, language protectionism campaigns have gained further ground in Karnataka – fuelled by groups that have a problem with the language of communication used by banks. The use of Hindi and English in rural areas has angered many. And now, with heavy job losses in many sectors over the last three months, it has given rise to a demand for reserving customer service jobs for Kannadigas.

“Other than usual thing is all the workers has to be Kannadigas because they are daily conversing with people around. Because what happens is for example in banks, rural banks we are getting lot of complaints that they are not talking in the rural langauge. Because of that there is lot of problem arising. How can we have a customer relationship without knowing the local language?,” said TS Nagabharana, chairperson, Kannada Development Authority.

With the lockdown, many returned to their native places. But locally, jobs are not that easy to come by.

“Wherever we go for work, lot of migrant labourers from north Indian states are there. I was driver. No job now. We are from Hubbali, Karnataka. But we don’t have jobs in Karnataka itself,” says Suresh Hanumanthappa, a resident of Hubbali. Suresh who used to work in Bengaluru left to his native with family during the lockdown but when he returned he couldn’t find a job.

The pro-kannada groups point to the new education policy as threatening prospects for the next generation as well.

“The NEP is imposing Hindi on Kannada students. These students are forced to learn Hindi and it is injustice to them that Hindi is being imposed on them because tomorrow if they have to opt for a central govt job, they won’t have a fair chance,” said Gurudev Narayan Kumar, president, Kannada Chaluvali.