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<h1 class="entry-title">Kannada becomes both hipster and political</h1>
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<a href="https://theprint.in/author/rohini-swamy/" title="Posts by Rohini Swamy" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author">Rohini Swamy</a> <span class="gmail-td-post-date gmail-td-post-date-no-dot"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2018-02-09T10:55:33+00:00">9 February, 2018</time></span> </div>
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<div class="gmail-td-post-featured-image"><figure><img class="entry-thumb gmail-td-animation-stack-type0-2" src="https://64C5F.https.cdn.softlayer.net/8064C5F/theprint.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Kannada-696x441.jpg" alt="A Namma Metro signboard being repainted" title="Latest news on Kannada | Karnataka rediscovers its pride in Kannada, and not everyone's complaining | ThePrint.in" width="696" height="441"><figcaption class="gmail-wp-caption-text">A Namma Metro signboard being repainted in Bengaluru</figcaption></figure></div>
<p><strong>Even before the assertion of Kannada pride under
Siddaramaiah, non-native speakers started learning the language. But
imposition remains a thorny issue.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Bengaluru</strong>: Last week, when Prime Minister Narendra
Modi addressed a public meeting in Bengaluru, he made sure that he began
and concluded his 90-minute speech in Kannada. It certainly wasn’t the
first time a prime minister or a national leader resorted to what is now
a fairly common tactic to connect with local crowds around the country.</p>
<p>But Modi’s lines were the longest sentences spoken by any non-Kannada
speaking leader from Delhi in recent memory. With just months to go
before the state elects a new assembly, the messaging did not need any
translation.</p>
<p>Not only was the Prime Minister trying hard to identify himself with
the people of Karnataka, the effort was also seen as an attempt to
counter Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has, in the last one year or
so, given such importance to Kannada that it has turned into an issue of
Kannada identity or ‘asmita’.</p>
<p>In the last few months, <a href="https://theprint.in/2017/07/19/exclusive-no-need-for-centre-to-impose-hindi-in-karnataka-cm-siddaramaiah/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Siddaramaiah’s Congress government</a>
has consciously ensured that announcements on ‘Namma Metro’ (our
metro) in Bengaluru do not follow the customary three-language formula.
Instead, the announcements follow the Tamil Nadu model, where they are
made only in Tamil and English.</p>
<p>Pro-Kannada organisations have appreciated this, as they believe it
has restored some identity of the Kannadigas, the booming capital city
of whose state has seen a huge influx of people speaking different
tongues from around the country in the last two decades.</p>
<p>“Why should Hindi be imposed on us when it is not our national
language? In several parts of Karnataka, many central government
agencies are not using Kannada even on their boards,” said S.G.
Siddaramaiah, chairman of the Kannada Development Authority (KDA). “Yes,
we must follow a three-language policy, but top priority must be given
to Kannada.”</p>
<h3><strong>Efforts to teach and learn</strong></h3>
<p>While the government’s new efforts to promote Kannada have an obvious
tinge of politics, migrants to Bengaluru have been learning Kannada for
multiple reasons, including bargaining with the ubiquitous
auto-rickshaw drivers.</p>
<p>And there have been several independent efforts to propagate the
language. One such is the online and offline classes organised by a
group of youngsters under the name Kannadagotilla.com (which means ‘I
don’t know Kannada’). With nearly 9,000 students, a wholehearted effort
is being made to teach people from the age of 16 to 60 to speak Kannada.</p>
<p>“We Kannadigas are very accommodative and tend to learn the language
of those who are speaking to us – be it Hindi, Tamil or many others,”
said Ranju Krishna, part of the Kannadagotilla team. “We are
linguistically very adaptive, so people don’t find it necessary to learn
our language. But only if we inculcate that pride among local
Kannadigas can we encourage others to learn. We should not judge others;
we should encourage them.”</p>
<p>There is also a newly-acquired passion among parents from other
linguistic backgrounds to get their children to learn the language, as
it has become a compulsory language to be learnt. And to help their
children, parents have started learning to read and write Kannada too.</p>
<p>“If I have to teach my daughter at home, I have to learn Kannada
first,” said Sarmishta, a parent. “We don’t look at it as an imposition,
because wherever we go, we have seen that learning the local language
is a must. If we were in Kolkata, my child would have had to learn
Bengali, so it is the same here.”</p>
<p>“Teaching and using Kannada to help get jobs is fine. But it’s not fair to force a language on someone,” she added.</p>
<h3><strong>Against imposition</strong></h3>
<p>Singer-composer Raghu Dixit is among those who feel there’s no need
to impose. Dixit, who has in his own way modernised Kannada folk songs
and brought people from all parts of the world closer to Kannada
language and culture, feels the effort to acknowledge one’s Kannada
roots should begin with oneself.</p>
<p>“Several auto and taxi drivers speak in Hindi naturally to clients. I
would urge them to first speak in Kannada, and if the client does not
understand, then speak in a different language. That way, you are
upholding your identity as a Kannadiga, and also accommodating others
who do not know the language,” Dixit said.</p>
<p>“If you use the Karnataka state flag during the Rajyotsava, I would
very proudly salute the flag or wear a badge which reflects it, as it is
a matter of pride. But using the language or the flag as a tool to
create violence and get political mileage, which is what we see today,
is not acceptable,” he added.</p>
<h3><strong>A different take</strong></h3>
<p>Ramzan Darga, a prominent writer and a Muslim who teaches Basava philosophy and Veerashaivism, has a different take.</p>
<p>“Who is a Kannadiga? A person who can understand and speak Kannada. Kannada culture has no particular logic,” he said.</p>
<p>“If a person comes from Kashmir and understands the language, speaks
it and embraces its literary world, he becomes a Kannadiga for me,”
Darga added. “A Kannadiga is not bound by any cultural or geographical
limits.”</p>
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<br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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