Any person gazing around some of the streets of Bangalore might feel Bangalore is not a part of Karnataka. Through the IT boom or otherwise, people have come in torrents to this city like no other city (Except Mumbai probably). Perhaps, people from all the states of the country are found in the city. Everything’s fine. The constitution guarantees the right to every citizen of the country to wherever he/she wants to reside.
But for the person who loves the language and the culture of the state will be in disappointment in this scenario. There are people here who have stayed for over many years and still don’t know kannada. A belief has set in that even though if one doesn’t know the language can manage in this city very easily. And it is truly so. This can never happen in a city like Chennai. If the same scenario continues for a long time, then kannada may vanish from the city. This might look like an overstatement, but looks apparent if the same trend continues. Even the statistics support the fact. Around 53% of the population of Bangalore is of kannadigas. Such a state never exists in any other states.
Some areas of Bangalore like R.T.Nagar is completely dominated by the people and language of neighboring states & areas like M.G. Road, brigade road show the ‘modern’ side of Bangalore. Searching kannada in these parts will be a Herculean task. People should respect the local culture and language. They don’t have to do a great service to the language. The greatest service that they can do is to learn and speak it. But this basic thing is lacking.
The modern fad is to claim that one doesn’t know kannada. Some people take pride in it. People take pride in the things in which they actually have to be embarrassed. Some kannadigas also claim their children can’t write kannada properly with pride. That’s shameful.
The attitudes of both kannadigas and non-kannadigas towards kannada and the local culture has to change. Otherwise, the day of reckoning for kannada is not too far!!
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