Saturday, November 02, 2013

Everyone in Karnataka must learn Kannada...

..because they use the resources of the state.

Years ago, a colleague in Bangalore had said something along these lines to me. My response to her was: Yes, you are right. People should not need to move to Karnatka. Companies who get cheap labour that migrates should be forced to set up offices in whatever location they want workers from.

If they want people from Delhi to work for them, they should build an office in Delhi, not force people from Delhi to move to a culture that makes them feel unwelcome and alien.

Has anyone ever written about how the migrants feel in the new culture? And since when did we become "outsiders" in our own country?

I have left 2 cities because they were nasty to people not from the state. One of those cities was Bangalore. The other was Mumbai. These are progressive cities. And yet the hidden jingoism, even among the educated, who are supposed to be "globally mobile" is unnerving.

If we have to get down to specifics, India follows a federal structure. All states get some assisstance from the centre and are NOT autonomous. Which means their "resources" belong to the country and not themselves alone.

Karnatka will get 10,000 crores of central funds during 2013-14. Out of a total of 47,500 crore in the Karnatka budget, 10,000 crore will come from "India". So the minister's statement was factually incorrect.

The minister was talking about keeping Kannada medium schools alive, and revitalising them to increase enrolment. That is a lofty idea, but is entirely separate from forcing other people to learn a language.

This whole jingoism just has to end. It rears its ugly head far too often. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, now Vidarbha, tomorrow Gorkhaland. The number of intolerant states is very low - we just counted them. But these few states go on to create a murky image of India in the minds of all Indians.

3 comments:

Onkar said...

I agree. Also, reckless statements by people do a lot of damage to harmony.

How do we know said...

Onkar sir: very true.

Sai Charan said...

I hope people realize that we are all 'Indians' and need to be treated right, valued and respected - doesn't matter which state/city we are from.