Kannada has always been held in high regard by its people and the Hindi language imposition by Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to be a setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government.
Even in the major urban centres of the state, such as Bengaluru - which is often referred to as a melting pot - the locals have since forever asked the "outsiders" to learn Kannada and their culture to be a part of the city.
But Amit Shah's emphasis over the nationwide imposition of Hindi in a country like India, which is known for its unity in diversity, is a blatant mockery of the diverse cultures, traditions and basic fundamentals of the constitution.
Several residents of Karnataka, including political leaders, have opposed Shah's statements targeting the regional languages, which are culturally extremely significant.
The state Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa also expressed his disapproval through Twitter. "All official languages in our country are equal. However, as far as Karnataka is concerned, Kannada is the principal language. We will never compromise its importance and are committed to promote Kannada and our state's culture," he wrote.
The language imposition will have an adverse effect over the ruling BJP, even though some of the saffron party leaders of the state have appealed to the people to not consider it as an imposition of language. On the other hand, Congress and JD(S) have stood against the move, claiming that Hindi is not widely spoken in the south Indian districts and is only another language, just like other 22 official languages of Indian.
The people from Karnataka have voiced out their displeasure over Hindi earlier also. In - 2017- triggered by an online campaign - Hindi signboards were removed from most of the public places, including Bengaluru metro.
The residents of the state are displeased with the language imposition and several pro-Kannada organisations are protesting against this. Even though Bengaluru houses people from all over the world and is multicultural in nature, the locals still prefer Kannada rather than English or Hindi and hate people saying "Kannada gothilla" (don't know Kannada).
Many times, people from other states have been beaten up by the locals for not speaking Kannada and language imposition in the only state in south India ruled by the saffron party is likely to get a backlash.
