Bengaluru Metro
Signboard in Hindi at a Bengaluru Metro Rail stationTwitter/Navaneeth Gowda

The use of the Hindi language on the signboards at the Metro Rail stations in Bengaluru has sparked protests on social media. The pro-Kannada campaigners have requested the state government to discard the three-language policy and stick to two languages instead.

The protests began soon after the full phase 1 of the Metro Rail was inaugurated last week. The north-south corridor of the Metro Rail began operations on Saturday. The protests, which started on social media under the hashtag '#NammaMetroHindiBeda', has already gathered 10 lakh responses.

"For Kannadigas, there is Kannada signage. For others (migrants), it is in English. There are other community language people here too – like Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam speakers who are greater in number than Hindi-speakers. Why should Hindi be given special status? We are against that," Arun Javagal, one of the campaigners, was quoted by News18 as saying.

Campaigners raised questions over the special treatment given to Hindi by the Metro officials. However, the protesters said that this was not an anti-Hindi protest and they were neither against the language nor against its speakers. "When we go to North Indian cities, we make the effort to learn Hindi. If there are migrants from other States who come to Karnataka, a large number of them have tried to assimilate here by learning the language. We welcome that. But the small chance that there is, that new migrants will make any effort to learn Kannada, will diminish if the convenience of Hindi is there," Vallish Kumar, another activist, was quoted by the channel as saying.

Meanwhile, Metro officials said Hindi was only an option offered to the commuters and it did not mean Kannada was being neglected. Officials argued against the point raised by the campaigners asking if Hindi films should also be banned in the state.

However, Kumar said the campaigners are not against private initiatives or institutions using Hindi. The problem is with institutions of the state government where the use of Hindi language is not compulsory. Campaigners said the protest was only about a commuter service of the state government and not about the airport or the railways under the Central government.

"Many Central government services that were earlier in Hindi, English and local languages are not available in the local Kannada language now. This could be postal services, railway tickets, bank documents like cheque books. Why has this slowly crept in? In the case of the Metro, neither the State government nor the Centre has insisted on Hindi signages – but this was a policy adopted by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Board members many years back," Kumar said.

"There is fear that, over a period of time, languages would be extinct because very few use them – we have seen this Hindi hegemony bring down the extent of usage of languages like Bhojpuri or Maithili or Santhali," Javagal told News18. The campaign has gained the support of members of the state government as well as the Opposition. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy told News18: "Bengaluru is a cosmopolitan city; Hindi, English and Kannada are used. Kannada is compulsory and English should be used, but the Centre cannot force Hindi on people. We will talk to the concerned officials about this." Karnataka is the second state after Tamil Nadu to witness backlash against what they call the forced imposition of the Hindi language in state government services.

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