#‎StopHindiImposition‬: Why Bangalore will lead the next round of anti-Hindi protest

#‎StopHindiImposition‬ emerged as a major trend on the Independence Day

Staff correspondent, August 16, 2015, NewsCrunch

On Saturday, amidst patriotic fervour that swept the country, South India started tweeting anti-Hindi messages with the hashtag ‪#‎StopHindiImposition‬.

The trend held good for about four hours in many cities including Bangalore. At a count, it had received 30,000 plus tweets.

The campaign may have come as a surprise, but it was carefully planned.A Facebook page, PLE Bengaluru, had mobilised Twitter users and shared 69 messages that could be used for tweeting.

‪#‎StopHindiImposition‬ drew a response from many parts of South India while its epicentre was in Bangalore.

Unlike the anti-Hindi protest of the past, which was largely a Tamil Nadu phenomenon, the new campaign may emerge out of Bangalore and be initiated by Kannadigas, usually seen as the most docile of South Indians.

The Tamil Nadu anti-Hindi movement was top-down; it was mobilised by political parties though around popular emotive issues.

The new anti-Hindi campaign is getting organised on social media and is more lateral in nature.

The immediate trigger for ‪#‎StopHindiImposition‬ was apparently the PM's speech, which was entirely in Hindi, a language South has problem in accepting as its own.

But the resentment which powered it has been long in the making and that leads to the major site of protest -  Bangalore not Chennai.

The software industry changed Bangalore's demography immensely. Hindi, which was spoken by just about 2% of the city's population in 1991 is the new street language of Bangalore, due to an outpour of immigration from North Indian states.

The number of Kannadigas in the city has also gone up as Bangalore acts as a magnet for them as well. Kannadigas coming from other districts are more assertive of their linguistic identity than those brought up in Bangalore, who are more used to a cosmopolitan setting.

A new generation of Kannadigas are confronting Hindi spoken on the streets as lingua franca, the perceived or real arrogance of the immigrants and their increasing hold over the popular culture - note that Hindi sign boards in the city are a festering issue.

The Central Government's pro-Hindi stand in various sectors, Railways for example, adds fuel.

There have been tensions with Tamils and Telugus in the past; but Bangalore could fashion syncretic practices, which transcended the tensions. But the new immigrants, Hindi or otherwise, are a mobile force. They do not have the need  or the patience to seep into the local cultures.

While Kannadigas may light up the issue, as Saturday's experience shows, support will be quick in coming from other South Indian states.

A lady from Andhra Pradesh pointed out that there were 10 crore Telugus, who could live jolly well on their own without Hindi or India.

#‎StopHindiImposition‬ - Sample tweets demanding equality for all Indian languages