Bangalore, Kannadigas and Riots

Last week Bangalore saw some of the worst cases of mob fury and public nuisance witnessed in the subcontinent. There were many aspects that surround that violence and these issues have been highlighted pretty well by the media. Just to give a headsup it started off by the death of a legendary actor in these parts of the woods Dr.Rajkumar. He was a legend in his own right and did a lot of good to forward the intentions of the local people aka the Kannadigas. He was seen as a leader amongst them and a very iconic figure to say the least. From what I have seen and heard of the person he was a pretty good guy, not politically motivated and totally non confrontationalist in his attitude right to his core. His passing away bought in a lot of people from all over the state who came peacefully to pay their respects. However this large stream of people was not expected by the local authorities and miscreants entered in torching some buses, causing a lot of damage to public and private property, putting a lot of loss on the local economy and eventually and probably the worst part being the indelible tarnish splashed on the image of Bangalore and our country.

Now all that said and done there seems to be something terribly wrong around here. Like the Sainiks in Maharashtra there are local groups who are of the opinion that outsiders aka non Kannadigas should "have" to learn the local tongue if they want to be out here. This opinion was voiced by a local, and supposedly, eminent journalist whose name I seem to forget***. His reasoning was that in France people can't do without learning French and in England people can't do without learning English. That is the word of the land is very important. I wish I was near him to smack him. Some of my counter arguments
- Essentially the analogy with France was totally uneducated. France is loosing out on investments that do not depend on the local economy due to their chauvinism. Bangalore on the other hand is based on outsourced work.
- The image of Kannadigas by us outsiders (I wish I was one even though I am not) is of the local thugs aka auto drivers taking advantage of everyone, followed by the land/home owners who charge a fortune to rent out their homes to outsiders etc. They don't paint a pretty picture of themselves so what would make anyone aspire to be like them. Noone want to be like you and therefore noone wants to take the trouble to learn your lingo either.
- Moreover the dufus made all his arguments in English on a English news channel. That shows the importance and need of English in a global economic scenario.
- And does he know that there are about a 1000+ yes one thousand plus official dialect prevalent within India today. If we need to bring reform within the country the only way is by having one common language for us all. And FOR HIS INFORMATION that language is the national language Hindi. Imagine a businessman going all through India and needing to learn the local language to fill in his paperwork. The masses will never realise the benefits of the booming economy with such an backward school of thought.

If I employed him I would fire this columnist.

***Such people by my lingo are termed as "educated illiterates". People who have formal education and possibly quite a lot of it but have not been able to utilise their minds, or whatever source of intellect they may have, to understand and put that education to some effective purpose. Will try to find his name but he is not worth mentioning in the positive.