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Hi guys, sorry for sounding a chauvinist in my earlier post. I agree that both kannada & English should be present on name boards. ***Admin, could you please delete my earlier post with the subject 'language difficulty'? ***

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Srivathsa, I am curious to know too, where is it written that Hindi is the national language (In my opinion, Govt of India & Constitution dont say so. Please note that official language & national language are different) ? Do you think so because our education system says so? Or is this thought coming up because of media? Here is what I think :- Hindi is just one of the many official languages of India. All the states in India have not declared Hindi as their official language. India does not have any national language. It never had. Hindi is just a regional language just like any other. AS per 2001 census, only 41% consider Hindi as mother tongue - which means, majority of Indian population does not think Hindi is their mother tongue. Chauvinism happens to maximum extent regarding Hindi. Education system bluffs all. Media bluffs all. I lived in a major city in central India few years back. They had their bus numbers, bus seat numbers and ticket amount in Hindi numerics. I couldnt even make out what amount was written in my bus ticket. Couldnt locate my seat. Nobody points a finger at them. Why dual standards? why is it so that we readily accept others' parochial acts and tell our people to leave the country but hate our own parochial acts?

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You are right.  Article 343 specifies Hindi as the official language of the Union.  States can have their own official language. 

I don't want to get into a war of words.  In these matters "east is east and west is west..."

I don't want to point a finger at them because it is not worth it.  Charity always begins at home.

TS - was just trying to make a point.  I am no one to ask you to leave the country :). 

Srivathsa

 

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easy does it sri. i didnot get offended by your original post, dunno why you thought i would be. now, i am offended. :) :) rofl!!! its ok sri. ok more seriously, i am interested in this issue a lot. there is another doode in the gang that you are privy to, who is being real decorous and keeping mum, but i bet these type of questions keep him awake at night too. lemme just say, he aint the boisterous tarle subba like me but a rather noble kid, who goes about his task like a sage. i think it is absolutely ok that this question be discussed. people need to get this out of their systems and test it out in the open. no need to problematize and personalize it. bus boards are just one part of the deal. and the solution for that everyone agrees is, bilingual boards. its not even a teaser. but the problem that keeps getting symptomized as kannada vs the other is deeper than that. look around for examples to the contrary. i will give some mundane examples... coffee comes from chikamagalur but is sold in european ambience with no creds to chikamagalur and is done so because of a lot of presumptuous notions. when was the last time any builder in bangalore romantized the hoysalas, the kadambas and the chalukyas or even haDappa and mohenjodaDo and named their projects after them and their creations? look around, pretentious greeks and romans rule the roost in the land of the hoysalas. mallya, he who bought the sword of tippu sultan in open auction, himself is peddling make believe empire state. for crying out loud, forget modernizing the gopura and the nagara, which came with solid drain engineering, we cant seem to do better than unquestioning energy intensive abhisheka at the altar of the glass goddesses, even as native soil and stone lay vanquished. we may have not conquered the arches, but nobody ever complained about anything else in our architecture. there are tomes by europeans settled in idyllic indic settings ruing this loss of native knowledge, if you are interested. would a kempe gowda, who built all those lakes and admitted all those alien artisans and artistes ever catch the imagination of the brave new cosmopolitan bangalorean as a progressive, cosmopolitan hero? forget, kempe gowda, even the oDeyars dont stand a chance in this new bangalore despite all their legislations and western classical compositions not to mention their bilingual courts. much before the hoysalas, KA has been home to bilingualism and cosmopolitanism. hep and happening authors have written historical fiction rooted in karnataka with multilingual characters set as early as 10th century, as far as i can recall. if you stand at kempegowda circle and make these whole littany of complaints, people including 'digas would walk past you. but if you throw one stone at that lee store at the junction brigade and MG road for not getting a transcribed board everyone will sit up and consider. is it any surprise all this has been reduced to that? becoz the fine artisan goldsmiths of bangalore have not bothered to challenge the mindless trampling by these neo-cosmopolitans of bangalore, the iron smiths have taken over and there is no stopping where their heavy hammers land.

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Mr Krishnamoorthy,

We Kannadigas do not consider Bengaluru to be like Mumbai. We are quite tolerant and welcoming of people from all over the world to live, work and enrich our state.

The primary identity of Bengaluru is the *Capital* of Karnataka. Nothing more, nothing less.

You could move to Bihar if you so love Hindi.

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