The Fun in Bollywood & Hindi Imposition happening Underneath!

I had been to the Village restaurant in Bengaluru recently on a team outing from office. During one of the celebration activities therein, I was requested to witness a celebration of the young(er) people, dancing their minds off to some Hindi movie numbers. I was shocked to see how the dancers teamed up as though ignoring the vulgarities in the songs being played and displayed a fictitious oneness in gender by their rather erotic moves. And when the song ended, no wonder, there were cries of once more.

The youth is being made to "want" more of what it "wants"; in the process it wants less of what it "needs", perhaps.

But beyond this thought, ever thought why Hindi movies tend to carry more dance & frolic driven songs and thereby tend to carry away the young audiences into its reverie?

Its an entirely orchestrated drama. An orchestra arranged by the central government and Hindi movie industry. Why else would Hindi movie artists so easily get the Ratna awards?! Here's an explanation.

It isn't difficult now to say that Bollywood (the Hindi movie industry) and the central government have worked hand-in-hand from a long time - worked to drive the Indian nationality theory into young, unassuming, minds; worked together to successfully impose Hindi on the widely spread, linguistically diverse Indian population.

It is fun & frolic, after all, that the youth likes; after these programmings by the film industry-govt nexus, it is what it craves and demands. Anything that is mundane and more serious, like some of the really thought provoking movies from the non-Hindi industries carrying songs of serious introspection, doesn't carry the cool (or hot!) factor to attract the young audiences. This further catalyzes the Hindi Imposition projects of the central government, but worse still, it seriously erodes the impression young minds have about non-Hindi works of art and non-Hindi forms of entertainment altogether. No wonder, the latter are making only those attempts that make it more resemble the Hindi counterpart, by remaking and dubbing alike.

On the flip side, why there is more frolic in Hindi movies is worth investigating as well. Just like the Hindu Gods are always portrayed to be amid happiness, which in turn makes people flock towards their idols and images seeking their own happiness, the Bollywood industry lets go of 'boring' social messages that it needs to convey and loudly advertises tempting lewdness and conveys messages of fun & frolic to the youth.

It is also the Hindi industry and the Hindi people that are the ultimate beneficiaries in the Indian union, what with all the pro-Hindi policies of the central government and its machinery. With this backdrop, if there's one film industry in India that can really celebrate all through the year, it is the Hindi film industry. And this industry is taking most Indian youth by hypnotizing them towards a virtual state of happiness, night after night.

So: for everything serious, there are non-Hindi movie industries. For everything fun, cool & hot, there is the Hindi movie industry, and that is where people will flock to. Kudos to the creativity of the Hindi imposer!

Gottilla! Gottilla!

To all those "Kannada gottilla" speakers, here's my humblest response to your non-Kannada (especially Hindi) words spoken to me: "GOTTILLA!!"

In fact this approach worked like a magic this morning in my bus. One guy asked me about a bus stop in Hindi and I said the word - GOTTILLA pretty earnestly. After some murmuring and a long pause, the guy spoke again, this time in Kannada, however broken, and I gave a helping response in Kannada with a smile. He smiled too!

This should teach us two lessons - (1) that the people that come into our cities, no matter how fresh their migration is, they do have the capability to speak a few words because they want to make a living here, and (2) that it needs a little friendly, earnest and shrewd force to get those Kannada words out of their brains and mouths. We only need to be smart enough to realize (1) and strong enough to sustain (2)!!

Well this is the way relations can be strengthened. The imposition of Hindi, like a ghost-god that instills fear in the vulnerable, has instilled fear of attracting fellow countrymen's wrath of traitorship. This has made Kannadigas sitting ducks in the fire of Hindi Imposition and they've accommodated themselves to respond in Hindi on the very first utterance of that gottilla word.

In short the subtle negative in gottilla that has been working against us can easily, this way, be converted in our favour.

The Legal Fortress around Hindi Imposition

Hindi and English are the lone official languages of the government of Republic India. This means ever since India became a sovereign democratic republic, promising to protect the interests of all its citizens, millions of people of non-Hindi background have been rendered as second grade citizens since their government does not deal in their language(s). This is Hindi Imposition in India summarized in a few lines.

With this kind of bias Government of India (GoI) has shown and even institutionalized towards Hindi language and (thereby) people who speak Hindi, and with the protection this institution has provided to Hindi speakers, it appears that Hindi speaking people are double insulated from adverse forces - being governed by a State government and pampered by the GoI both of which designed to favor Hindi people's rights - while non-Hindi people are left bare and helpless out there, exposed to adverse forces. In various circumstances, this is not a metaphor, but very close to reality indeed.

On the other hand, owing to the lack of protection by this institution, people living in non-Hindi States experience insecurity in their own country, with employment, food provision, primary health and even identity services catered to by the GoI being carried on a channel that only speaks Hindi apart from English. These services are freely assimilated by Hindi speaking people whereas they are indigestible to non-Hindi people of India. Be it in terms of getting their fundamental rights protected or even as far until protecting one's own lineage and having a non-decading population over time, lives of non-Hindi peoples of India are subject to substantial stress thanks to policies framed on unfair interpretations of our constitution, such as seen in The Official Language Act 1963.

Simple, yet tough, majority:
Interestingly, Article 368 of Constitution of India (CoI) rests the power to amend the statute in the hands of the parliament alone, whereas some specific parts of the constitution, including the lists in Schedule 7 and Article 368, cannot be amended without approval from a simple majority of State Legislatures. In the wake of an increased number of States being carved out, passing valid amendments to such sections of the CoI becomes a touch exercise to orchestrate - perhaps an outcome favorable to the central government that would like to retain more power with itself. As though in support of such intentions, Article 3 of the same constitution empowers the central govt to do just that - impede the process of State level opinion formation by fragmenting them. Talk about denial of fundamental rights, huh?

A pragmatic, solution oriented approach to the Hindi Imposition problem will call for amendments to Schedule 7 (the Union, State and the Concurrent lists) and some to the Official Language policy, which incidentally have been in demand since long time across the country. The center though has been successful in evading them or putting them off by means of various available interpretations of the constitution, and its protective and tricky fortress of articles that make it very difficult to achieve these essential amendments that will incorporate real federal features into our democracy.

In the backdrop of this sustained Hindi Imposition in India, it is important to see these pieces of law as blocking vital amendments required to stop this unfair imposition and to make way for equality among people of all Indian languages.

(Related read: Let this September open our eyes!)

Of Indian Railways, Terrorism and the NCTC Debate

FIVE DAYS after the twin blasts shook Hyderabad, the central government (GoI) went through its annual chore of reading out a joke called the Indian Railway Budget. The uniqueness of this budget is it spells a comedy and a tragedy at the same time, what with the amount of distress it is indirectly bringing to all Indian States. Here's a look at the miracle as it unfolds in various sheets of newspaper this week.

Basking under the glory of being the largest public sector employer in the largest democracy, yet defying the existence of the Center's comptroller (CAG), Indian railways is the most loss making public enterprise that has never been debated or even considered for decentralization or privatization.

Public loss is Private gain?
Caring least for the massive loss Indian railways continues to make year-on-year and by offering Indian railways as a market agnostic cheap travel option, various central governments seem to have successfully used the public funded Indian railways to achieve multifarious goals like north to south migration, creation of nationwide employment deficits and socio-economic stress factors (like inflation, demand for rapid electrification and demand for urbanization) that could be turned into election manifestos of national parties - especially because national parties are well equipped to encash such factors into votes.

A closer look could reveal that financial loss is just a meager loss that Indian railways could be causing to the Indian union.

The Terror Angle
While alleged to be splurging our moneys and imposing Hindi on all non-Hindi peoples of India, Indian railways is also posing a serious threat to the nation's internal security by acting as an unchecked and unbiased carrier of innocent people and terrorists alike. Operating on such a vast juxtaposition of diverse territories together called India, yet operated by the central government alone comes with its own limitations in vigilance during daily operations. In the name of being an enabler to ensure people's right to move and settle anywhere in India, the railways have acted as an express channel for terror transport especially because of this lack of vigilance - which explains why so few terror attacks it is itself exposed to!!

With the debate around National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) gaining traction again in the wake of these blasts, an important question to be raised will have to be a combination of the suspicion over a centralized Indian railways being the terror enabler and the federal angle that some States are approaching NCTC with: Is the biggest key to Indian terror in the hands of Indian railways, and should counter-terrorism not start by decentralizing it? Is the NCTC destined to fail as long as the Indian railways continues to be a centrally run show?

Its a NEET Diaspora Out There

A CBSE book cover (pic:koolskool.in)

In the sequence of National Policies on Development, Water, Labor and other items of national interest coming to light, another of the Center's programs to safeguard its brainchild national interest through establishing uniform standards has surfaced in the matter of education - something that could put a nation on track - the right one or an entirely wrong one.

Earlier this week some students in the pre-university grade from Karnataka approached the Supreme Court demanding to quash one of Medical Council of India's (MCI) notifications - one that forces these students to study subjects based on CBSE curriculum to clear the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), different from their current State curriculum. This new qualifier test is not just an unnecessary replacement of the erstwhile Common Entrance Test (CET) in Karnataka, but also a tragic one for a majority of students in all non-Hindi States since the NEET is rendered only in Hindi and English! This is a dual blow because it is a blow by the Center to the State governments that are seen as subordinate here, and a blow of Hindi imperialism on non-Hindi speaking peoples of India.

The MCI was established in the pre-independence year of 1934. The basis for its establishment back then could be related to the bringing in of alien western methods of medication into colonial India by the British who obviously required to oversee its installation. But the 1956 version of a new Act with the same name empowers the Government of India (GoI), just a six year old republic having no semblance to the British power in terms of medical knowledge supremacy, with supreme powers with regards to establishing uniform standards in medical education in the entire of India and to oversee the registration of medical institutes, professionals and professional courses across the wide nation.

With no sign of medical know-how supremacy at the Center per-se, yet sheer authority in its hands, it is obvious that the MCI has created avenues for its abuse. Although Education is a concurrent subject today, the Center has been able to wield MCI as a weapon to bring education (at least in medical profession) under its sole control. Rolling out programs like NEET that are a combination of the CBSE curriculum menace and Hindi imperialism, it is also able to enable more students from the Hindi belt States to clear NEET because the test is administered in Hindi and no other Indian language. Given the current skew in number of professional institutions across India, NEET leads to a big undesirable diaspora paving way for further sliding of the BIMARU state definition. More importantly, programs such as NEET take away the rights of States to conduct their own qualifiers whereas establishments such as MCI limit the States rights to start new professional institutions based on their own needs.

As seen from this series, a suppression of legislative powers at the State level by the Center has been causing havoc in so many spheres of life that the Indian democracy is now really questionable from many an angle. If such a fundamental right as Education can be held in the concurrent list for so long and the Center being solely responsible for progress under this heading does little but use it to fuel its hidden agenda (of Hindi imposition and uncontrolled migration etc.) it is time that the States educate themselves and demand change.

Namma Metro: Will we climb this Mountain between the Valleys?

Namma Metro is here, and my, is it the talk of the town or what? As a weird coincidence of sorts, I had to head out of Benglur on the night of Oct 20, 2011 - same day when Namma Metro was officially launched for public use - flying from one valley to another.. from one Metro town to another. In this context, here's a roll-out of my observations on our Metro in comparison with the Metro running in another Valley on the other side of the planet!

Upon a quick survey of public transport in two Silicon Valleys, we find on one hand, VTA, the authority that runs a hybrid public transit system connecting multiple south Californian suburbs, and on the other hand two bodies namely BMTC & BMRC together connecting our own valley, Benglur. Standing among various differences between these geographies and organizations is the common factor that urban public transit systems are localized-by-design, in that their target audience and the traits expected of their operation are all locally attributable. These transport systems operate within smaller limits, earmark a limited demography as beneficiaries, and are structured to assist the lifestyles of the local people.

Similarities aside, there's a marked difference one finds in the nature of operation & maintenance of these transport bodies, a difference bearing in the way these bodies perceive commuters, and the bases on which they appear to be taking operational decisions. These differences could be in taking budgetary decisions, in publishing them, or using the smallest opportunity to thank people for their tax money. The VTA (and its like) seem to be voluntarily ahead with an upper hand compared to their Benglur counterparts, who in turn not only fail in attributing their existence & operation to public tax money, but also display clear aloofness in their publications (some really vital documents not in Kannada, the lingua-franca of Benglur) and in decision making that affect their functioning thereby impacting the people - its customers i.e.

What seems to be the Problem?
As a generalization, it'd appear that these govt. run transport corporations, like other govt. bodies chartered to directly serve people in commercial transactions, do not take public as customers at all! Be it the BSNL, or ESCOMs, or RTOs, or the Palikes or BMTC or BMRC, although their very existence (& profitability in some cases) is hinged on public turnout, their indifference towards customers has continued to cause frustration among the public. In return our governments are known to have showered unconditional love and protection covering losses of such organizations with more public money supply. In doing so their indifference towards customers is solemnized and perhaps even legalized, making customers of such public sector undertakings fall dumb prey, left with little choice to churn.
(Its a different matter, of course, that this very lack of choice could have paved way for severe corruption in our society. Although this is not uncommon knowledge, it is important we the people write & read about this!)

Where seems to be the problem?
For instance, the BMTC is a govt. sponsored company that runs bus services in Benglur city. While it owes allegiance to the Karnataka govt (and hence the people) for most of its funding and other sponsorship, it still needs to be told about the importance of using Kannada in all its customer interactions, not just in its administrative affairs. It needs to be continuously polled and complained at the first instance of playing Hindi music inside its city buses. Having prevented any competition from breeding, BMTC has in a way been abusing its sponsor's (the govt.) dominant position to take undue control of the market and at thereby denying good service in Kannada to deserving Kannadiga customers in Benglur.

BMRC: Heluvudu ondu, Maaduvudu innondu

Taking a look at BMRC - problems galore from day one. Marked with public exclusion all along, this project continues to shock with information in three languages, one of them Hindi - a totally out of context language in a locally run train service, nowhere cutting across lands of Hindi speaking people. Making it yet another instrument of Hindi imposition in the hands of a federally elected govt. in Delhi? BMRC's journey tickets are given weird names from the Hindi dictionary, and the boards inside the real train coaches differ markedly from their mock counterparts (see pic). All this talks volumes about public exclusion being practised big time in these organizations.

Well, where lies the problem, really? Is it in those government bodies? Is it in our own bodies? Are we being forcibly shortchanged by these government undertakings? Are such urbanization measures of governments feigning modernization running their hideous imperialist enterprises entirely at our costs? Are we ending up paying for all these Hindi imposition? Have we lost our grounds and forgotten our rights as a customer in all these situations? Have we unlearned the skill of running projects to meet what our society needs? Have we given up before the battle has even begun? The battle for better quality of living, for our rights as customers, for our rights as equal citizens.

Being Kannadigas, don't we remember anymore that service in Kannada is indeed our right!? Then why aren't we hearing people complain?? Come ooooooooooooooooon! Lets not buy our tickets after the train has left! Lets write to them: 
BMRCL - sivasailam@bmrc.co.in, sudhirchandra@bmrc.co.in, vasanthrao@bmrc.co.in, bmrcl@dataone.in. 
BMTC - "Chief Traffic Manager (O)" <ctmobmtc@gmail.com>, bmtcmd@gmail.com
Karnataka CM - cm@kar.nic.in

Let this September open our eyes!

The Indian union formed by the coming together of several provinces, and especially people from various backgrounds, practising different cultures and speaking many languages set a unique case in the list of democratic countries in the late forties. It is this diversity in India, and the diversity behind the one identity of Indianness that keeps India's attractive quotient alive even today. This diversity needs to be cherished, protected and nourished in order to insure a bright future for generations that inherit this nation from us.

With this background, a nation 'constructed' by the union of such diverse people would be expected to peacefully co-exist (internally) and prosper only when all of its shared heritages find equal respect in the union, and no one particular constituent heritage gets any special attention & focus of the government and its undertakings regardless of the expanse of geography and population who inherit that one heritage or culture.

Unfortunately in the last 6 decades this doesn't seem to have happened - with documents right from the Indian constitution to various legislations passed in the parliament and various rules framed for the executive wing to operate in - have all shown serious bias towards the Hindi language:-

1. Beginning right from "Part-17" of the Indian constitution which proclaims Hindi to be the "official language" of the Indian Union - one particular constituent language of the union is made Official here, indirectly rejecting all other Indian languages as unofficial and signaling them as second-grade or unwelcome in the union. 
2. The omnipresent Three-Language policy of the union government also makes Hindi usage (even in non-Hindi speaking areas) mandatory simply because the concerned organization is remotely, partly or fully funded by the central government - a govt that is elected so as to be neutral, equal & federal in its structure and operations! 
3. Legislations that bind appointed ministers to use only Hindi while speaking in the parliament, denying them basic rights to even speak in their mother tongue are but clear examples of such undue bias shown towards Hindi much at the peril of fair representation and progress of the Indian peoples speaking different languages.

As a result (Cultural) Diversity which formed the foundation stone of unity (& thereby progress) of this pillaring nation, has gradually been converted & demonized as something that the nation must dread and hate in the background while picturing Hindi in the foreground as 'one language' that can unite the different peoples of this subcontinent. All this at a dear cost to the various non-Hindi cultures of this subcontinent.


The various policies incorporated by subsequent elected governments at the center only seem to have imposed and further engraved in people's minds that uniformity (anti- diversity) is required to build & sustain unity in the Indian union. This unity rhetoric is dangerous, not just wrong, because neither unity nor progress, nor development of the Indian union retains any further meaning after the nation is left without its characteristic diversity and 'one selected' language is licensed to bulldoze upon all other Indian languages and permitted to feign representation of the entire linguistic & cultural landscape of the nation.

(image technology courtesy www.ragemaker.com)

However wrong that might be, incidental progress & developments continue to be shown as by-products of this unity. But this unity, whatever it is actually, is coming at the cost of several bonds being broken between people and their respective cherished identities. This Hindi imposition upon different peoples of India is sucking the rich diversity of India from within, creating big problems for all the non-Hindi speakers in India. Above all problems, Hindi imposition is a highly immoral and illegal activity for a democratically elected government to indulge in.


Going by available data, be it in relation to

• TV channels, 
• Textbooks,
• Banks,
• Railway network, 
• Airports, 
• Highways, 
• Museums, 
• Cultural, Tourist & Archaelogical hotspots
• Subsidy programs, 
• People enumeration/enrolment programs 

among other Union Government undertakings, even some state government undertakings, or even some projects that the emerging private sector in India runs in the post-liberalization era, the projected image of Hindi suggests that it represents the entire nation and its citizens, and this single medium is 'enough' to reach out to a massively diverse Indian society. This is the myth people of India need to wake up to. This is the myth we Kannadigas need to wake up to, and oppose Hindi imposition in all its forms. That is the only way this nation's tall pillars can be held strong, the only way people of all backgrounds, cultures and languages can get fair & equal representation and chance to retain their identity even while carving out better lives for themselves. For that is indeed true development of people - one that happens without requiring an individual to give up his/her inherited identity altogether.

Now, lets look at this in current context - on September 14th every year the Indian government runs nationwide celebrations labeled as Hindi Divas - a day, and lately a complete week (Hindi Saptaah) in which programs run under the aegis of center's Department of Official language drain public money - towards rewarding people & govt. organizations that display 'excellence' in Hindi, towards fostering better 'performances' in coming years promising & announcing promotions to people who successfully deploy Hindi in their daily usage at work instead of their respective mother tongues. While these expenditures appear biased towards Hindi and aren't justifiable themselves, this is just a valedictory of year-long expenditures of similar kind. For instance, statistics from various central govt. programs show that more money gets spent on Hindi programs than towards Civil Defence - most vital for internal security.

With such glaring examples, the ill-effects of Hindi imposition can't be clearer. I strongly oppose Hindi Imposition and the various programs & celebrations that follow on its lines.

Saku Hindi Herike Nillisi!

Hindi Imposition Must Stop!

This ATM tells Hindi before Money

Quite sometime ago I had seen this on someone's T-shirt : "My Dad is an ATM." Good joke, but looking at most of our ATMs in Karnataka (like the one in the pic), I feel most Dads in our state still have long time left before real ATMs replaced them! Why? Because the ATMs in our state are hard to use and employ an alien language even today. Shockingly, this Bangalore ATM believes it has given its users a language choice!

A HDFC ATM in Bangalore (Photo taken in Jun '09)

The Indian government, under the Rajbhasha prerogative, regulates the national bank, RBI, to instruct all Scheduled Commercial Banks of India to follow a language policy in their operations; a policy fleshed in Hindi but clothed by the fabric of consumer welfare. Now, where in the democratic world, running a market economy, would a government regulate banks to use a particular language in their functions, operate their ATMs in a particular language? What such banking regulation and packaged goods rules prove is the existence of scrupulous efforts of Indian policy makers in spreading the blanket of Hindi imposition as wide across the society as possible. And all this, at the cost of every commoner's hard-earned money.

That a consumer's language has been exiled and replaced by Hindi in these ATMs is not the only concern here. The biggest concern is really about the customers' wallets! A concern about dwindling funds of customers when banks end up having to make unnecessary expenditure towards upkeep of all those Hindi implementation programs in their operations; programs while seldom serving any purpose to a majority of customers in India, has also caused harm in many an occasion. Of course that doesn't include stray incidents of losses customers incurred because of faulty transactions due to miscommunication and language mismatch! In a time when every Rupee is considered valuable in investing towards a better future, each such Rupee wasted because of such language policy is but a wastage of people's hard earned money and a crime no less.

The question we as citizens need to ask (ourselves first) is 'did we elect a government so that they could spend our moneys on imposing an alien language such as Hindi on us?' If not should the government not stop elevating Hindi as opposed to our language in banks in our own locality too?

Flying... With Strings Attached

In the last post I talked about the confusion apparent in airports and aircrafts of India, and highlighted the confusion that I witnessed in some of our international airports.

I wish to dive deeper to understand the root causes for this confusion in our airports, and unravel what lies beyond this mirage of confusion.

Amidst the fast expanding global liberal markets that have resulted in influences deep into societies across the world, Indian governance machinery appears peculiarly suspicious of the power of market forces, and continues exercising its power by means of regulations, constraints, guidelines and circulars on businesses through complex & innovative combinations of committees, regulatory bodies, departments and sometimes dedicated ministries. One such combination is that of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, Civil Aviation Ministry, and the quintessential Indian flagship - the Department of Official Language.

At the outset, isn't it itself startling that the Rajbhasha department (whoever needs it?) is even listed in the affairs of an authority responsible for Indian airports?! Being a super biased yet powerful department that it is, it is not surprising how this department finds an influential spot in the airways market in India. It is empowered to monitor and influence the deployment of Hindi in AAI, among other central government undertakings. This deployment has incorporated Hindi in examinations and interviews, Hindi literacy is now a key pre-requisite for employment in many of its agencies. These agencies, in turn strive to press indirectly and repeatedly on the AAI and related departments the need for having Hindi in all possible uses of language - the interiors of airports and flights not excluded from this list. As a consequence of such machinery aided by the who-asked-for-it three-language formula we've all become mute evidence to confusion lurking in our public places.

The final casualty of all this is doubtlessly the common man, and the customer in his respective market. It is reasons such as these behind market ill-health that we need to wake up to, not get used to the filthy situation itself. It is the customer inside each of us who can poke businesses to strive to get our markets back to good health. After all how far can one fly with strings attached?

Our Airports, very confusing!

Welcoming the world via elaborate airports is a new found fashion of every country. This is a trend one can notice today - in an era when a globalized economy seems to be the destiny of every nation and embracing a higher flux of people across its borders a desired consequence, reasons manifold.

With this as background, I happened to take a quick glance at a couple of Indian airports. In fact the following few illustrations are sequences one would commonly witness when passing through some of our country's airports and when flying in planes run by some of our airline companies. (Please note, I am referring to those airlines that are registered on Indian soil, and come under the purview of rules applying here.)

Tamil comes first in Anna airport in Chennai

Ambient Language
While the ambiance and services an airport offers to its passengers could be a mere cosmetic artifact, the real charisma is embedded in the cultural richness the airport stands to represent, a culture the airport apparently opens doors to. Its an easy guess about the important role the ambient-language of the airport plays in making it this cultural tableaux.

The picture to the left illustrates two informative boards inside Chennai (Anna intl) Airport, marked significantly in the Tamil language (on top), followed by Hindi and English. Although the question about the need for three languages remains unasked here (too), common-sense seems to have prevailed though, clearly prioritizing communication in Tamil. This pattern of signage appears uniform across this airport making it clear that Tamil is the language that represents the culture of that land. This airport certainly has a bright future.. all such airports I mean.

Near invisible Kannada on boards in Bengaluru Intl airport

On the other hand, the picture on the right taken in the new Bengaluru Intl Airport illustrates its dismal state of affairs when it comes to clarity in communication. Ambivalence and poor understanding of the real culture of Karnataka seems to be advertised shamelessly in every such placard inside BIA. Notice the clear difference in the sign-age methodologies between these two airports of neighboring states. Bengaluru being the capital of a Kannada state, this situation in BIA confuses the daylight out of its visitors with every such board!

More Confusion mid-air

In-flight directions - a rather risky confusion this!

Going ahead, this picture inside a plane further demonstrates how worse this confusion about language use (in a market) has become and how troubled and confused it leaves the common man participating in such markets. Consequence - this flight between Bengaluru and Chennai is evidently missing languages of both cities involved in this flight! Even here, English and Hindi swap positions between boards, reflecting the confusion even these airliners seem to be in when it comes to providing vital communication to passengers!

Why, I ask myself, does this confusion prevail in a market that has been functioning since longer than many other world markets. Let to itself, will our market not figure out which language is best placed in which market? Will the customers in those markets not want lesser confusion?! Who is voting confusion to rule here, after all? Let us find out...

(to be continued)

The Idiot Box: Government Controlled Mass Media and Hindi Imposition

The radio and TV media have helped the Hindi protagonists the most in imposing Hindi upon the vast unassuming non-hindi speaking population of India in the last couple of decades.

DD National is a channel Doordarshan started with an intention of telecasting TV programs (99.99% Hindi) to the entire nation. Of course regional language movies were telecast on Sunday afternoons. The very choice of this poorest of poor time slots - Sunday afternoon i.e. - for a TV program shows the degree of neglect shown by the channel towards other Indian languages.

Why does DD National feature only programmes in Hindi? And why should DD National be the only channel receivable across the country without a booster? And who's funding all these things - we the people - there's a big chunk of public money being allocated for Prasar Bharati (which also runs DD National, Vividh Bharti FM station etc.) every financial year. It is because of policies of Prasar Bharati combined with the Rajbhasha policy all such channels are obliged to carry most content in Hindi. Why else does one hear Bangalore edition of FM Rainbow featuring so many Hindi songs while the Bangalore FM market is so heavily bent towards Kannada entertainment? Isn't it amply clear that the Rajbhasha policy is here to bulldoze all the other bhashas of India? Will we, the people, let it bulldoze our languages lying down?

Getting Deeper Into Consumer Affairs

The Indian Ministry of Consumers Affairs includes a department taking care of consumer affairs and their welfare in India. Under its aegis, a set of rules has been listed to regulate consumer information, safety and comfort. Among these rules is this peculiar one that particularly addresses the importance of good packaging of consumer goods.

Under Chapter II, Section 9 (4) refers to a particular way in which Declarations on packaged consumer goods must be made. What this says is that the declaration must be either in Hindi (Devnagri script) or in English, but of course, the central government through this rule doesn't preclude usage of any other regional language on the package, as long as Hindi is not missed out. What's so official about language used on consumer goods?

While this presents a clear case of myopic thinking on the part of policy makers, to every individual consumer, this translates to an additional indirect expenditure of no avail, especially in non-Hindi speaking states. So going by number of people living in these states, nearly most of India (around 60+%) is bearing the additional burden of expenses on packaged goods which come with the mandatory Hindi Declarations as well.

All this doesn't mean the Indian government is sitting quiet observing all these wasteful expenditure incurred by its subjects & corporates alike. It is also, in turn, spending money to educate people and make them Hindi Literate - thereby creating a virtual less-lossy environment for corporates. As a by-product, of course, all other languages (and cultures associated with them) are rapidly going down the drain, thereby shaking the very pillar of our unity - cultural diversity.

So what're all these costing the common non-Hindi speaking consumers? Much. One - for a consumer to learn a new language only to be a consumer. Two - always bear the extra costs of packets with multiple languages, because, come what may, Hindi would never fully be absorbed by tens of Crores of non-hindi speakers in India (stats for this are available everywhere). Three - the true consumer's interests are being compromised with, businesses cornered-in with misplaced polity intervention. At the end these are only driving consumers into a pit of confusion amidst multiple languages - something that will invariably follow when policy makers get so deep into consumer affairs.