The smoldering debate over language, fanned by recent incidents in Karnataka, found a new nucleation point on Sunday when dancer and choreographer Salman Yusuff Khan recalled his experience at the Bengaluru International Airport where he was reprimanded by an immigration officer for not knowing Kannada despite being born in the city.
The interaction happened on March 15, Wednesday, when Khan was travelling to Dubai. Best known for his appearances in the “ABCD” movies and winning “Dance India Dance” season 1, Khan shared a video on Instagram chronicling the incident.
In the clip, Khan recalled that upon his turn at the immigration counter, an officer started speaking to him in Kannada. He apparently explained that although he understood the language, he wasn’t fluent because he grew up mainly in Saudi Arabia.
He even asked whether knowing his mother tongue Hindi was not enough and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn't know Kannada either.
"Does our Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows how to speak in Kannada?" he asked.
With the video, Khan wrote: “@kempegowdainternationalairport. On my way to Dubai and I meet this immigration officer who speaks to me in Kannada. And I in my broken Kannada try to tell him that I understand the language but can’t speak so well to which he continues to speak in Kannada and shows me my passport and points out my name and my birthplace and my father’s name and his birthplace and has the audacity to tell me that. You and your father are born in Bangalore and u can’t speak Kannada.”
He explained that the limited Kannada he knows is because of his friends in Bengaluru. “If u can’t speak Kannada, I can suspect you…” Khan claimed the officer told him in response.
The actor continued: “I told him that I know my nation’s official language Hindi why should I know Kannada. I asked him again suspect me for what? And he says. I can just suspect you for anything…I told him… TRY ME. And got a little louder and repeated TRY ME... thrice…To which he kept quiet... I told him that if uneducated people like you continue to live in this country this country will never grow…To which he just kept his head down and murmuring …”
While Hindi is one of the official languages of the country, including Kannada, it is not the national language.
Khan also said that although he tried to report the matter to authorities, but claimed he got no help. He said that he was fuming with rage as he was asked to lodge a complaint online.
"I have come out of this city. Somehow I have contributed to it. I have won so many titles and now I have to prove it to these guys that I am Indian."
He had a message for everyone watching the video. "If you think something wrong is happening to you, you voice it. Its enough. Its time now."
"If a person like me can go through this... Imagine what would happen to just another man," he said.
He concluded his post with: “PS: I am a proud Bangalorean but what I’ve faced today is unacceptable … you should always encourage people to learn any local language not demean them for not knowing it .. and pulling your parents name into it."
Bengaluru has witnessed similar incidents in the last few days. One autorickshaw driver was filmed having an altercation with two women who asked why should he speak in Hindi when he is in Karnataka and instead asked her to speak in Kannada. The woman refused to speak in Kannada.
Language politics has always been a sensitive and emotive issue in South Indian states, especially Tamil Nadu and now Karnataka, with recent incidents highlighting the discourse between Hindi and regional language speakers. Bengaluru, the IT hub of the country, sees a large number of professionals across the country move to city every year adding to the growing language gap with locals.
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