'You're not in Bangladesh, speak in Hindi not Bangla': Woman tells Kolkata metro passenger

Screenshot from the viral video that has evoked strong responses on social media. (Image credit: @MoinakBanerjee5/X)

Hindi imposition has been a sensitive topic among southern states, especially in Karnataka, but a recent viral video of a woman in Kolkata demanding her fellow metro railway passenger speak to her in Hindi has sparked a row on social media.

"You are not in Bangladesh. You are in India. West Bengal is a part of India, you must speak in Hindi. Living in India, you know Bengali but not Hindi?" the non-Bengali-speaking woman says in the video. The other passenger replied in Bengali: "I live in West Bengal, in my hometown, not yours. You can't be in my state and insult me for speaking in Bengali."

When other passengers tried to intervene, the first woman said, "The metro is not yours. West Bengal is not yours." The Bengali woman retorted: "The metro is mine, so is West Bengal. The metro was made with the money of taxpayers in Bengal, not by the tax paid by the people your hometown."

The argument soon escalated with more passengers taking offense to being called Bangladeshi for speaking in Bengali.

Again a Hindian attack on a Bengali. This Hindian lady racially abusing her as 'Bangladeshi'. The same propaganda that living in India you have to speak in Hindi or get branded as 'anti-national'. It's time one should make a law against Hindi imposition in non-Hindi states. pic.twitter.com/MCCUekuOfP
Bengali Nationalist (@MoinakBanerjee5) November 19, 2024

The video evoked strong reactions on social media.

"Only 44 percent of people in India speak Hindi, yet many of those who do often assume everyone else should as well. It’s a narrow mindset. Personally, I never speak in Hindi in my home state Assam. I only attempt my broken Hindi when I’m in a Hindi-speaking state," commented X user Dipankar Jakharia (@d_jakharia). "Only illiterate people think Hindi is the national language of the country. No, it's not as an Indian; it's our duty to respect all languages of each state," wrote Mumbai High Court advocate Rukhsana Sayed (@Umm_e_meerann).