Ah, the great Indian city! The lack of urban infrastructure destroying the infrastructure of the human soul. By 2020 Mumbai will have a population of 20 million. Bangalore, already with 6.5 million inhabitants has seen phenomenal growth. 300 million Indians... Read The Article
I would like the author to answer to what i ask her:
How would u like to see that on one fine morning Kolkata has been flooded with immigrants from all parts of India?
...the influx has been so much that the beautiful landscape of the city has been replaced by groundwater-thirsty skyscrapers?
...people living in the city for years have suddenly found themselves bearing the brunt of increased cost of living?
...the locals (Bengalis) have been reduced to a minority in their own city?
...the local culture has been completely overshadowed by an alien culture?
etc, etc.
i can put myself in a die-hard Bengali's shoes to answer these questions. In such a situation my blood would probably boil. I can say this because something dreadfully similar is happening at this moment with my city, Bangalore.
( Posted: Monday , May 12, 2008 at 01:44 )
well said vaibhav.
( Posted by Sanjeev on Monday , May 12, 2008 at 12:25 )
absolutely right vaibhav.
( Posted by lakki on Tuesday , May 13, 2008 at 12:23 )
Mayank Mathur
beautiful story! :-)
( Posted: Monday , May 12, 2008 at 01:32 )
Vaibhav
What's with the phrase "English-speaking outsiders"? That's what i call narrow-mindedness. Whoever said that English isn't lingua franca here! Believe me, if it wasn't, immigrants would have had one hell of a nightmare here! One more thing: all Kannadigas are not Vokkaligas. There are great many sub-communities in this huge community. We are as diverse as India itself. Kannada itself has a varied style of speaking across the state.
( Posted: Monday , May 12, 2008 at 01:30 )
Vaibhav
This article is not worthy of a bit of appreciation. The "views" expressed have mostly resulted out of narrow-mindedness and misunderstanding of many things that mostly a native Bangalorean would know. The usage of inverted quotes at many places was not required and/or insulting for whomsoever addressed therein. The author in all probability is not aware of the actual state of affairs in Bangalore. Her views are taken from a political and economical point, but the ground reality for Bangalore is something dreadfully different. She has not noted the immense affection that natives have for Bangalore and their sense of pain and fear about the beautiful city being grabbed by outsiders. The tone suggests that the author is against Kannadigas' love and their claim of Bangalore, which is ridiculous. One more thing: Mr. Deve Gowda in no way is a leader of the Kannadigas and he should not be compared with any of the two Sena leaders, who in their own turf are quite effective in their cause. This is for the simple reason that his and his sons' real political agenda is not development of the state but to make huge money. We all know about Kumarswamy's haul of Rs. 1000 crore worth of bribes during his tenure, don't we? Well, if Gowda said that he stands for Kannadigas, he doesn't; its a part of his public drama and extended propaganda. If he has to lead us, it won't be long before all of us will find ourselves tricked into ditch waters!
( Posted: Monday , May 12, 2008 at 01:16 )
Bangalore is known to house "educated" middle class. But some of the views here are really disturbing. Considering people are still marred by narrow outlook and think Kannadiga vs Bengali vs North Indian is a healthy debate. Rather than focusing on their shortcomings, they are blaming others for taking their share of pie. Such opinions defeat the purspose of one country
( Posted by Charu on Monday , May 12, 2008 at 14:35 )
puneeth
while it easy to comment on politicians and their stands but what they are just doing is relying on to improve their vote banks.I have seen most media people concentrating only on bengaluru or mumbai why not any other growing cities like hyderabad or gurgaon they also just look for there tv trps or their print sales... Just what politicians also doing.
( Posted: Monday , May 12, 2008 at 00:29 )
anusha
hello ma'm, I completely agree with your point of view,as a bangalorean i feel the "outsider" population in my city is really high,especially people coming to the IT sector........this has a bad effect on our culture as these outsiders do not respect our culture or language, u can only find them making fun of kannada
( Posted: Monday , May 12, 2008 at 00:13 )
"outsiders" u say, last time i heard its one country one nation and one nationality, we frown when americans turn racist cz of losing their jobs to low paid asian worker, but then being and living and sharing the same country, we make such racist comments. and outisders destroying your culture ae... u teme what yr culture is...do u liv d way kannadigas used to live a hundred yrs ago....if the answer is no then u r also destroying yr (so called) culture. Cultures are supposed to evolve with the society...and it really is very saddening to see the educated say such things....me them....i mean paleeez if u r good enough u ll make it and thats it.....dont use such "outsiders" excuse for yr own incompetence
( Posted by saurabh on Monday , May 12, 2008 at 15:49 )
I'm shocked at ur reply Mr.Saurabh, what did u say, incompetence!!!!!!!!!i dont think u shud b questioning others credentials like this...do u stay at bangalore?
( Posted by anusha on Sunday , May 18, 2008 at 20:27 )
Saurabh, read the bog by Vaibhav. put yourself in that shoes & then make these noble & intellectual comments. when a region's local culture, language is not respected, what respect he or she has for his or her own culture. If u speak like this in france or germany, you are back in your home town in no time. thats reality my friend.
( Posted by Manjunath on Thursday , May 15, 2008 at 13:52 )
Anu Pillai
This blog puts into spotlight the fact that regional sentiment is taking precedence over other imperative issues.Madam,you have not only written an article bringing the said issue to the fore,you put on paper the reasons which will disintegrate this country into pieces,uncountable. But one thing will stay unchanged:India's preposterous concept of unity in diversity.
( Posted: Sunday , May 11, 2008 at 23:00 )
Satya
The author's style of thinking has created a dangerous situation in the country. Today Naxals are slowly but surely spreading their wings thanks to people like these.
Why blame Gowda's and Thakarey's when the governments of West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, UP, Rajastan etc have failed to create enough jobs to its citizens who (I think the population of these states when summed up will be half of India's population) want to find a means of living elsewhere in the country and hence migrate.
When we have lived in Bangalore / Mumbai for generations there is a strong sense of belonging, our culture, language, life are bound to the place where we live. Suddenly there is a huge influx of unknown people who have suddenly fallen in love with our place. Suddenly in some places we start seeing our language and culture being strangled and close to death. What do we do? Sit quite and let it perish or take some positive action. The positive action can be that we start teaching the outsiders our culture and language and help them enrich our place. If they don't cooperate, the negative action will be to handle it with a strong arm.
Its a place where our forefathers have lived and developed a unique language and culture, amalgamation of which makes India what it is today. It is in our best interest not to let it get hijacked.
( Posted: Sunday , May 11, 2008 at 22:44 )
Very sensible. I keep reading something about a threat to local culture: but it is NEVER the outsider who "destroys" the local culture, because he does not hold it in the first place. The local culture is upheld by the local people, and if places like Mumbai and Bangalore see their culture fade or vanish, they should be upset only with themselves. The so-called outsiders do not kill the local culture, they merely add their own. It is up to the locals to keep their culture alive. So though your new "outsider" neighbour celebrates different festivals, reads books in a different language etc., that has no influence whatsoever on what you do in your own home UNLESS YOU CHOOSE OTHERWISE. If Kannada disappears, it is because young Kannadigas find it "uncool" to speak it. Now don't beat up everyone who does not speak Kannada or Marathi. Instead, induce you own children to continue with their own heritage. Create positive awareness, create a liking for local customs and promote them.
Culture is not threatened from the outside. It is when locals forget who they are that things go down the drain. Of course regulations (such as displaying shop signs in local lang. etc.) are good, but alienating the entire country is not. There are sensible ways of dealing with a large influx of migrants. Only if you embrace them can you induce them or coerce them into learning your culture. If you beat them up, they are less likely to think: Great, now let me learn Marathi. If you smash the Bihari's taxi, he will not think: Wonderful, now let me worship Ganesh and give Marathi names to all my children.
I understand the need to keep local customs alive, but the responsibility lies squarely with the locals first by being role models themselves, and secondly by embracing migrants.
Besides, the job arguement is rubbish: no company will voluntarily pay relocation cost if they can have a local who will not charge the same since he's there already.
( Posted by Carmen on Monday , May 12, 2008 at 14:48 )
Suresh Pillai
Hello,Sir,The question that has to be addressed is whether an Indian from a different state can settle down in another state without knowing the language adopted as mother tongue of that state and not be looked down upon as an outsider?Indians are welcome in English speaking countries whereas they are discriminated against in their own country if they are not familar with the local language.
( Posted: Sunday , May 11, 2008 at 22:42 )
I for India
The best solution wld be to learn English, to interact between different states, since it was due to them 'Britishers' that we are now India, otherwise we would have still been ruled by individual rulers (princely states). Yes, its true that every different regions had its own different history and rulers. Its surprising that India with so many different languages and cultures is united, had it not been the foreigners coming in and disturbing the individual princely states we wouldn't have been united today. As the saying goes, things happen for the good…
We youngsters should consider ourselves lucky to be in this generation, which has given us immense opportunities, we should be thankful to the ppl who have struggled hard in their times, we should know that future of India lies in us, we should be responsible enough to make future bright for our children and create a beautiful society. Can we now think of life under ruler’s kings/queens, no not at all… We love our freedom. And just think how important it is to be in a democratic country. United we stand and divided we go no where. And we should also consider our self lucky to have such diverse culture around us, otherwise life would have been really boring.
Now realizing this, I believe we should respect each state and local culture. Since each has its own strong past history, speaking Hindi as a link language would remain a strong debate. I think so how about an election for the new national language. It would be the people who would decide and not people with powers. OK, accepting the fact that over the generations we are now used to Hindi along with our mother tongue. And believe it or not, we cannot thing of entertainment without Bollywood. And I believe most youngsters from different states would believe the same. Or else the other best competitor would be Hollywood. And that’s English. Okay do u think the topic is deviating…
Do not be rude to other users/authors or disrupt an ongoing conversation/debate. Do not use ethnic slurs, engage in personal insults or use objectionable language. Criticism, when constructive and non-disruptive is always welcome. Comments with links in them won't be published other than in cases of rare exceptions. Comments that include personal details such as postal addresses and telephone numbers will not be published. Keep the comments relevant to the topic as much as possible. Do not impersonate another reader or a public figure. Do try to use English to write your comments.
Please enable javascript in your browser to use this form.
Disclaimer
All the content posted under the 'Comments' category are made by the readers of CNN-IBN, unless specified otherwise. CNN-IBN is not responsible for the opinions of the readers and the content posted by the readers are not representative of the views and opinions of CNN-IBN.
Do not be rude to other users/authors or disrupt an ongoing conversation/debate.