Last updated:November 16, 2024, 2:17 PM IST

The founder of Zoho has expressed support for encouraging non-native Bengaluru residents to learn Kannada.

Social media users were not happy with his opinion. (Photo: X)

In Bengaluru, there have been frequent confrontations where Kannadigas have urged non-Kannada speakers to learn the local language. Recently, Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu weighed in on the issue, responding to a comment on X (formerly Twitter). He expressed that Kannada should be spoken by all who consider Bengaluru as their “home”, calling it “disrespectful” not to do so. Vembu’s reply came in reaction to a photo of two people wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Hindi National Language.” The post was titled “Perfect T-shirt for the trip in Bangalore,” which prompted the CEO’s comment about the importance of respecting local language.

Commenting on another X user post, Vembu wrote, “If you make Bengaluru your home, you should learn Kannada and your children should learn Kannada. Not doing so after living in Bengaluru for many years is disrespectful. I often pray our employees in Chennai who come from other states make an effort to learn Tamil after they come here.”

The Zoho CEO’s comment received over 1 million views and several comments. His post garnered mixed reactions from social media users.

One user said, “I have many Kannada friends in Mumbai, who have lived here for decades. No one can speak Marathi. Not a word. Fair?”

Another commented, “Great Sir. Let’s divide the country and make borders with the requirement of an IELTS type certificate in the local language for entry. Just before that the slogan of our country ‘Unity in Diversity’ should be immersed in Ganga in Varanasi.”

“Even just openness and curiosity towards the language and culture is enough, the entropy will drop,” wrote one user on X.

“You sound immature here. Being disrespectful to any language, culture is unacceptable, but not learning a language is being disrespectful? Logic dies there,” remarked another.

This push to learn Kannada is part of a broader, ongoing discourse about the importance of local languages ​​in India’s urban centers, especially in states like Karnataka.

With Bengaluru emerging as a global technological powerhouse, an influx of non-native professionals from India and abroad has changed the city’s linguistic environment. Many of these professionals speak mostly English and Hindi.