Zoho CEO’s Advice For People Who Made Bengaluru Their ‘Home’ Triggers Debate – News18

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.

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 remark on X (formerly Twitter). He expressed that Kannada should be spoken by anyone who considers Bengaluru their “home,” calling it “disrespectful” not to do so. Vembu’s response came in reaction to a photo featuring two individuals wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Hindi National Language.” The post was captioned, “Perfect T-shirt for Bangalore trip,” sparking the CEO’s comment on the importance of respecting the local language.

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

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

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

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

“Even mere openness and curiosity towards the language and culture is enough, entropy will come down,” a user on X wrote.

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

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

With Bengaluru evolving as a worldwide technology powerhouse, an inflow of non-native professionals from India and overseas has altered the city’s linguistic environment. Many of these professionals speak mostly in English and Hindi.