Doddarange Gowda, a senior writer, and lyricist has evoked a lot of criticism among the Kannada literary and intellectual circles. over his recent comment. He had said- ‘Hindi is our National Language – why reject it?’.
He was recently selected as the President of the 86th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana to be held at Haveri.
Doddarange Gowda in his interview with Prajavani – a popular Kannada daily stated that ‘When we are accepting of Hindi, why reject Hindi? Hindi has the same status in North India as Kannada here [Read Karnataka]. It is our national language’. A lot of people have demanded that the writer and lyricist take back his words.
Many people have contested the statement on the lines that Hindi is not the national language. They have also explained that our nation being a federal one has many languages and that Hindi is just one amongst them. They also have drawn the writer’s attention to the difference between usage of Hindi and Hindi imposition thereby asking him to be more cautious while making such claims.
Faizal Peraje has noted over Twitter that ‘People of Karnataka have never been against Hindi as a language but are against the imposition of Hindi. How can someone who doesn’t even understand such a smaller issue preside over the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana? Let only a person who is proud of the Kannada language and Kannada fraternity preside over the Sammelan. Let the President change’
ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು ಯಾವತ್ತೂ ಹಿಂದಿ ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿರೋಧಿಗಳಲ್ಲ, ಅವರು ಏನಿದ್ದರೂ ಹಿಂದಿ ಭಾಷೆ ಹೇರಿಕೆಯ ವಿರೋಧಿಗಳು. ಇದರ ಕನಿಷ್ಠ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಇಲ್ಲದವರು ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಸಮ್ಮೇಳನದ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷರಾದರೆ ಹೇಗೆ?
ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ, ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮೇಲೆ ಅಭಿಮಾನ ಇದ್ದವರು ಮಾತ್ರ ಹಾವೇರಿಯ ಅಖಿಲ ಭಾರತ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಸಮೇಳನದ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷರಾಗಲಿ.#ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷರು_ಬದಲಾಗಲಿ pic.twitter.com/OOrRTHX8Mi
— Faizal Peraje ?? (@Faizal_Peraje) January 23, 2021
Dada Khalandar has expressed his angst over the controversy as under: How is Hindi the national language? Hindi is just one of the many languages within the federal system. How can it be accepted that a person who doesn’t even know this fundamental truth as a Kannada writer? The selection of such Kannada-traitors as the president of the 86th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana is not reasonable at all. Let him preside over Akhil Bharata Hindi Sahitya Sammelan (ABHSS).
Many people in Karnataka have commented on the issue that Doddarange Gowda had earlier written a poem praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kannada Prabha – a Kannada daily. Doddarange Gowda was conferred with the Padma Shri award because of this. Many also have commented that in an overall sense, he[Doddarange Gowda] has been working like a gate-keeper for the Agrahara [Read Brahmanical Community]
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The article was first published in naanugauri.com. It has been translated into English by Shashank SR
