The southern city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), which is home to international information technology (IT) majors and is sometimes referred to as India’s Silicon Valley, made headlines in the lead-up to the new year when demonstrators tore down English billboards and demanded that they be written in Kannada, the native tongue of the area.
The purpose of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) protest was to force the government to enact a law requiring Kannada to appear on 60% of all municipal display signs.
The major political parties in India gave KRV some backing, stating that while they denounced the violence, there was no harm in calling for Kannada signage. What’s the harm in writing in Kannada other than English, according to a federal minister of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
