Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu waded into the language debate that has gripped the state of Karnataka over the past few months. Vembu on Friday shared his take on the issue and said that if one chooses to become a permanent resident of Bengaluru, then they and their kids should make the effort of learning Kannada.Â
He added that not learning the language after so many years of living in Bengaluru is plain ‘disrespectful’. “I agree with this sentiment. 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,” Vembu said in a post on X (previously Twitter).Â
“I often request our employees in Chennai coming from other states to make an effort to learn Tamil after they come here,” Â he added. Vembu was replying to a post by a Kannadiga who shared her grouse with people not knowing Kannada. She added that her mother tongue is not Kannada but she has picked up the language in the past decade of living in Bengaluru.Â
Zoho CEO’s take went viral on the social media platform within no time, leaving netizens divided. While some users empathised with Sridhar Vembu’s take, others were far from pleased.
Users also shared their experiences at learning local languages. “I agree. I took pride in learning Kannada, watching Raj Kumar movies and try to speak Kannada where possible. It’s been 25 years now and from salfa salfa barute, now it’s become gotila. One day, I do want to learn Tamil and Sanskrit when am back to India,” an X user said.Â
“Moer than being a question of being disrespectful, it is being impractical, not to learn the language which is surrounding you (sic),” a user mentioned.Â
“I believe that if one lives in any place in the world long enough, local language is picked up naturally. Unless one looks down upon the language and culture and avoid learning. We had an Odiya family living as house maid for 30+ years. Within 2-3 years I had learnt many basic sentences even though I only heard them speak occasionally with each other in Odiya. Also, I picked up an Odiya rendition of a Coca Cola ad song,” another user said.Â
“I have many Kannada friends in Mumbai, living here for decades. No one can speak Marathi. Not one word. Fair?” a user asked.Â
“Great sir. Let’s divide the country and make borders with requirement of IELTS kind certificate in the local language for entrance. Just before that the tagline of country ‘Unity in Diversity’ should be immersed in Ganga in Varanasi,” a user wrote. Â
“Language is a means of communication. People do whatever is needed for their survival. Isn’t this common sense? In Bengaluru, I meet more non Kannadigas than Kannadigas. 90 per cent of them, when they speak, use English. How do you expect someone moving to Bangalore to prioritise Kannada over English? Languages are not learnt from books. They are learnt from the surroundings,” yet another user said.Â