KOLKATA: A recent viral video of a woman in Kolkata insisting that a fellow metro train passenger speak to her in Hindi has caused a stir on social media. Hindi imposition has been a touchy subject in southern states, particularly in Karnataka.
In the video, the woman who does not speak Bengali is recorded saying, “You are not in Bangladesh. You are in India. West Bengal is a part of India, you must speak in Hindi. Living in India, you know Bengali but not Hindi?"
The other passenger retorted in Bengali, “I live in West Bengal, in my hometown, not yours. You can't be in my state and insult me for speaking in Bengali.”
Other passengers attempted to step in, but the first woman said, “The metro is not yours. West Bengal is not yours.”
The other woman replied, “The metro is mine, so is West Bengal. The metro was made with the money of taxpayers in Bengal, not by the tax paid by the people of your hometown.”
Soon after, the dispute got out of hand as other passengers took offence at being referred to be Bangladeshi for using Bengali.
Social media users responded strongly to the video.
One X user Dipankar Jakharia (@d_jakharia) commented, “Only 44 percent of people in India speak Hindi, yet many of those who do often assume everyone else should as well. It’s a narrow mindset. Personally, I never speak in Hindi in my home state Assam. I only attempt my broken Hindi when I’m in a Hindi-speaking state.”
Rukhsana Sayed (@Umm_e_meerann), a Mumbai High Court advocate commented, “Only illiterate people think Hindi is the national language of the country. No, it's not as an Indian; it's our duty to respect all languages of each state.”
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