Kannada Cool: Leverage Soft Power To Undo Northern Indifference, Here's How

Q: Hindi-speaking, white collar migrants to Bengaluru have no economic incentive to pick up Kannada. How then to make them learn the language?

A: Bring them to Kannada culture, they will automatically come to the Kannada language.

Q: How to bring them to the culture?

A: Make it aspirational. That will not be a difficult feat given how rich Kannada culture is.

Here’s how. 

(Addressed solely for the white collar worker who has come from northern India to work in Bengaluru)

Food

Don’t know about you but I am really over food bloggers going ‘oye hoye hoye’ every time a kilo of cheese is poured on that poor slice of bread. I mean, how much can one bread take? That is not cuisine, that is violence. 

You want cuisine? Make your way to DVG road or Malleshwaram and try the holige. Or if you are looking for a savoury entrée, ask around for where you would get the best gojju and devour that with a plate of steamed rice. Or that comfort food of all comfort foods—the bisibela bath. 

You want to look like even more of a connoisseur? Try asking a local for where you would get the best chiroti, with badam milk. 

But beyond all of this, there’s something inherently civilised, sober and calming about a breakfast of fresh idlis and hot filter coffee. The legendary outlets aside, any half-decent darshini in Bengaluru will be able to give you that. 

Music

You know, don’t take this the other way, but film music is actually for plebs. The popularity of film music is more a vindication of its easy availability than quality. 

For quality, for expressions, come to classical music. And for classical music, there is perhaps no city in India as good as Bengaluru. Both for Hindustani and Carnatic. 

From the concerts in Bangalore Gayana Samaja to the ones in Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, from the Ram Navmi concerts to the Bengaluru Ganesha Utsava, from the early morning performances to the all-nighter music festival of IIM-B, the city has a music ‘scene’ like no other. It’s perhaps the only city where the Mysuru brothers and Ustad Shahid Parvez can perform one after the other and both concerts will have equally passionate listeners.

Again, don’t bother about the details of the raga. Just go to the concert and enjoy the parts you like. Don’t worry if there be a section of it you don’t appreciate. The parts you enjoyed would give you a ‘music-high’ to last a few days. 

You can either partake in that emotional experience, or you can go the ‘Tu nanga hi toh aaya hai, kya ghanta leke jaayega’ way. Totally your choice. 

Royals are rooted, rooted is cool

You make a case for democracy being the best form of government. That's good. However, it's when you make a qualified case for monarchy that you would really come across as someone who does his own reading and thinks for himself. For that, few houses will help you as that of Mysuru.

The past history and current conduct of the Mysuru royals evokes sincere and unanimous respect. As in the past, they continue to be culturally rooted and stand as ambassadors of Kannada culture.

The erstwhile Mysuru state was arguably the most well governed kingdom in all of undivided India.

The Indian Institute of Science and the hallowed Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today stand thanks to efforts and contributions of the Mysuru royals in their time.

M. Visvesvaraya, the legendary civil engineer, was in fact the Dewan of Mysore in the decade between 1910 and 1920.

Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, the ruler from 1940-1947, was a great devotee of the Devi and a musical genius.

But above all. You know the Mysuru Dasara, right? You want to go there the next year? Great. Know who started it?

That's right. The Wadiyars.

Still sure about your views on democracy?

Literature

You are outraged at something you saw on social media. You enter the culture war of the day. You let your views be known. Someone else said something that supports your point. You win. Okay. But what now? Outrage can’t be the normal state of things. And even if it is, what will you do if tomorrow no one comes to your aid?

You decide to start reading. 

Good decision.

But where to start?

Here again, Kannadigas would help. Pick up the books of Shatavadhani Dr R Ganesh or the novels of Dr S L Bhyrappa. 

If you want to go in even further on the same route, you will have the works of D V Gundappa and M Hiriyanna to guide you. 

Once again, it doesn’t matter if you read them in English. They will inform you, like few others can, about your own cultural, spiritual and intellectual heritage, and you will have a new found respect for theirs. 

Films and theatre

The Karan Johar bling is a guilty pleasure for all of us, but what about that day when you want something more emotionally profound, or intellectually stimulating from your film?

That is the day you turn to a film like Kantara or look up the web for a ticket to one of the plays being staged in either Ranga Shankara, or Chowdiah, or the Ambedkar Bhawan. Go for the ones in English, sure. The language might be English but the cultural milieu is Kannadiga. 

If you still want more emotional depth, look up some of the translations of the plays written in Kannada. Even as literature, they would be amongst the best you ever read. 

It’s a great culture, of the Kannadigas. You are in Bengaluru. You can as well claim that it’s your culture. You are in Bengaluru to make a better life. Good food, good music, good literature, good ideas and great people count for a lot in that endeavour.

Arush Tandon is an Awadhi who has spent more than eight years in Bengaluru.