'18 years in Bengaluru, no Kannada': Man’s viral post slams friend over 'Kannadigas are biased' charge

A Bengaluru resident’s online lament over a friend’s refusal to learn Kannada after 18 years in the city has reignited a heated debate on linguistic identity and cultural assimilation in Karnataka’s capital.

Prajwal Bhat, a local, shared on social platform X that despite nearly two decades in Bengaluru, his friend neither speaks Kannada nor participates in local democratic processes like voting. "My initial efforts to teach her conversational phrases didn't work out... she said Kannadigas are biased," Bhat wrote, noting that their relationship has since cooled.

His post sparked a flurry of responses from users who recounted similar frustrations. One user criticized the attitude as "really bad," while another labeled it “shallowness at peak.” Others shared personal anecdotes, including a story of a Tamil Nadu native who resisted learning Kannada despite living in the city for 15 years and openly supporting Tamil interests in the Cauvery water dispute.

Meanwhile, some netizens highlighted their pride in picking up local languages. "I am from Rajasthan... now I stay in Karnataka and I’ve picked up a mix of Tulu and Kannada. Learning a language is an achievement," one user commented.

This social media firestorm comes on the heels of a recent controversy involving a State Bank of India manager in Bengaluru who refused to speak Kannada with a customer, insisting on using Hindi. The video of the encounter went viral, prompting public outrage and protests by pro-Kannada groups.

The backlash forced the manager to apologize, but not before the incident amplified calls for linguistic respect in state institutions and reignited tensions about the erosion of Kannada in cosmopolitan Bengaluru.