A brutal road rage clash in Bengaluru, between an air force officer in a car and a youngster on a bike, is not just another unsavoury incident between angry and abusive strangers. In this case, there was extreme violence, followed by outrage on social media by the officer, who got first-mover advantage to tell his story to netizens. What rankled with many citizens was his comment—“this is what Karnataka has become”—and his claim that he was abused for not speaking Kannada. The biker, a local call centre employee, was arrested. With CCTV footage giving a different version of the events, the police have now filed charges of attempt to murder and spreading fake information against the officer, who was captured thrashing the biker and throwing his belongings into the traffic. The matter has gone beyond road rage, exposing faultlines in society. Such incidents are becoming common in cosmopolitan Bengaluru, often taking on shades of vernacular pride and language aggression as locals get involved. The police maintain the case is not related to language or region, but the issue has snowballed with pro-Kannada groups threatening protests and demanding the officer’s arrest. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought to calm the situation with a comment on the officer’s “derogatory remarks about Karnataka” and has called on Kannadigas to maintain order.
Amid the rising social tensions, a south-north disaffection is apparent. There is a perceptible pushback against a section of young, educated, Hindi-speaking professionals who are typified as loud, aggressive and unable to appreciate the local culture. They are also synonymous with the bogie of ‘Hindi imposition’. At least two Hindi-speaking individuals who spoke against Bengaluru and Kannada on social media had to issue public apologies after a massive backlash. At the heart of the issue is the perception that Hindi is suddenly more audible on the streets and people from the north are ‘taking away’ jobs. There is also the view that those who come to Bengaluru to earn their bread cannot be contemptuous of the city’s inadequacies, as they are part of the migrant influx burdening civic infrastructure. It would not be unrealistic to say that Karnataka may be going Tamil Nadu’s way in its resistance to ‘Hindi imposition’, with locals becoming more assertive about their culture. The road rage case has played into these regional anxieties.