Zoho CEO divides internet: Living in Bengaluru and not learning Kannada disrespectful

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu stirred a heated debate online when he called on non-native residents of Bengaluru to learn Kannada, deeming it essential for respecting the local culture.

In Short

• Sridhar Vembu urges Bengaluru residents to learn Kannada to respect local culture
• His comments follow now-deleted post about a 'Hindi National Language' T-shirt
• Mixed reactions to Vembu's post, with some supporting and others criticising it

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu ignited a fiery debate on social media by urging people who have made Bengaluru their home to learn Kannada, as not doing so is “disrespectful”.

His comments followed an X post featuring two men wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Hindi National Language” and captioned "Perfect T-shirt for Bangalore trip".

The tweet, which was later deleted, touched off a controversy. Journalist Chandra R Srikanth replied to the post, pointing out the irony of people readily learning European languages while travelling abroad, but reluctant to pick up local languages back home.

“People won’t think for a minute before buying English to French, English to Spanish and English to Italian dictionaries while flying abroad but God forbid if you tell them to try and be courteous enough to learn a local language in India. There are folks who go on saying Kannada gothila (I don’t know Kannada) for years like it is a badge of honour,” she wrote.

Srikanth stated that while she’s a non-native, her limited efforts to learn Kannada over the past decade were appreciated by locals.

Responding to Srikanth’s post, Vembu agreed and said, “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. I often request our employees in Chennai coming from other states to make an effort to learn Tamil after they come here.”

Vembu’s post, which garnered over a million views, received mixed reactions on social media. Some applauded his stance, with one X user writing, “Respect the local culture and language wherever you settle. It’s one of the foundational principles of our republic.”

However, others criticised his standpoint as divisive, and burdensome for non-Kannada speakers.

One user sarcastically tweeted, “Great Sir. Let’s divide the country and make borders with IELTS-like requirements for local languages. Just before that, immerse the tagline ‘Unity in Diversity’ in the Ganga.”

Another argued practicality, saying, “In Bengaluru, I meet more non-Kannadigas than Kannadigas. Ninety percent of them use English. Fair?”

Vembu’s call for learning Kannada and the heated debate it triggered is the latest in the broader conversation surrounding regionalism in Bengaluru, a global tech hub with an influx of non-native professionals. While some locals see learning Kannada as a way to preserve cultural identity, others feel the expectation unfairly burdens those juggling multiple priorities.