Kannada Sahitya Sammelana: Rallyists paint Bangalore red, and yellow

Over a lakh people rallied to give the three-day Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana a colourful start on Friday, even as calls grew louder for assertive measures to save the language.

Sammelana president Prof G Venkatasubbaiah said Bangalore has a lot to learn from China when it comes to propagating the native language,  suggesting that the government should enforce a rule to make Kannada a compulsory subject in schools and the official language of corporates.

Kannada is facing stiff competition as Bangalore, being a hub of IT and BT industries, draws a lot of migrants.

“The education department has to look into the matter carefully and make Kannada compulsorily in primary and secondary education,” he said. Citing the success of China in propagating Mandarin not just within but also outside China, Venkatasubbaiah sought the state to adopt creative measures to spread the language.