The younger generation should be wary of vested interests that tend to divide the society on the basis of language, H.B. Kolkar, writer and researcher, said in Belagavi on Saturday.
“Some people keep dividing the people on the basis of language. This leads to disharmony in the society. We should realise the conspiracy behind such attempts and stay away from them,” he said. He was speaking at the Rajyotsava celebrations at Raja Lakhamagouda Law College.
“The spirit of the Karnataka unification movement should continue to inspire us. It was based not only love for language, but the people of the land. It was not based on hate,” Prof. Kolkar said.
He recalled that Mahatma Gandhi, who chaired the Congress conference in Belagavi in 1924, had stressed on the need for the unification of States on the basis of language. He also clarified that the spirit of federalism was not opposed to the idea of nationalism, he said. He listed several non native speakers of Kannada who had strived hard to enrich the language and the culture of Karnataka.
He said that there was a sacred responsibility of documenting all literature and domain knowledge available today in Kannada using modern technological tools. All the knowledge available now and that could be accumulated through research should be archived on the Internet. That is our collective responsibility we owe to the next generations, he said.
