A place board from Kerala’s, Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station is the part of a new wave of concerted Hindi imposing on non-Hindi speaking Indian states. This railway station, at the capital city of Kerala, is mostly used by Malayalees followed by Tamilians. At any rate, folks from other states would be a minority here. Still, in the central position of the board with white reverse in blue, stands Devanagari alphabet which is hard to read for those who does not care to use it. 

Precisely the fact is railway is not keeping the local language as the central figure. Or for that matter, English, which is followed by more South Indians than Hindi also not getting that consideration.

It does not stop here. Every place boards in National Highway follow suit. ETA and ETD Displays in railway stations are also shown in Hindi. In such railway stations where much trains come and go, People have to wait for minutes to Hindi display to change so that they might see the train listing in English or Malayalam. And till now, MP’s of the state haven’t spoken anything about it.

On another note, some people are analyzing this as a majoritarian implementation since the railway is coming to the umbrella of central ministry. Because Indian states whose official language is Hindi and have a Hindi-speaking majority, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. So by following that thread, Hindi is being thrust upon other states as well.

Recently, the outrage over Karnataka’s Namma Metro sign boards made headlines after protests from Kannada activists and later Hindi was taken off from  Metro. But in Kochi Metro, there are no issues with Hindi so far.

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