Let the market pick the language on signboards

livemint.com:

Pro-Kannada protests in Bengaluru turned violent on Wednesday. Commercial establishments bearing signboards in non-Kannada languages were attacked for failing to put them up in the local language. A government rule requires that 60% of every readable signboard be in Kannada, although there’s still a couple of months for compliance.

The protestors needed to be patient. The police could be seen in news clips on television channels trying to stop the disturbances in some places, but were outnumbered. That vandals seemed to have a long handle to create the ruckus they did raises questions of law enforcement adequacy.

While linguistic sensitivities may have grown in recent years in some states, especially in South India, hostility towards other languages needs to be discouraged by the political establishment. It’s a shame that the rule of law gets flouted in the name of language pride. Ideally, what signage a business uses should be left to market forces.

If Kannada alone makes commercial sense, then it will get prominent anyway. What works for a common denominator target audience is often what’s best. For much of the world, that’s English, and using it is a pragmatic choice.