And while the centre quickly retreated to diffuse the situation, for many South Indians, the episode further fuelled the perception that Hindi was being imposed on the South. A contributing factor to this perception of Hindi imposition could be the steady spread of Hindi across India and including the South. Increased frequency of Hindi films-related searches in the South would suggest that Bollywood is becoming more popular and Hindi is entering South India as a mainstream language. Another common complaint among South Indians is that people from the South are far more likely to speak Hindi than a Hindi-speaker speaking a South Indian language - a point highlighted by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor recently. However, more multilingual south Indians speak English than Hindi, further reiterating the South Indian reluctance to adopt Hindi.

Source: Mint June 12, 2019 09:20 UTC