The rupee currently holds the record for the currency with the most languages printed on it worldwide, totaling seventeen.
Why only seventeen? Because India has an overwhelming number of languages.
If all languages were to be printed on it, the rupee would become not just a currency, but a thick book.
In India, there are a total of 1,652 languages and dialects, with 33 languages spoken by over a million people.
As for the other languages, even India itself is unclear.
Coupled with over a hundred ethnic groups and millions of gods, it's safe to say it's chaotic.
This has led to India having the highest number of illiterates in the world, accounting for 85% of the population.
Of course, India wouldn't admit to this bad reputation; by their standards, there are only 300 million illiterates.
So how does India define illiteracy?
Simply put, India has around 55 scripts; as long as someone can write their name in any of them, they're not considered illiterate.
You might wonder, why can't India establish a unified official language like other countries?
Why can't India have a unified official language like us?
To understand this, let's start with Bangalore in India, known as the "Silicon Valley" of India.
Bangalore is located in the state of Karnataka, where the local language is Kannada.
How big is the difference between this language and India's official language, Hindi?
According to Indians themselves, these two languages are similar in grammar and syntax, but their vocabulary overlap is less than 10%.
This 10% overlap is mainly due to historical population migrations.
Overall, it's quite difficult for speakers of these two languages to communicate with each other, so special Kannada language training courses are available in Bangalore mainly for the convenience of migrant workers.
Fortunately, Bangalore is India's tech hub, so despite the local use of Kannada, official signs and advertisements in the city are still in Hindi and English.
Originally, this chaotic arrangement was acceptable, but the problem arose when the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost to the Indian National Congress (INC) in last year's state elections, and things began to get troublesome.
Why can't India unify its script and language? What happened in Bangalore last year is a perfect example.
When the BJP lost to the INC candidate, Raghu, in the state elections, things escalated.
Previously, it was believed that the BJP was very adept at using populism, but unexpectedly, Raghu's faction also began to learn, playing populism.
This new chief minister of the state proposed a major move as soon as he took office, expressing his hope that all state residents would use Kannada in their daily lives and work, including migrant workers.
This statement caused a stir.
You see, for outsiders, learning Kannada is as difficult as learning a foreign language.
Before the elections, no one took this seriously, but now it's different; he's the legitimate chief minister of the state.
What he says is an order.
In 2018, the state government proposed a plan requiring all businesses to use Kannada on outdoor advertisements, accounting for no less than 60%.
At that time, businesses were very troubled, especially foreign companies like McDonald's, who didn't even know how to translate "McDonald's" into Kannada.
Even worse off were bank employees, who were required to learn Kannada within six months.
The bank employees were at a loss; they not only had to complete their daily tasks but also work overtime to learn Kannada, without overtime pay.
Since the new chief minister made such a statement, the plan from 2018 would surely be implemented.
So, Bangalore suddenly became lively, and the developments will be continued.
How difficult is it to promote an official language in India? Last year's events in the state taught us a vivid lesson.
Since the new chief minister proposed promoting Kannada in the state, local Kannada organizations acted as if they had received a decree and immediately took to the streets.
This Kannada organization is not easy to mess with; they have always been safeguarding the status of Kannada in the state.
Speaking English or Hindi is nothing special; this is Karnataka, and you must learn our Kannada when you come here.
These people have hot tempers, so they usually solve problems with violence.
A few years ago, there was a dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra on the border. At that time, there were several villages on the border where the residents spoke Marathi, so they were assigned to Maharashtra.
This angered the Kannada organization; they believed that those who spoke Marathi should learn Kannada.
Even if they didn't want to learn, they should be driven to Maharashtra instead of giving the place to Maharashtra.
So, they took to the streets, burned the photos of Maharashtra's chief minister, and threw stones at passing trucks.
Moreover, these people are not honest within Karnataka either; they often extort businesses, such as forcing printing shops to print promotional materials for free.
Once, they demanded thousands of posters be printed for free for their leader's birthday party and plastered them all over the streets.
The government departments dared not to intervene upon receiving complaints because once they did, they would be beaten up by members of the Kannada organization.
Even the accompanying police dared not get out of the car.
And it doesn't stop there; they can be even more outrageous.
They often cause chaos in the streets; when they see advertisements at metro stations written in Hindi, they take ink and cover them up.
In short, these people are not just hoodlums or thugs; they are even worse, often causing trouble in the streets.
This time, with the chief minister standing by their side, they had no reservations and started demonstrations immediately.
They would march to commercial centers or bustling areas and start looting.
The first to suffer were the outdoor billboards that didn't use Kannada; they demanded that businesses and companies use Kannada as required, or they would be destroyed.
In short, this is chaos, and in the end, the police could only arrest a large number of people forcibly to barely control the situation.
Seeing this, everyone should understand why it's difficult for India to unify an official language like us.
This is just Bangalore, India's tech gateway city. In states like Uttar Pradesh, even more bizarre phenomena occur.
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