The nursing staff in a Delhi hospital was recently banned from talking in Malayalam, and was instead instructed to converse in either Hindi or English. They were even warned that 'serious action' would be taken against them if they didn't speak in those languages.
An order issued by the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research explains that most patients and staff members are not familiar with the language and can hence end up feeling "helpless" watching the nurses converse in it.
“There are around 300-350 Malayali nursing staff at the hospital [GIPMER] and we always talk to the patients in Hindi. Do you think they will understand anything if we talk to them in Malayalam? Now they are saying we can’t talk even among ourselves in Malayalam,” a nurse said in a statement to The Hindu.
The incident has sparked outrage among netizens who have come in support of the nurses and said that anyone in India should be able to speak freely in the language they want. Twitter has been flooding with #StopHindiImposition as users claim that nobody should be ostracised for freely talking in a language of their choice with friends and colleagues.
Here is how people on Twitter reacted:
(With inputs from The Hindu).
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)