India, Sept. 19 -- Linguistic Pandora's Box?

IN BLACK AND WHITE BY VIKRAM MUTHANNA

The Karnataka Cabinet's decision to recognise Tulu as the State's second additional administrative language has understandably been welcomed across coastal Karnataka.

While celebrations continue in Mangaluru, a quieter conversation has begun in the corridors of Vidhana Soudha, which is: Has the Government inadvertently opened a linguistic Pandora's box?

Let us call a spade a spade. In India, cultural recognition and political calculation are not mutually exclusive. Language is rarely just about culture. It is almost always about banks. vote banks.

The coastal belt of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi has long been a BJP bastion that the Congress party has bee...