Royal Challengers Bangalore’s official anthem for the season was met with widespread criticism on social media on Friday. Minutes after the franchise released the video on its social media platforms, fans were upset with the dominance of Hindi in the anthem.
“RCB’s Official Anthem is here! And it is dedicated to the best fans in the world. Time to crank up the volume to the max. 12th Man Army, ”RCB said on Twitter.
The Official Anthem of RCB is here! And it is dedicated to the best fans in the world. Time to crank up the volume, 12th Man Army. 🗣🔊#PlayBold # IPL2020 #WeAreChallengers # Dream11IPL #RCBAnthem pic.twitter.com/zUBMfSM4U5
– Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) September 18, 2020
Local fans were upset that the Bengaluru-based franchise had used more Hindi words in the 1:46 minute video. Recently, an ‘anti-Hindi imposition’ movement has gained momentum in Karnataka after several social media campaigns by pro-Kannada activists. A section of fans felt that RCB was ignoring the recent struggle of the people against the marginalization of regional languages by the central government to impose Hindi on them.
“The outrage is genuine. Just as @Chennai IPL adds local flavor with Tamil, @RCBTweets fans asking for a song in Kannada are justified. After all, Kannada is the official language of Bengaluru, ”Dodda Ganesh, former pacemaker from India and Karnataka, posted on her Twitter account.
No, Shashank. The outrage is genuine. like the @ChennaiIPL add local flavor with tamil, @RCBTweetsFans asking for a song in Kannada is justified. After all, it is Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the official language of Bengaluru is Kannada. https://t.co/sF4bVC42Ad
– ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ | Dodda Ganesh (@doddaganesha) September 18, 2020
Fervent RCB fans have always demanded the presence of local players on the wing and did not like that the local language was not featured in the anthem.
In the hymn, only four looping Kannada words are used, while the rest of the content is in Hindi and English. Annoyed fan reactions caused the hashtag #RCB Anthem to start trending on Twitter. Four hours after the first video was released, RCB released another anthem calling it ‘Rap Kannada’ with a small segment of Kannada in it.
The anthem also received a positive response with people defending RCB saying that the team has fans all over the world and that the anthem was for everyone.
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