Dailyhunt launches #HarBhashaEqual to promote language equality in India

Dailyhunt, a news and entertainment content application that provides content in 14 different languages announced the launch of its trailblazing digital campaign, ‘#HarBhashaEqual’.

The Dailyhunt campaign aims at highlighting our in-built bias against our vernacular languages and seeks the support from the youth in India to seek linguistic equality in the country. ‘#HarBhashaEqual’ is conceptualized and executed by Mumbai-based, full-service digital agency, What’s Your Problem.

‘Is your language inferior to another?’ is the overarching theme of this highly innovative campaign, ‘#HarBhashaEqual’. It’s a unique social experiment where pairs of speakers from different regions talk about their most significant accomplishment to a heterogeneous audience. Each pair is shown having one English language speaker and one local Indian language speaker addressing a bilingual audience. The film begins with each speaker narrating key achievements in his/her life, and the audience is then asked to guess who the real achiever is.

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In a rather ironic culmination, the audience ends up pronouncing that the real winners are those who spoke in English – representing the deep-rooted language bias that exists in India. The film ends with a beautiful song about linguistic equality that asks the ambitious Indian youth why they should be hesitant just because they can't speak English.

Umang Bedi, President, Dailyhunt, said, “In the societal fabric of India today, our individual identities are layered. A vital aspect of our identity is the language we speak, yet in a country with so many local languages and a celebrated legacy of rich cultural and linguistic history, the question that keeps popping up is – do we look at all languages equally? The answer is sadly ‘No’. The ‘#HarBhashaEqual’ campaign is an attempt to initiate a much-needed debate on this issue. It reflects our commitment to restore the importance of each regional language in India. This campaign is a good way to connect with the youth, across Bharat typically, millennials between 17 and 30 years of age and enlist their participation in this historic movement that goes beyond the film.

Umang Bedi added, “For over a decade, Dailyhunt has been concentrating on empowering people across the country, the real Bharat, not just in the metros—with knowledge and information by offering news, information and entertainment in local languages. ‘Language Equality’ has been a part of our existence since inception; hence, this is a natural theme for us.”

Amit Akali, Founder, along with Mihir Chitre, ACD and the creative mind behind the campaign at What’s Your Problem shared, “We are excited to partner with Dailyhunt for this unique social experiment – a compelling way to bring forth the obvious linguistic bias in India. We live in a country where a large majority of people subliminally equate intelligence and achievement of a person with the language he/she speaks. Consequently, a host of talented young folk remains largely unrecognized purely because of their inability to speak in English. The campaign attempts to bring this issue to the forefront. The ‘#HarBhashaEqual’ campaign can be best described as an honest attempt to make India a level-playing field for its youth.

The campaign video is directed by Cannes Lion-winning director and renowned feature filmmaker, Bauddhayan Mukherji from Little Lamb Films.