When the founder of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu, says that the Hindi is the “connection link” of the Indian customer, he does not make a political declaration – he offers practical commercial advice. In a country where multilingualism is the norm, VEMBU maintains that Hindi occupies a unique position, not only in the North but through urban regions and not Hindi. For business leaders, he says, mastery is not the point – the effort is.
“You can manage with the Hindi in Hyderabad or Bhubaneswar or Kolkata,” wrote Vembu on X. “Unlike English, no one in India judges you for talking about the broken Hindi – they appreciate your efforts.”
The vembu position emerged from a real commercial interaction. “Last week, I met a Smart Odiya entrepreneur (and a Zoho client) from a small village, and he talked about English, but his Hindi is quite decent,” he shared. “He was forced to use English to talk to me. My Hindi who spoke mixed with English words would have been easier for us to do business. This is what I have to achieve. “
For Vembu, business is to meet the customer where they are. “At Tamil Nadu, we have learned English to do business worldwide, because you speak your client’s language. You cannot dictate what the customer is talking about. “
Now, with the globalization “conversely”, he says that the internal market of $ 4,000 billion in India occupies the front of the stage – and the Hindi, in his opinion, is the bridge. “This is how a practical businessman thinks,” he wrote. “You can attack me whatever you want, but if you are a businessman, you would be intelligent for taking these tips!”
Vembu also directly addressed criticism: “I am generally safe from being mercilessly attacked, so thank you for wasting your time rather than understanding how to go forward in life.”
The author and philanthrope Sudha Murty recently echoes a similar point of view. “We knew that the Hindi … We enjoyed beautiful films … I have never encountered any difficulties,” she told NDTV about her stay at Tamil Nadu.
For Mounty, language is not a battlefield – it’s a bridge. “Children can learn a number of languages … We are all islands and the only bridge is the language. So I want to have many bridges – and it’s good for my work. ”
