The invisibility of Kannada and Kannadigas within Karnataka (where only 65 per cent of the people claim Kannada as their mother tongue) is emphasised in language activists' analyses of demographic change in Bangalore city. Not only are Kannada speakers a minority in Bangalore (35%) but non- Kannadigas such as "north Indians" dominate the business world, while Tamils and Malayalis dominate the privileged enclaves of industrial work, and even trade union leadership.Statistics are used to prove that Tamils constitute the most numerous, though declining, body of migrants into the city after Kannadigas. In the view of groups such as the Shakthi Kendra, Tamils are the stubbornly unassimilable minority in the city, flaunting their language, cultural symbols and heroes unlike the Telugus or the Malayalis.
The longer history of Tamil residence in the erstwhile cantonment has certainly produced a well developed identity that newer Tamil migrants, particularly from non-upper castes, have found easy to identify with. The Bangalore Tamil Sangam has played an important role in enabling such assimilation, promoting Tamil literary and cultural programmes since 1950, as well as organising Kannada classes (since 1962) popular among Government employees seeking promotions. Despite this record, it was the Sangam's effort to instal a statue of its cultural hero, Thiruvalluvar, that led to a bitter and prolonged controversy that remains unresolved.
