Mumbai: A video shared by Instagram user Mahi Khan (@mahinergy) has sparked outrage after he was allegedly threatened by a fellow passenger on an Air India flight for not speaking Marathi. The incident occurred aboard flight AI676 on Thursday and has reignited debate over linguistic intolerance in Maharashtra.
In the video, Khan is seen confronting a woman who insisted he speak in Marathi. When he asked, “Are you asking me to speak in Marathi?”, the woman responded, “Yes, please do.” The situation escalated when Khan refused, saying, “No I won’t speak Marathi,” prompting the woman to retort, “You are going to Mumbai, you should know Marathi.”
Khan alleged that the woman continued to threaten him in front of flight attendants, saying, “Get down in Mumbai and I will show you what misbehaviour is,” and later added, “If you don’t know Marathi, sit back down.”
The video, captioned “This happened to me in AI676,” includes an autogenerated reel message: “In a country that proudly says unity in diversity. These people are defaming India.” Khan also commented, “Such misbehaviour is happening in the Air India flight. I have been threatened that I must speak in Marathi if I want to stay in Mumbai.”
The reason behind the confrontation remains unclear, but Khan said the incident reflects a growing mindset of linguistic coercion. “I recorded everything Because this isn’t just about me, it’s about the mindset that’s growing dangerously normal You cannot force a language. You cannot buy respect,” he wrote in a follow-up post.
He urged Air India to take action against such behaviour and called for a ban on passengers who harass others over language. “No passenger should feel unsafe or humiliated for simply speaking a different language,” he concluded.