I am not someone who can boast of seen a lot. I have hardly seen twenty-five springs and don't even remember the first five of them. The ones that I remember are so much full of terror and death that I succumb to believe that India is an unsafe place to stay. The year my parents must have been celebrating my first birthday, the country burned under the Hindu- Sikh riots post the Indira Gandhi Murder. The impact it had on my family was that my elder brother who was six years old then, was shifted from his school, just because it was named Guru Gobind Singh Public School and hence got attacked by mob everyday.
I was in class 3 when some Tamil girl hung a bomb around her body and blowed away Rajiv Gandhi along with herself. I did not understand anything about terrorism or politics, all I understood was that 21st May 1991 is one more date I must remember for my G.K. exams. I had hardly crossed class 4 and entered class 5, when a mosque was broken in Ayodhya and there were riots all over. Bombs exploded in Mumbai. i remembered another date for G.K. exams 6th December 1992. I kept moving from one grade to another and so did the terror. One year in the Parliament, and another year in Varanasi. Once in Hyderabad and next in Ahmedabad. By the time I passed school, the World Trade Center was also demolished - a date that no one could forget 11th September. As i moved to college, the progress in bombs was alarming. They blasted local trains in Mumbai, markets in Delhi and ghats in Varanasi. Now that I work in an MNC, I even forget dates. Someone told me yesterday that there were six bomb blast incidents in the country in the last six months. And I don't remember the dates of any.
Has my memory become weak. Or i just don't care. Or may be I have accepted bomb blasts as part of my life and there are no more a surprise for me. Last week, some bombs exploded in Taj hotel in Mumbai and were followed by long hours of shootout. Hundreds died. How did I react? I watched the TV. I saw the TV and kept changing news channel to know which one had better screen shots. The channels knew I was doing that so they kept advertising each news item as their Exclusive news. It seemed like an action movie being watched live. Every move of the NSG was being shown by the media. The journalists portrayed themselves as brave men by using 40x zoom cameras from 4 km distance and completely unable to track the moves of the terrorists. After watching the news channels, I felt as if everyone in this country is useless and the only people doing good for the country are the one blabbering news on TV. After a couple of days, I just stopped watching the TV and preferred reading the papers.
After a long ordeal with a small group of 20 men, we were finally able to end the struggle. By then it had already cost us millions of rupees and hundreds of lives. We were patting the backs of the NSG which could end it all in 3 days. But then I thought how would he be feeling who sent these twenty men to run this show. He must be patting his own back and reciting inspiring stories of the Taj Massacre to the young pupils of how only 20 people can not only breach Indian security at all levels, but also keep them busy for three long days. I think it was a huge achievement for whoever planned it.
Now that it's over, all of us who were afraid of even going near the site in those three days are out on streets trying to blame someone or the other. The most easy target is obviously the politics. The ruling party becomes an easier target of the group. And politicians have another easy target to put blame - Pakistan. The ruling party asks some of its ministers to resign, and I don't understand what the hell will it change. Are the new ones more capable than the ones who were there. Has anyone of them passed a test that certifies them in combating terrorism? It's no use swapping a rotten egg with a less rotten egg. They will neither hatch nor make an omelet. Nevertheless, that at least gives people an impression that the government is doing something. Some people are too generalist to blame the entire politics, as if wishing for a divine system to replace the democracy. Only of those who are lighting candles now, cared to go out to polling booths and cast their votes. Anyways....
As for Pakistan, I really pity them. They are beaten by both sides. When they say that they do not know anything about LeT or their activities, believe me they are true. They hardly get an year of democracy and elections after a decade. Where do they have time to look into these issues. They are a little too busy to postpone the next military coup by another six months. They know that terrorists flourish in Pakistan, but they really can't do anything about it. They are getting their hotels blown away anyways. The bigger irony for them is that these are the same groups that they started who have become bigger powers than the government now.
Well, amongst all this blame game, one man completely walks away quietly. He comes out with a candle and blames politicians. He stands with a mic and a camera and shows us scenes. He discusses politics over the morning cup of tea and forgets about with the first flush in the toilet. It is the same man who was born with the Hindu Sikh riots and went to school to learn the dates of 21st May and 6th december. The man to whom the bombs have become a part of life and the best way he can think of escaping this to get out of this country. The man who believes that it's the job of the elite to blame the government, the job of the illiterate to vote and the job of criminals to get elected. No one blames this man. No one blames me. As if I am not involved. As if I don't matter in who rules in Delhi. Why is the blame not on me? Who is at fault and who will correct things?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Happy Birthday Chacha...
Today is November 14th, 2008. The 118th birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is today. For the love of Nehru to the children, this day is also called the Children's day. 119 years after his birth and 44 years after his death, does that handsome man with a lot of dreams hold any relevance for us?
We have, what I call the ultimate power, the power of HINDSIGHT to analyze, praise and criticize Nehru. In this new world of globalized economy and free markets, which has definitely brought India out of the slow growth momentum and set the world stage for a big move by the nation, Nehruvian thoughts don't seem to hold much relevance. But then. these are different times. Nehru, in the times that he lived, was among one of the best statesmen that the world has seen.
After 200 years of imperial rule and complete shattered economy, to take charge of the country must have been a challenging task. Had he resigned to a free market economy then, may be me and my father would still have been in the small village of Bhagalpur, chanting mantras at some temple to get 11 rupees as dakshina. Nehru realized that the Indian corporate of the 40's and 50's was not in a position to be completely relied for the development of the nation. A large part of the country was in villages and depended on agriculture. It was, a well thought decision that Nehru took charge of establishing key manufacturing industries under the state's control and managed to set the ball rolling for India. The Steel Authority of India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporations are examples of how these setups have not only paved a path for a stronger infrastructure for the country but also generated a lot of employment and led India to a fast urbanization.
Nehru, as is always said, was a dreamer. Philosophical in his thoughts, emotional in his approach and a strong lover of himself. He was a little too obsessed with himself and despite his exposure to both Socialism of USSR and the non-violence of Gandhi, he was able to frame his own style which can be named Nehruvianism, if allowed to. The ideas of a mixed economy, the policy of non-alignment to either of the world powers and the focus on industrialization were thoughts much ahead of his time. He dreamt of India as a world leader when we were still struggling for our quarter's meals and he believed in his dreams as well. May be soon enough, we shall be seeing his dreams fulfilled.
But, Nehru has also been criticized lately. For closing the doors of our economy to the world and thus depriving the nation from the benefits of foreign knowledge and foreign business. I can appreciate such criticism today with the power of the hindsight because opening up has turned out to be good for us. Aren't the critics also using the same power of hindsight in assessing Nehru's decision of keeping the economy under strict regulations. I think, if you think of India as an infant born on 15 August 1947 and handed over to the first governess named Nehru, the job was duly done by the dreamer. He was pretty clear that he shall not live to see the youth of the child he was rearing but he knew that he must set the foundations right so that when the kid is left on its own, it does not falter. Like a disciplined guardian, Nehru laid down rules that the infant India must follow in order to walk, feed and talk. By the time India was becoming a toddler, Nehru passed away. Shastri very intelligently gave the toddler a small bicycle to ride, but before he could train the kid, he passed away too.
What happened next was a little disastrous for the still young kid. India was reaching its adolescent stage, not too young, but still not old enough. This is the toughest time of life, one goes through a lot of changes and needs to be counselled as well as given freedom to explore the world. The next governess, Mrs. Gandhi wasn't too sure if the kid was ready for a bike or to go out with friends alone. Like a strict guardian, she still wanted a teen to be completely under her control. Eat when it is told and sleep when it is order. Teens, as we know, are not so easy to be ruled. So the nation erupted and enthusiastic teenage ideas kept questioning the governess. Irritated by this uncalled for behaviour, the strict governess locked the teenage into a room. No going out. No meeting friends and no partying. The teen better listen to the governess or else it will be punished. The doors of the room remain locked for long. And just when the governess thought that the teen would have been set right by now, she was amazed by how the locked kid had managed to out-throw the guardian.
But an adolescent is an adolescent after all. It was soon put under control and the governess was back in action. The soon-to-be adult kid now turned violent and killed the governess to set itself free. It was getting mature now and more than a guardian, it needed a friend, a guide. The new guardian was a young one, who understood the nuances of the new youth the nation was witnessing and also assured the kid that he shall be set free to lead an independent life soon. Before , Rajiv Gandhi, the new in-charge of the nation could take the nation to adulthood, he got killed too. This left the nation restless. This is the time of early adulthood, where you are restless, you explore drugs and hippies and rock and think that there is no point in making a career. A time where you indulge into futile violent activities. You party and you drink and you drive when drunk and meet accidents.
India also had this phase. Mosques getting broken, riots burning the cities, no stable government, chaos for almost a decade. But sooner or later, a well nursed child realizes its duties as an adult, so did India. Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao, rightly understood the dreams of Nehru and decided to let the adult India move freely in the world and make its own mark. It was time for the adult to leave the tender beds of comfort and lead oneself into the wide open world and explore its stand. The educated duo did it brilliantly. Amidst the chaos of early adulthood, India had entered its phase of making its own mark in the world.
Today, with all the energy, enthusiasm and intelligence of a well nurtured adult, India is fast making a progress in all fields. Nehru's thoughts might not seem relevant today and socialism might not be a top agenda of discussion anymore, but the values that was set in childhood shall reap us good benefits now.
Thank you Chacha..thank you for taking care when we needed it. Long live your thoughts and your memories.
We have, what I call the ultimate power, the power of HINDSIGHT to analyze, praise and criticize Nehru. In this new world of globalized economy and free markets, which has definitely brought India out of the slow growth momentum and set the world stage for a big move by the nation, Nehruvian thoughts don't seem to hold much relevance. But then. these are different times. Nehru, in the times that he lived, was among one of the best statesmen that the world has seen.
After 200 years of imperial rule and complete shattered economy, to take charge of the country must have been a challenging task. Had he resigned to a free market economy then, may be me and my father would still have been in the small village of Bhagalpur, chanting mantras at some temple to get 11 rupees as dakshina. Nehru realized that the Indian corporate of the 40's and 50's was not in a position to be completely relied for the development of the nation. A large part of the country was in villages and depended on agriculture. It was, a well thought decision that Nehru took charge of establishing key manufacturing industries under the state's control and managed to set the ball rolling for India. The Steel Authority of India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporations are examples of how these setups have not only paved a path for a stronger infrastructure for the country but also generated a lot of employment and led India to a fast urbanization.
Nehru, as is always said, was a dreamer. Philosophical in his thoughts, emotional in his approach and a strong lover of himself. He was a little too obsessed with himself and despite his exposure to both Socialism of USSR and the non-violence of Gandhi, he was able to frame his own style which can be named Nehruvianism, if allowed to. The ideas of a mixed economy, the policy of non-alignment to either of the world powers and the focus on industrialization were thoughts much ahead of his time. He dreamt of India as a world leader when we were still struggling for our quarter's meals and he believed in his dreams as well. May be soon enough, we shall be seeing his dreams fulfilled.
But, Nehru has also been criticized lately. For closing the doors of our economy to the world and thus depriving the nation from the benefits of foreign knowledge and foreign business. I can appreciate such criticism today with the power of the hindsight because opening up has turned out to be good for us. Aren't the critics also using the same power of hindsight in assessing Nehru's decision of keeping the economy under strict regulations. I think, if you think of India as an infant born on 15 August 1947 and handed over to the first governess named Nehru, the job was duly done by the dreamer. He was pretty clear that he shall not live to see the youth of the child he was rearing but he knew that he must set the foundations right so that when the kid is left on its own, it does not falter. Like a disciplined guardian, Nehru laid down rules that the infant India must follow in order to walk, feed and talk. By the time India was becoming a toddler, Nehru passed away. Shastri very intelligently gave the toddler a small bicycle to ride, but before he could train the kid, he passed away too.
What happened next was a little disastrous for the still young kid. India was reaching its adolescent stage, not too young, but still not old enough. This is the toughest time of life, one goes through a lot of changes and needs to be counselled as well as given freedom to explore the world. The next governess, Mrs. Gandhi wasn't too sure if the kid was ready for a bike or to go out with friends alone. Like a strict guardian, she still wanted a teen to be completely under her control. Eat when it is told and sleep when it is order. Teens, as we know, are not so easy to be ruled. So the nation erupted and enthusiastic teenage ideas kept questioning the governess. Irritated by this uncalled for behaviour, the strict governess locked the teenage into a room. No going out. No meeting friends and no partying. The teen better listen to the governess or else it will be punished. The doors of the room remain locked for long. And just when the governess thought that the teen would have been set right by now, she was amazed by how the locked kid had managed to out-throw the guardian.
But an adolescent is an adolescent after all. It was soon put under control and the governess was back in action. The soon-to-be adult kid now turned violent and killed the governess to set itself free. It was getting mature now and more than a guardian, it needed a friend, a guide. The new guardian was a young one, who understood the nuances of the new youth the nation was witnessing and also assured the kid that he shall be set free to lead an independent life soon. Before , Rajiv Gandhi, the new in-charge of the nation could take the nation to adulthood, he got killed too. This left the nation restless. This is the time of early adulthood, where you are restless, you explore drugs and hippies and rock and think that there is no point in making a career. A time where you indulge into futile violent activities. You party and you drink and you drive when drunk and meet accidents.
India also had this phase. Mosques getting broken, riots burning the cities, no stable government, chaos for almost a decade. But sooner or later, a well nursed child realizes its duties as an adult, so did India. Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao, rightly understood the dreams of Nehru and decided to let the adult India move freely in the world and make its own mark. It was time for the adult to leave the tender beds of comfort and lead oneself into the wide open world and explore its stand. The educated duo did it brilliantly. Amidst the chaos of early adulthood, India had entered its phase of making its own mark in the world.
Today, with all the energy, enthusiasm and intelligence of a well nurtured adult, India is fast making a progress in all fields. Nehru's thoughts might not seem relevant today and socialism might not be a top agenda of discussion anymore, but the values that was set in childhood shall reap us good benefits now.
Thank you Chacha..thank you for taking care when we needed it. Long live your thoughts and your memories.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Is Hindi our National Language?
First of all, apologies to all those who would have expected this article to be in Hindi. This one aims to reach those who can't read Hindi, so I am forced to choose English as the medium.
Nevertheless, while I was in school (which was a government run English medium school), I had read in my Civics class that the national flower of India is lotus and the national bird is peacock. Also that the national animal is Tiger and the national language is Hindi. I was amazed at how has someone made that choice. And when I read about how tigers are so rapidly getting extinct and how peacock is mostly found in the plains of the Ganga, I started finding a similarity between everything that was called National. Pardon me for making a sweeping statement, but this is maximum what a school kid could think. All our National so&so are not readily available. Tigers are something that are endangered species. Lotus is something I have never seen because it does not grow in gardens (where all flowers are found) but in ponds, and Peacock is again something that I never saw (till I landed up in the lush green campus of IIT Kanpur which is full of peacocks).
The fate looked different for Hindi, may be because I lived in Bihar (now my city is part of Jharkhand) whose official language is Hindi. But my parents didn't talk to each other in Hindi. They talked in Angika (which is a supposedly a variant of Maithili) and is spoken in the Gangetic plains of Bihar. When I ever went to our native villages in Bhagalpur, I was mocked for not being able to talk in Angika and was termed an "Angrez" for speaking in Hindi. Gosh !!! they didn't even know that Angrez are english speaking people and not Hindi speaking. Anyways, I cursed the villagers for not being able to speak our National Language and took pride in being acquainted with the solitary symbol of India within my reach.
When I reached class tenth, the year which is marked as a very important year in the academic career of an Indian, we were supposed to choose our second language for the Board Exams. The first language (and the compulsory one) obviously remained English !!!. The options available were Sanskrit and Hindi. And despite the near-demise status of the language, 90% of the class chose Sanskrit, because the papers were fairly simpler and easier to score. I wanted to show some obligation to the national language, but was too uncertain about playing with the first important step of my career. I chose Sanskrit, and took Hindi as my extra subject. I kept attending the Hindi classes and not the Sanskrit ones (they were both held at the same time, in different rooms), but still the board results couldn't be changed. While I scored a comfortable 96 out of 100 in Sanskrit, I scored only 76 in Hindi. I was broke. I felt I was good in Hindi, but not anymore.
I chose to study science and the only compulsory language left to be studied was English. Hindi was past now, never to be seen again. I kept trying to come back to Hindi through speech competions and the school magazine but the bond never became strong. And then life brought me to IIT Kanpur. In the first year, when talents of 'bachchas' are identified for the future competitions of the campus, I participated in both the English debates as well as the Hindi ones. I won both. But I was assigned to the Hindi team because, there were way too many people in the English team and it could have managed with the 2nd and 3rd rankers, while the Hindi team was higly impoverished and needed a strong contender. I had no choice. I chose Hindi. Thereafter, I could never return to English. i became the editor of the campus magazine, but only for the Hindi part and that meant publishing a few poems, a few stories and a couple of jokes (which were not at all humourous). The magazine remained an English one, with some tribute-like pages dedicated to Hindi. I tried to change things. Managed to get one of the two cover stories in Hindi and also some other major coverage in Hindi. I don't know how much did it help.
Soon after, I was appointed the Coordinator of the Hindi Literary Society, formed in line with the much popular English Literary Society. By this time, I had found some strong supporters of Hindi, but barring a few most of them could not think of Hindi beyond poems. The first thing I did after taking charge of the society was to change its name to Hindi Sahitya Sabha. Again, i don't know if it mattered. But it did give us some satisfaction. I also tried learning Hindi typing on computer and trained a few more. Finally we were able to launch the first Hindi web-page of IIT Kanpur called Pratidhvani - a subset of the campus magazine. I don't know if it's alive or already dead by now.
IIT days passed soon. And I got destined to travel the country, from one end to the other. I travelled in Punjab, in Bangalore (Karnataka), in Nasik (Maharashtra) and in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and everywhere, it was English that came more handy than Hindi (except for the exception of Punjab, where Hindi was understood more than English). In this travel, I tried learning other Indian Languages. Got basic literacy in Marathi and a bit better hold on Punjabi. Tamil remained out of reach and couldn't go any further than counting from One to Ten. But one question kept intriguing me. Is Hindi our National Language?
If yes, then how come, more than half of the country does not speak it. Why is it that I have to use English when I converse in the southern part of the country, or for that matter, even in the far eastern part of the country. Hindi is the official language of only 9 states out of 28 states, which is a little less than one-third. If we consider the population of Hindi speaking people, I don't know what the figure will be because even remote areas of Hindi speaking states like Rajasthan, Himachal and Jharkhand can still not speak Hindi. I don't know why did we choose Hindi as the national language. May be because it still remains the most widely spoken Indian languages. So it is not the language of every Indian, but might be the language of most Indians.
Whatever, be the logic, today, I can't see Hindi growing but diminishing. Probably it fits the reasoning of national symbols I developed in schooldays - near extinction. I haven't heard of great literature in Hindi in recent times (exceptions are there) and the people who are most responsible for whatever little progress Hindi has made, are the bollywood people. Though English remains the common language of all our actors and actresses when it comes to giving an interview, thankfully the Bollywood industry still believes in making films in Hindi. I just hope that they keep doing that.
If I think of why Hindi has nit still reached the desired state of a National Language, there are primarily two reasons I can think of. First is the de-linkage of Hindi with economics. If you have to earn, you need English. Knowing Hindi does not give you any advantage in the competition market and hence you really don't care if you can't speak it till English is able to get you salaries. Secondly, it is the proponents of Hindi who have made it more and more an elite language. The writers have focused so much on the purity of the language that they rejected anything from outside. Urdu, Awadhi, Rajasthani, Punjabi-Hindi (the delhi language), Marathi-Hindi (or the mumbaiya hindi) and the Anglo-Hindi (the common language of the college-goer today) do not get any recognition as Hindi and the only recognized form is the one spoken On Doordarshn. That form will always remain limited in its reach and its popularity.
Anyways, I hope that people who are in love with the language will keep writing, reading and speaking in it, even if that means watching silly news channels just for the sake of listening to Hindi and watching baseless romantics of bollywood. I just hope that like the lotus, the peacock and the tiger, Hindi also manages to live despite the odds...
Nevertheless, while I was in school (which was a government run English medium school), I had read in my Civics class that the national flower of India is lotus and the national bird is peacock. Also that the national animal is Tiger and the national language is Hindi. I was amazed at how has someone made that choice. And when I read about how tigers are so rapidly getting extinct and how peacock is mostly found in the plains of the Ganga, I started finding a similarity between everything that was called National. Pardon me for making a sweeping statement, but this is maximum what a school kid could think. All our National so&so are not readily available. Tigers are something that are endangered species. Lotus is something I have never seen because it does not grow in gardens (where all flowers are found) but in ponds, and Peacock is again something that I never saw (till I landed up in the lush green campus of IIT Kanpur which is full of peacocks).
The fate looked different for Hindi, may be because I lived in Bihar (now my city is part of Jharkhand) whose official language is Hindi. But my parents didn't talk to each other in Hindi. They talked in Angika (which is a supposedly a variant of Maithili) and is spoken in the Gangetic plains of Bihar. When I ever went to our native villages in Bhagalpur, I was mocked for not being able to talk in Angika and was termed an "Angrez" for speaking in Hindi. Gosh !!! they didn't even know that Angrez are english speaking people and not Hindi speaking. Anyways, I cursed the villagers for not being able to speak our National Language and took pride in being acquainted with the solitary symbol of India within my reach.
When I reached class tenth, the year which is marked as a very important year in the academic career of an Indian, we were supposed to choose our second language for the Board Exams. The first language (and the compulsory one) obviously remained English !!!. The options available were Sanskrit and Hindi. And despite the near-demise status of the language, 90% of the class chose Sanskrit, because the papers were fairly simpler and easier to score. I wanted to show some obligation to the national language, but was too uncertain about playing with the first important step of my career. I chose Sanskrit, and took Hindi as my extra subject. I kept attending the Hindi classes and not the Sanskrit ones (they were both held at the same time, in different rooms), but still the board results couldn't be changed. While I scored a comfortable 96 out of 100 in Sanskrit, I scored only 76 in Hindi. I was broke. I felt I was good in Hindi, but not anymore.
I chose to study science and the only compulsory language left to be studied was English. Hindi was past now, never to be seen again. I kept trying to come back to Hindi through speech competions and the school magazine but the bond never became strong. And then life brought me to IIT Kanpur. In the first year, when talents of 'bachchas' are identified for the future competitions of the campus, I participated in both the English debates as well as the Hindi ones. I won both. But I was assigned to the Hindi team because, there were way too many people in the English team and it could have managed with the 2nd and 3rd rankers, while the Hindi team was higly impoverished and needed a strong contender. I had no choice. I chose Hindi. Thereafter, I could never return to English. i became the editor of the campus magazine, but only for the Hindi part and that meant publishing a few poems, a few stories and a couple of jokes (which were not at all humourous). The magazine remained an English one, with some tribute-like pages dedicated to Hindi. I tried to change things. Managed to get one of the two cover stories in Hindi and also some other major coverage in Hindi. I don't know how much did it help.
Soon after, I was appointed the Coordinator of the Hindi Literary Society, formed in line with the much popular English Literary Society. By this time, I had found some strong supporters of Hindi, but barring a few most of them could not think of Hindi beyond poems. The first thing I did after taking charge of the society was to change its name to Hindi Sahitya Sabha. Again, i don't know if it mattered. But it did give us some satisfaction. I also tried learning Hindi typing on computer and trained a few more. Finally we were able to launch the first Hindi web-page of IIT Kanpur called Pratidhvani - a subset of the campus magazine. I don't know if it's alive or already dead by now.
IIT days passed soon. And I got destined to travel the country, from one end to the other. I travelled in Punjab, in Bangalore (Karnataka), in Nasik (Maharashtra) and in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and everywhere, it was English that came more handy than Hindi (except for the exception of Punjab, where Hindi was understood more than English). In this travel, I tried learning other Indian Languages. Got basic literacy in Marathi and a bit better hold on Punjabi. Tamil remained out of reach and couldn't go any further than counting from One to Ten. But one question kept intriguing me. Is Hindi our National Language?
If yes, then how come, more than half of the country does not speak it. Why is it that I have to use English when I converse in the southern part of the country, or for that matter, even in the far eastern part of the country. Hindi is the official language of only 9 states out of 28 states, which is a little less than one-third. If we consider the population of Hindi speaking people, I don't know what the figure will be because even remote areas of Hindi speaking states like Rajasthan, Himachal and Jharkhand can still not speak Hindi. I don't know why did we choose Hindi as the national language. May be because it still remains the most widely spoken Indian languages. So it is not the language of every Indian, but might be the language of most Indians.
Whatever, be the logic, today, I can't see Hindi growing but diminishing. Probably it fits the reasoning of national symbols I developed in schooldays - near extinction. I haven't heard of great literature in Hindi in recent times (exceptions are there) and the people who are most responsible for whatever little progress Hindi has made, are the bollywood people. Though English remains the common language of all our actors and actresses when it comes to giving an interview, thankfully the Bollywood industry still believes in making films in Hindi. I just hope that they keep doing that.
If I think of why Hindi has nit still reached the desired state of a National Language, there are primarily two reasons I can think of. First is the de-linkage of Hindi with economics. If you have to earn, you need English. Knowing Hindi does not give you any advantage in the competition market and hence you really don't care if you can't speak it till English is able to get you salaries. Secondly, it is the proponents of Hindi who have made it more and more an elite language. The writers have focused so much on the purity of the language that they rejected anything from outside. Urdu, Awadhi, Rajasthani, Punjabi-Hindi (the delhi language), Marathi-Hindi (or the mumbaiya hindi) and the Anglo-Hindi (the common language of the college-goer today) do not get any recognition as Hindi and the only recognized form is the one spoken On Doordarshn. That form will always remain limited in its reach and its popularity.
Anyways, I hope that people who are in love with the language will keep writing, reading and speaking in it, even if that means watching silly news channels just for the sake of listening to Hindi and watching baseless romantics of bollywood. I just hope that like the lotus, the peacock and the tiger, Hindi also manages to live despite the odds...
Friday, October 31, 2008
Communism and Confusion-ism
I know that if you talk about Communism today, the most common implications would be that you are either a Naxalite or supporter of the erstwhile USSR or China. In most of the Western world communism has become synonymous with autocracy and lack of freedom, and the feeling is not without a reason. The way USA (and other non-communist countries) have advertised the atrocities of the Communist governments of the China and the USSR, we are bound to think of it as something that should never happen to us. Well, I could have comfortably thought that way but for two reasons. One, I was born to a man who is a hard-core communist, a worker in the Bokaro Steel Plant, an active member of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and a firm believer in the fact that Communism will one day wipe out all stresses of human life. The second reason is my little exposure to China. Well none of the two reasons were strong enough to make me a supporter of communism, but at least helped me have an unbiased view about them.
My father was a communist since his late school days. Born to a Congressman freedom fighter, he was heavily influenced by the local Communist leader Prabhu Narayan Rai, who also remained an MLA for a long period of time. Imagine my dad's time, when the country has just got free and the fruits of independence had not yet reached the villages. The fight in the village remained against the zamindars and their autonomous authority. Prabhu babu (as he was famously called) was actually a zamindar himself, with a soft heart. He felt that the peasants had a right over the land they till and himself led many a revloutionary movements. He was known for his simplicity and his innumerable donations of land to the cause of the village. Most noted of them remained his donation to Vinoba Bhave in the Bhoodan movement. Prabhu Babu was undoubtedly the most impressive, most famous and most liked personality of the area. When elected the MLA for the region, his fame went beyond. It was not surprising that my dad, then in his early youth, along with his friends, became a great admirer of him and his policies.
Prabhu babu inculcated the culture of equality and brotherhood in the village and youngsters like my dad became his active campaigners. There were many in Prabhu babu's family who later also made a mark in politics, S.P.Rai, being one of the most noted ones as he also became a health minister in the State government. My dad spent his young days studying about Marx and Lenin and how the Czar was ousted in Russia and USSR was formed. He came to work in Bokaro Steel Plant which was an epitome of Nehruvian socialism and was Asia's 4th largest steel plant established with the help of USSR. He became a more active member of the Communist Party of India after joining the plant.
I was born and brought up in Bokaro, hearing the stories of Prabhu Babu and how I should become like him. We would hear about Somnath Chatterjee and Jyoti Basu as the pillars of Communism in India. I also got to read the Marx's masterpiece "Capital" translated in Hindi when I was still in school. Reading Lenin's biography, knowing about Bhagat Singh and his ideas and understanding Nehru's dream for India remained my childhood memories.
But times changed. And they changed very fast. Communism was not meant to be a terror. It was meant to be a system that shall have everything for everyone. A utopia- if you may call it.
But the application of Communism in USSR and China, did not exactly match the ideas of Marx. They were more Lenin-ism and Mao-ism, if I may call them.
Somehow, I feel that Communism confused itself when it got implemented in the two biggest countries of the world. But the fact that it succeeded to take power in these two countries is in itself a big achievement for that old bearded German writer Marx. We have never seen any philosopher's or sociologists ideas being adapted like that ever before or ever again. Even Gandhism could not last after Gandhi's demise in India. I can't understand where did Marx mention an aversion to change that both these governments became so rigid. If I understand correctly, socialism(or communism) was all about bringing a change in the way the world operates normally in order to distribute the resources of the world in an more equitable manner rather than leaving men to fight each other like animals. But while implementing the Marxist ideas, the implementers became a little stiff in the way they interpreted Marx. If you come to China today, after about a decade of opening up, you will understand what I mean. USSR was stiff, but China was ready to accept that it needs to change. China is still a communist nation but it is doing really well.
Shanghai is a brilliant example of how the Neo-Communism (if i may call it) of the 21st century can bring a huge change to the world. I agree that the initial advent of Communism in China killed the entrepreneurship of Shanghai and it almost became dormant for a long period. But the government was open to accept that change was required. After the foreign companies were allowed in China, Shanghai boomed, but communism didn't die. I think the idea of communism was not to kill enterpreneurship but to ensure that nobody is left hungry. Look at the way the government has promoted infrastructure developments in the city and you will know what Communism is capable of. Talk to any Chinese about communism and you can see a sense of pride in their eyes. There is no complaint, only hope.
I think Communism needs to change according to time, if it wants to survive, the way democracy has changed and moulded itself according to time. If someone asks me which one is a more efficient system, I would anyday vote for Communism, but if someone asks which will last longer, it shall be deomcracy. Communism needs to revist its roots, understand why it was formed and then decide how it should work. May be it needs many more Prabhu Babu to exemplify what it means.
My father was a communist since his late school days. Born to a Congressman freedom fighter, he was heavily influenced by the local Communist leader Prabhu Narayan Rai, who also remained an MLA for a long period of time. Imagine my dad's time, when the country has just got free and the fruits of independence had not yet reached the villages. The fight in the village remained against the zamindars and their autonomous authority. Prabhu babu (as he was famously called) was actually a zamindar himself, with a soft heart. He felt that the peasants had a right over the land they till and himself led many a revloutionary movements. He was known for his simplicity and his innumerable donations of land to the cause of the village. Most noted of them remained his donation to Vinoba Bhave in the Bhoodan movement. Prabhu Babu was undoubtedly the most impressive, most famous and most liked personality of the area. When elected the MLA for the region, his fame went beyond. It was not surprising that my dad, then in his early youth, along with his friends, became a great admirer of him and his policies.
Prabhu babu inculcated the culture of equality and brotherhood in the village and youngsters like my dad became his active campaigners. There were many in Prabhu babu's family who later also made a mark in politics, S.P.Rai, being one of the most noted ones as he also became a health minister in the State government. My dad spent his young days studying about Marx and Lenin and how the Czar was ousted in Russia and USSR was formed. He came to work in Bokaro Steel Plant which was an epitome of Nehruvian socialism and was Asia's 4th largest steel plant established with the help of USSR. He became a more active member of the Communist Party of India after joining the plant.
I was born and brought up in Bokaro, hearing the stories of Prabhu Babu and how I should become like him. We would hear about Somnath Chatterjee and Jyoti Basu as the pillars of Communism in India. I also got to read the Marx's masterpiece "Capital" translated in Hindi when I was still in school. Reading Lenin's biography, knowing about Bhagat Singh and his ideas and understanding Nehru's dream for India remained my childhood memories.
But times changed. And they changed very fast. Communism was not meant to be a terror. It was meant to be a system that shall have everything for everyone. A utopia- if you may call it.
But the application of Communism in USSR and China, did not exactly match the ideas of Marx. They were more Lenin-ism and Mao-ism, if I may call them.
Somehow, I feel that Communism confused itself when it got implemented in the two biggest countries of the world. But the fact that it succeeded to take power in these two countries is in itself a big achievement for that old bearded German writer Marx. We have never seen any philosopher's or sociologists ideas being adapted like that ever before or ever again. Even Gandhism could not last after Gandhi's demise in India. I can't understand where did Marx mention an aversion to change that both these governments became so rigid. If I understand correctly, socialism(or communism) was all about bringing a change in the way the world operates normally in order to distribute the resources of the world in an more equitable manner rather than leaving men to fight each other like animals. But while implementing the Marxist ideas, the implementers became a little stiff in the way they interpreted Marx. If you come to China today, after about a decade of opening up, you will understand what I mean. USSR was stiff, but China was ready to accept that it needs to change. China is still a communist nation but it is doing really well.
Shanghai is a brilliant example of how the Neo-Communism (if i may call it) of the 21st century can bring a huge change to the world. I agree that the initial advent of Communism in China killed the entrepreneurship of Shanghai and it almost became dormant for a long period. But the government was open to accept that change was required. After the foreign companies were allowed in China, Shanghai boomed, but communism didn't die. I think the idea of communism was not to kill enterpreneurship but to ensure that nobody is left hungry. Look at the way the government has promoted infrastructure developments in the city and you will know what Communism is capable of. Talk to any Chinese about communism and you can see a sense of pride in their eyes. There is no complaint, only hope.
I think Communism needs to change according to time, if it wants to survive, the way democracy has changed and moulded itself according to time. If someone asks me which one is a more efficient system, I would anyday vote for Communism, but if someone asks which will last longer, it shall be deomcracy. Communism needs to revist its roots, understand why it was formed and then decide how it should work. May be it needs many more Prabhu Babu to exemplify what it means.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
kashmir - knowing it closely
i had always read and seen in TV that Kashmir is a troublesome geography and felt that india should soon try to resolve the issue and get complete control over the state. but then i was behaving like a typical indian, born and brought up in one of those states that have not even experienced the pains of partition and do not share borders with either pakistan or bangladesh. we do share borders with nepal in bihar but that has never been a point of worry for india. when i joined this job and stared looking after sales in the geography of Punjab, Himachal and Jammu-Kashmir, i started knowing things better.
for most of the time i travel in punjab as the business is mostly concentrated there and frankly the onluy places that i have gone to in J&K are Jammu, Katra and Leh, none of which are part of the Kashmir valley. But having my distributors there gives me some feel of how would life be there. I have been planning to go to Srinagar but the safety requirements of my company still advice me not to go. Nevertheless, the issue that brought me closer to the Kashmir issue was this fuss created over the Amarnath land ownership. I am not completely aware of the issue and the only fact that i know was that the government instigated a hot debate about the ownership of the amarnath land. as it falls in the kashmir valley, kashmiris would want to have the ownership but then they are Muslims and Amarnath is a hindu pilgrimage. So jammu people also would want the owneership. this little discussion soon turned out to be one of the biggest clashes between the people of Jammu and Kashmir. These are two different worlds. While Jammu is primarily Hindu and looks more like any city of Punjab, Kashmir is mostly muslim and differs from Jammu in more than one ways.
the disturbance kept rising and there were protests, self-immolation, riots and finally Curfew. Our company has a depot in Jammu that supplies stocks to both Jammu and Kashmir. We had to stop the supplies till the matter calmed down. initially i thought it should last hardly a week. then i felt may be a month...but the issue was not as small as i guessed. i couldn't convince myself as how a piece of land as big as park can become the most prestigious issue between hindus and muslims. but then i reminded myself of 6th december 1992 that how one single temple with a dome of a mosque became an issue big enough to shatter the country for about a decade. the government was in a fix. if the decision wa sin favour of Hindus, Kashmir would burn and if it was in the favour of Kashmiris, Jammu would show signs of disturbance. I kept losing my business and missing my sales targets. but that is not important. I anyways sell cosmetics and i guess people can manage without it for a couple of months. but what about food and milk and vegetables. J&K started starving. No supplies from any other part of the country would reach J&K and people were running out of there reserves. the markets were so empty that the day they would open, we would sell a month's stock in a day. but only if they open.
the troublesome months of Sawan (the month of pilgrimage to Amarnath) passed by and we expected government to take some decision. I had this feeling that chances of Jammu burning were much higher than of Kashmir because while for Kashmiris it was about possesion of land within their geography, Jammu had taken it to the heart linking it directly to religion. Jammu was closed but Kashmir wanted to run normal, we decided to either supply Kashmir through our depot in Punjab or open Jammu depots only for supplies to Kashmir. The latter plan worked for a week. We kept openeing our depots in the nights and loading trucks for Kashmir. Jammu kept mum on business. The government also realized that Kashmir would not create much trouble and finally the decision came in favour of the Hindus. this time, both me and the government had gon wrong. While Jammu returned to normalcy with a blink of the eyelid and we got back our lost sales in just ten days, Kashmir was getting worse. The issue became one of self respect and the Kashmir trade association denied to take any supplies of stocks from Jammu depot for any company.
We tried convincing our Srinagar stockists but they were not keen to go against the association. In fact, some of them also are important members of the association. We thought we will listen to them and relook at the option of supplying Kashmir through Punjab depot while Jammu depot keeps supplying the Jammu area. Many companies had actually done that. it required some commercial and legal hassles to be cleared. some taxes and inter state transport stuff... by the time we figured out how to get it, we got a letter from the Jammu traders association that if we supply stocks to Kashmir from anywhere excpet Jammu, the Jammu depot would close its operations. We were shocked. Jammu people had got what they had asked in the Amarnath issue. What was their problem? the language of the letters from both the trade associations spoke of the strong emotions
while the Kashmir tarders had written about how they felt it poltically disturbing to keep trade relations with Jammu in the time of high conflict and warned us of no security of goods if supplied from Jammu, the other side warned us of shutting down Jammu operations if we supported the "anti-national" forces of Kashmir by supplying them from Punjab. I thought to myself - where is all this going? how can one petty issue become so huge that it starts looking completely incorrigible. i decided to intervene and having understood that it would be difficult to displease the Jammu guys, i planned to convince the Kashmiri stockists to accept the stocks from Jammu. I started making phone calls and kept making phone calls to several people in Srinagar, our stockist, stockist of other businesses of the company and influential people of the association. in the interactions with them, i tried to calm them down and make them fele the pinch of losing business. probably they saw some point in what i said. I was finally successful in convincing all three major stockists of our company in Srinagar to take supplies from Jammu.
i felt i had been victorious, but the tables turned like never before. Our trucks left for Srinagar but could not reach there. there were disturbances in the way and one of trucks of some other company was destroyed by an angered mob. We called back our truck from midway. all negotiations ahd failed. after that, it has been more than a month and other than infrequent phone calls to srinagar, i sit helplessly waiting for the situation to calm down on its own. i don't knwo how long will it take.. i don't know if there is a solution... but one things is for sure... Kashmir is yet not India and we have to a go a long way to make it a part of India, not only geographically and politically but also socially....
for most of the time i travel in punjab as the business is mostly concentrated there and frankly the onluy places that i have gone to in J&K are Jammu, Katra and Leh, none of which are part of the Kashmir valley. But having my distributors there gives me some feel of how would life be there. I have been planning to go to Srinagar but the safety requirements of my company still advice me not to go. Nevertheless, the issue that brought me closer to the Kashmir issue was this fuss created over the Amarnath land ownership. I am not completely aware of the issue and the only fact that i know was that the government instigated a hot debate about the ownership of the amarnath land. as it falls in the kashmir valley, kashmiris would want to have the ownership but then they are Muslims and Amarnath is a hindu pilgrimage. So jammu people also would want the owneership. this little discussion soon turned out to be one of the biggest clashes between the people of Jammu and Kashmir. These are two different worlds. While Jammu is primarily Hindu and looks more like any city of Punjab, Kashmir is mostly muslim and differs from Jammu in more than one ways.
the disturbance kept rising and there were protests, self-immolation, riots and finally Curfew. Our company has a depot in Jammu that supplies stocks to both Jammu and Kashmir. We had to stop the supplies till the matter calmed down. initially i thought it should last hardly a week. then i felt may be a month...but the issue was not as small as i guessed. i couldn't convince myself as how a piece of land as big as park can become the most prestigious issue between hindus and muslims. but then i reminded myself of 6th december 1992 that how one single temple with a dome of a mosque became an issue big enough to shatter the country for about a decade. the government was in a fix. if the decision wa sin favour of Hindus, Kashmir would burn and if it was in the favour of Kashmiris, Jammu would show signs of disturbance. I kept losing my business and missing my sales targets. but that is not important. I anyways sell cosmetics and i guess people can manage without it for a couple of months. but what about food and milk and vegetables. J&K started starving. No supplies from any other part of the country would reach J&K and people were running out of there reserves. the markets were so empty that the day they would open, we would sell a month's stock in a day. but only if they open.
the troublesome months of Sawan (the month of pilgrimage to Amarnath) passed by and we expected government to take some decision. I had this feeling that chances of Jammu burning were much higher than of Kashmir because while for Kashmiris it was about possesion of land within their geography, Jammu had taken it to the heart linking it directly to religion. Jammu was closed but Kashmir wanted to run normal, we decided to either supply Kashmir through our depot in Punjab or open Jammu depots only for supplies to Kashmir. The latter plan worked for a week. We kept openeing our depots in the nights and loading trucks for Kashmir. Jammu kept mum on business. The government also realized that Kashmir would not create much trouble and finally the decision came in favour of the Hindus. this time, both me and the government had gon wrong. While Jammu returned to normalcy with a blink of the eyelid and we got back our lost sales in just ten days, Kashmir was getting worse. The issue became one of self respect and the Kashmir trade association denied to take any supplies of stocks from Jammu depot for any company.
We tried convincing our Srinagar stockists but they were not keen to go against the association. In fact, some of them also are important members of the association. We thought we will listen to them and relook at the option of supplying Kashmir through Punjab depot while Jammu depot keeps supplying the Jammu area. Many companies had actually done that. it required some commercial and legal hassles to be cleared. some taxes and inter state transport stuff... by the time we figured out how to get it, we got a letter from the Jammu traders association that if we supply stocks to Kashmir from anywhere excpet Jammu, the Jammu depot would close its operations. We were shocked. Jammu people had got what they had asked in the Amarnath issue. What was their problem? the language of the letters from both the trade associations spoke of the strong emotions
while the Kashmir tarders had written about how they felt it poltically disturbing to keep trade relations with Jammu in the time of high conflict and warned us of no security of goods if supplied from Jammu, the other side warned us of shutting down Jammu operations if we supported the "anti-national" forces of Kashmir by supplying them from Punjab. I thought to myself - where is all this going? how can one petty issue become so huge that it starts looking completely incorrigible. i decided to intervene and having understood that it would be difficult to displease the Jammu guys, i planned to convince the Kashmiri stockists to accept the stocks from Jammu. I started making phone calls and kept making phone calls to several people in Srinagar, our stockist, stockist of other businesses of the company and influential people of the association. in the interactions with them, i tried to calm them down and make them fele the pinch of losing business. probably they saw some point in what i said. I was finally successful in convincing all three major stockists of our company in Srinagar to take supplies from Jammu.
i felt i had been victorious, but the tables turned like never before. Our trucks left for Srinagar but could not reach there. there were disturbances in the way and one of trucks of some other company was destroyed by an angered mob. We called back our truck from midway. all negotiations ahd failed. after that, it has been more than a month and other than infrequent phone calls to srinagar, i sit helplessly waiting for the situation to calm down on its own. i don't knwo how long will it take.. i don't know if there is a solution... but one things is for sure... Kashmir is yet not India and we have to a go a long way to make it a part of India, not only geographically and politically but also socially....
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