Linguistic Outlier

I read this piece recently which was widely shared and discussed in social media and provocatively titled - “Why Chennai can't and won't speak Hindi”. The title in itself provides a broad sense of what the article is about. I intend, in this piece, to offer an alternate perspective to the question, which sometimes might overlap or build on some of the arguments made in aforementioned piece. 

The discourse surrounding the linguistic diversity in India has always been chaotic, with multiple strands ─ suspended without a common knot. One such strand which never fails to entertain bystanders is the question of “Why Tamilnadu doesn’t speak Hindi?”  A simple, yet sophisticated, retort to the question is “Why should it speak Hindi?” The arguments that are drawn in response to this retort have become too banal now that they might put even legislators stalling parliament to shame. 

The central argument on which the entire discourse rests is that ─ “Hindi is our National

language”. And every time someone makes this argument, somewhere B.R. Ambedkar would be smashing his head on the wall in shame. If you are reading this, you are most likely aware that the 'National language' claim is false. Two quick facts (without getting into the nuances): Hindi, along with 22 other languages is the 'Official language' for administrative (read 'practical') purposes; the constitution doesn’t recognise any language as national language. The problem here isn’t that a large section of the masses (educated and un-educated alike) are ignorant of the constitution; far from it. The real problem is two-fold: one, the dubious normative assumptions that the proponents of the claim hold and two, the absurdity of words hijacking thought.

Dubious normative assumptions

Firstly, on an ideological plane, the 'National language' claim is disappointing at several levels. Even if we are to suspend our intellectual faculties and assume that Hindi is our National language, how does that mandate everyone to learn or speak Hindi? How can one language be deemed to be superior to others? As a civilised country striving to embody notions of equality in all social spheres, why should we be oblivious in the application of principle of equality with regard to language?

The notion of asserting superiority by virtue of Hindi’s majority status, falls flat in the face of logic. To draw an analogy, does Hindus’ majority status in India, grant them legitimacy to convert non-adherents (Muslims, devotees of FSM, etc.) to Hinduism? If religion is sacrosanct enough to warrant equality, then why shouldn’t language summon the principle of equality? Why should language be any less sacrosanct than religion?

Notions of linguistic superiority also need to be examined in a broader social context, and by not just considering language in isolation. Language is embedded within the social realities and social realities replicates in the realm of language. Hence, the assertion of linguistic superiority should also be seen as a subliminal assertion of cultural supremacy; as a clarion call to the minority to fall in the queue and take orders.  

Words hijacking thought

Another aspect of the 'National language' claim that is deeply worrying is the suspension of thought at the sight of anything prefixed 'National'. The claim shows their instant inclination to suspend logic and kneel down at the altar of the prefix 'National' and worship it unquestionably. This ritualistic worship extends beyond language and is true for most other national symbols. No wonder then 'National rituals' like throwing trash in public places, spitting on the roads, moral policing, etc. are observed with much religiosity. While these symbols have their place in signalling pride and shared sense of belonging, their mindless worship is disgusting and does more harm than good.

'Regional' is another adjective that renders thinking obsolete. It is used as a proxy to denote anything derogatory; to denote intentions that are supposedly parochial and pursued at the expense of the rest of the country. And hence the common disdain – “How does a regional language deserve to be placed on an equal footing with the national language?” As Thomas Sowell (noted social theorist and political philosopher) wrote recently “…if you don’t stop and think, it doesn’t matter whether you are a genius or a moron. Words that stop people from thinking reduce even smart people to the same level as morons.”

Discriminating the “Other”

Another common lament expressed is that “people in Tamilnadu discriminate against the North-Indians”. To put it crudely ─ “not granting them the respect or rights they deserve”. It might be true at some level. But it is true of how minorities (linguistic, religious, ideological, etc.) are treated in most places in India. By that, I don’t validate such unscrupulous behavior. The simple fact is this: there are scums, scoundrels and racists everywhere; a language (like Tamil) certainly doesn’t create the evolutionary need to breed racists and chauvinists to protect it.

As much we would like to paint the 'other' with a lesser moral colour, the fact remains that the core of morality doesn’t change with cultures or regions; cultures determine only the level of ‘moral flexibility’ ─ the range within which an action is considered morally acceptable. And to believe that a language (like Tamil) grants the license to extend moral flexibility is to let imagination and vested interests run riot.  

Language is one of the many symbols that embody cultural identity. And cultural identities are strengthened, among other things, when there is a perceived threat to its existence. Hence there is a vested interest in keeping the threat of the ‘other’ alive. And the idea of the ‘other’ is perpetuated by delusional self-mythologies (like notions of linguistic superiority, nationalism, etc.). To worship these myths unquestionably, therefore, is to surrender reason and discard our cherished notions of freedom and equality.  

Muzzling the Heretics

'Another Brick in the Wall'

            “Look at this picture I had drawn”- she mumbled with great enthusiasm, as if she was Picasso incarnate. She, I am sure, had no idea that she had just created a piece of 'art'. For she is just a five year old who had dutifully drawn a house placed in the middle of a lush garden, purely as an academic exercise, unaware consciously of the joy of igniting the creative realm of the brain.  The picture looked like a cheap rip off of a snapshot from Clint Eastwood’s abandoned house from ‘Unforgiven’ . I am certain that she isn’t a fan of western cow boy movies to have drawn inspiration from the movie. Looking at the house in the picture, I asked- “Ok. There is the door. There is the window. There is the pathway leading to the house. Why do I not see a TV inside the house?”  Flummoxed and annoyed, like anybody would be at a self selected critic, she said smugly “That is how it should be PERIOD”

            I was curious and a little disappointed, not because a five year old has got the perspective of a house in her drawing right but because she was taught to draw a ‘perfect house’ like any ill fated and boring student of ‘Engineering drawing’ would be taught to draw. This tendency to impregnate the idea of ‘singular perfection’, on the custodians of creativity, in something as fluid as art is extremely odious and reprehensible.  Mounting artificial boundaries on the creative thought process of kids is a major preoccupation of our paternalistic school system. In the name of ‘standardisation’ and streamlining thought process in kids, aesthetic sensation has been steamrolled to tailor conventional belief systems. Creative imagination in kids, hence, is in a free fall from its peak in kindergarten to a point of no return in high school. This entire act of tyrannising creative thought process is packaged and delivered, all under the garb of what is popularly known as ……“Education”.

Schools as theological seminaries

            In more ways, Schools have started to resemble the functioning of an organized religion; faith masquerading as rules, priests as teachers, theological seminaries as classrooms and scriptures as text books. It is sacrilegious even to question the traditional norms of the school. For example, why should a child be made to chant cryptic verbal patterns (“prayer” in popular parlance) with metronomic precision in a totally obscure language like Sanskrit? Like the plastic bird popping out of wall clocks every hour to please its masters. Why do schools have to act as agents of faith lobbying for the verses in religious scriptures? Why should religion be the normative source to derive ‘values’ to be passed on to fledgling minds? 

Schools in their quest to establish authority and in enforcing their highest virtue of ‘discipline’, manage to cull ‘critical thinking’ and ‘reasoning’-so vital to development of thought process. The result is the twofold production of a group of young minds resorting to sycophancy whenever they need to get things done and the other a group with unswerving submission to officialdom;like the dead vending machines in railway stations bearing the punches and abuses of its transient masters. The larger societal implications of this ugly disease need barely to be expounded further here.  

Restraining Moral Imagination

Ostracising Heretics

This mode of functioning of schools has thus successfully managed to perpetrate a form of structural violence, over the years, on the very cultural fabric of our society. Tyrannising the thought process, at an early age, thus stifles the growth of moral imagination. Hence it naturally entails that a majority will no longer question the existing first order assumptions and beliefs. The result is the prevalence of a society with the equilibrium slanted heavily in favour of conventional thought and the will of the majority; with the majority self selecting itself to be the sole arbiter of ‘legitimate opinion’. The onus and the burden of establishing even the existence of an equilibrium in the huge spectrum of opinion thus lies in the hands of a minority; precisely the reason why we even need to expend time, when it should be a given, to argue that gays or lesbians have every right to be part of the society as the heterosexuals; also precisely the reason why our society hasn’t yet realized that selling women like cattle’s to men for money- under the garb of ‘dowry’- is nothing short of barbarism. 

Tradition, in such a society, becomes so sacrosanct that rational thought and deductive reasoning are mortgaged for conventional thought and retrograde first order cultural assumptions. The majority, consciously unaware, thus work tirelessly towards a predefined common agenda- which is derived mostly from dubious sources like tradition, culture and religion- under the belief of serving the needs of the self. A fertile ground is hence laid out for fostering cultural prisoners- chained forever to the tyranny of prevailing popular opinion. 

Sometime back a friend made a wry remark to me that- “it’s not always bad to be a conformist”; and by implication that, at times, it’s good to be a conformist. While conceding the merit in the remark, I believe, we need more heretics just to assert the presence of equilibrium in the long continuum of thought and opinion, let alone asserting the possibility of the presence of a legit opinion at the other end of the spectrum. And, I believe, there is no better breeding ground than schools for heretics to bloom. The time for structural reform in schools is ‘now’.

College: Deciphering the journey

With dreams rocketing to the sky, with a million doubts stationed above the head, entering into a college equates itself to the feeling that one has when she/he is just about to go on a roller-coaster ride; an experience no different for a nerd to a typical college made student. It is the time when reality refuses to seep through the brain, masked by all those fantasies painted by cinema about the new league.

All surreal preconceptions soon travel the myth-reality gradient path and the discovery is often different from that thought to be. First year of college is a time when all the gift wrapped doubts are waiting to be tore open to show its pleasant, ugly and boring expressions. It is the dawn of the time when the sun rises to see your eyes wide shut beneath several layers of laziness floating in a fresh air of freedom. The new air pushes one into a maze of endless attitudes, and the road taken eventually will determine whether he/she looks good or ugly under the lens of the system, friends, family and the Nazi styled society (The fuhrer's legacy isn’t dead!). The battle begins even before your retinas can seize the scenario and trust me, the Hector’s, the Achilles’ are only limited stock commodities in the campus arena. Reality starts to set in and everything seems so dramatic and hyper-real; cell phones, debit cards are the new gods of worship. Every single movie released is treated on par with a product of Nolan or Spielberg and guaranteed a visit to the screens; when even Marconi will be made proud of for putting his invention “radio” to the maximum use; when irrational jingoism in the name of sport is at its zenith; when self-centric actions begin to fade into oblivion and parochial attitudes are trashed.

Just when people begin to find their feet on the ground, the Earth would be found gasping for its breath after completing one revolution round the sun. People start to get accustom
ed to each other- knowing and finding peers of same or different wavelength, which perhaps is the most challenging and deciding parameter of what an “experience memory” will reveal four years later. Clocks are the most “unsympathetic” objects in college – they freeze when the sound waves within the walls of a room is filled with pathetic technical jargon and move faster than light when there are smiles, mock , and fun around in the air- which happens by default when there is a gang of jobless undergrads around. When you think you know the people around you fairly well, the clock at that exact moment mercilessly shifts the last digit of the year by a factor of three and you find yourself in the final year of college.

Years of planning and setting goals for life starting from kindergarten, culminates to this exact point when they must be materialized; when failure is not an option and future “lifelines” are believed to be ostensibly non-existent; when hopes and fears of the genetically associated people are higher than your highest GPA. Amidst the fears of what life looks beyond the boundaries of the
time in college, the jobless undergrads don’t give up in what they do best- sleeping with eyes wide open, swearing without even an ounce of guilt, mocking friends incessantly, confusing even the automated bank machines on what the minimum balance amount is, waking up to start the day by late afternoon, letting the laptop batteries literally to melt out of heat, looking at the dictionary to check what the word “PROJECT” means, and making sure the online status never changes from “veti”. A great paradox presents itself at this crucial juncture. There is the willingness to be stagnant and to cling on to this most exquisite chapter of life, but the pragmatic domain of the brain knows that the unsympathetic clocks will simply refuse to stop working. However, this challenge also presents itself the opportunity to register great moments in the short time to follow in the “experience memory”.

The enigma called “College” presents a world for four years without defining or letting us predict the start and finish points, just as this author is flummoxed to paint in words totally about this complex chapter of life. Any chapter that begins flips eventually towards the last page, but the experience reading the pages defines how the pages will be bookmarked in the memory. A new chapter and a new journey awaits!

Secret in their Eyes

Why are birthdays, New Years, Mothers days,Valentines days, etc celebrated? How good and fair are the popularly conceived usual suspects- 1) Excuse to be happy ? 2) The claim that these days are nothing but brilliantly marketed products of the capitalists, seizing the moment to bait us into blind and frenzied 'consumerists'? Both these two usual “suspects” are too hollow, i believe, to be completely true. But there was this one 'suspect' that trespassed my mind, when I was trying to convince myself that “I have been right all along about the stupidity of celebrating these days”. The subconscious mind craves for it and thrives on it badly but the conscious just isn’t overwhelmed to appreciate its existence.

         So what made this one 'suspect' stand out, in my mind, among the crowd of distorted and aimless trespassers? Let me illustrate, with the help of an incident, by rewinding back to the year 1996. Anybody I know would tell me “1996” is the year of the Cricket world cup. “1996 cricket world cup” resonates one thing mutually among billions of cricket buffs in India - the moving frames of a weeping flashy left hander-“Kambli”, for reasons the world knows. A billion brain cells in unison chose that exact moment to be etched in them, forever, never again a different image of the year to be overwritten. The billion souls were all along looking for a 'reference' so intense and choking, that they refused to register that 1996 was also the year of revival of a game, so greatly worshipped, when one of the modern day greats- “Jayasurya” showed what a “Power” play really means, bringing ODI's to the fore of cricket. Yet disappointment was given precedence over elation, despair over jubilation, to act as the 'reference' for that year.   

Mr.C.G.P.A: How he decoded the “Intelligence matrix”

50+ subjects, infinite assessments, more than a thousand hours of lecture; It’s only human or Indian (as in their “spirit”) to expect a guy (the fairer sex is out of contention here for some obvious reasons) to master all the trades of Maxwell, Franklin, Newton, Tesla, Einstein, (an endless list), in four years. As simple as that! Not to forget the demigods Nagrath, Gaonkar, Bakshi(The undisputed Jack of all trades), Bimbhra, Sawhney, Grewal, etc- without whom colleges around India would topple clockwise with a phase shift of 90° . The journey doesn’t end here. In fact it has not even started yet. The journey is defined only in terms of CGPA.

 The invention of CGPA has perplexed researchers and even people like Duckworth and Lewis, Geoffrey Boycott &his Granny for its amazing capability to measure the electrical knowledge cells in an EEE student’s brain or electronic knowledge cells in an ECE student. Ditch fun, creativity, freedom and the vision to think beyond the stuff printed in paper. The world for four years starts and ends in “CGPA”. It starts with respect from fellow brains and ends at the notice board where the fate is sealed by companies offering campus recruitments based on the magic letters “CGPA”. The good, the bad and the ugly are magnified easily with these four letters. Of course the bad and the ugly have no place in this world !

The Holy Grail of Intelligence

           The “A” word (Ar*e*r) is the veto power hidden in every professors book. Play the game by the rules of his book or expect the veto power to be enforced. You are always under the scanner unless you are a member of the Security Council (No, not the first benchers!). Be prepared to shed light from your teeth every time Mr. (or Mrs.) Hitler cracks something even better than Chaplin. Any exhibition of common sense is strictly prohibited. Mr. Hitler is always right. So any freedom of expression will only result in the enforcement of the “A” word. After all, it is the duty of Hitler to help us unfold the magic trait called “Discipline”.

          Human brain’s intellectual capacity has indeed evolved and grown over the years. Thanks to our brilliant educationalists for their amazing ideas and infusion of those ideas into the education system. What was virtually impossible to Einstein or Newton or our very own Aryabhatta is a piece of cake today for a college student. Can an Einstein or Newton learn fifty different subjects (each an ocean in its own respect) in just four years? Yes, it sounds funny. How can I expect guys who dropped out of fifth grade to do such a mammoth task? But the highly evolved brains of today can do that with ease. Mr. Copernicus learnt all his life just the single fact that “Sun is at the centre of the solar system”. No offense to him, but he doesn’t know about the nuclear fusion reaction happening inside the sun or the fact that the longest solar eclipse of the 21^st century would happen in 2009. Neither does he have a good C.G.P.A to certify his level of intelligence. I am sure he would never fit in a Hitler’s book. He could have befriended only the “A” word for all four years in college had he existed today. Lucky him!

          A few days back my friend said “I learnt 26 letters in my first year of school. To the contrary I have learnt just the two letters “BE” for the last four years.” Funny, isn’t it?

Now switch off the lights, touch your heart and tell me, was that funny?

Hey ram !

"Hey Ram...!!" Perhaps the last words of Gandhi, is now being recited by almost every Indian, hoping to be saved by God against bombs, bloodshed and religious violence. Little do we know that we ourselves are the reason for all this chaos!!!

It was evening and the sun was low on the sky, its last rays desperately trying to ward of the ensuing darkness. Finally overpowered, the sun set, plunging the streets in darkness and along with it, a handful of youngsters sitting in the streets, having a heated discussion after a hectic match of cricket. The topic this time was the recent bomb blast in Agartala which killed 2 and injured over a hundred.

This one was amongst the many discussions which today's youngsters have which has a lot of meaning and patriotism in it, but unfortunately no effect on the society or on the nation due to their inability to inspire people on a large scale.

Perhaps one of the boys did realize this, for he said "What effect is this argument going to have? Its not like this nation is going to listen us speak and turn on a new leaf." The others looked at the boy with a mixture of approval and resentment. Approval at the fact that what the boy said was right, resentment that their country was going no where, thanks to the religious fundamentalists, foolish citizens who could be manipulated as easily as a bunch of 6 year olds and most of all, irresponsible politicians who hold the position of power but do nothing to change the fate of the nation.
Finally, as an end note, one of the boys cursed loudly and said"Had it not been for those Britishers, our country wouldn't be in this plight!! Damn them!!"

Most of them, no, not most of them, almost everyone puts the blame for Hindu-Muslim enmity in India on the Britishers and their accursed East India Company. However, Britishers and their Divide and Rule Policy are far from the main reason for the ongoing crisis.

So how did it all begin?

While all the history books use Divide and Rule policy by the Brits as a scapegoat for Hindu-Muslim enmity, that alone is not the reason. While the Brits did employ it to weaken us and thereby rule us efficiently for almost 3 centuries, the very foundation for our disunity was laid long before the Brits had arrived on Indian waters.

The reason for the enmity, quite ironically is we ourselves and our superstitious beliefs. How so?
It all begins with the concept of untouchability in Hinduism and the venture of the Mughals into India.

According to Hinduism, Lord Brahma created Brahmins from his head, Kshatriyas from his biceps, Vaishyas from his stomach and Shudras from his feet. While the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas enjoyed a decent civil life, the Shudras were doomed for a life of slavery and misery just because they were of a lower caste. While this injustice was going on for almost eons, the entry of Mughals into India changed the scenario to a great extent.

Along with the Mughals came Islam into India. While many embraced Islam wholeheartedly, there were others who converted to save themselves of the tax levied on non-Muslims by the Mughals. Apart from these two, , there was another category of people who converted to save themselves of the injustice that came along for being a low caste Hindu. I am, obviously speaking about the so called Shudras. Islam with its philosophy of equality and justice for all caught the eyes of many Shudras. The Mughal period in India saw the conversion of a lot of Shudras and many others even of the upper caste to Islam.

While the Shudras saw the Mughal as their saviors, the Hindus saw them as thieves for STEALING people from their religion, sowing perhaps one of the first seeds of disunity.

The Mughals did help a lot to save the cause of the Shudras. They were the saviors of the Shudras.

Or, were they ?

The Mughals desire to convert the Shudras did not stem from their sense of justice or pity. It was just their zeal for Islam, to convert more and more non-Muslims. While their hidden agenda can be forgiven by taking into account the fact that they did help a lot of Shudras, they were however very biased against the non-Muslims. This is evident from their unforgivable act of destroying and demolishing a lot of Hindu temples only to push forward their own religion. They levied a series of arduous taxes on non-Muslims, indirectly forcing many to convert to Islam, and worsening the lives of those who refused to. Quite ironically these policies of theirs are against the principles of Islam. Their zeal for religion however did well to blind them.

All these incidents and many others slowly started poisoning the relationship between Hindus and Muslims.

They say that the best way for a Muslim to anger a Hindu is to force a cow past his house to a slaughter house. And the best way for a Hindu to anger a Muslim is by chanting bajans during the Muslims call for prayer.


These seeds of disunity were growing in the hearts of Muslims and Hindus alike for centuries. All the Brits had to do was SEE these seeds, and provoke them to unprecedented growth. They just had to tickle a mountain filled with lava to explosion.

The sad part of this is that we somehow dug our own graves centuries ago to doom without even realizing we did by letting all these feelings of disunity and anger linger within us.

We still fail to see who the real perpetrators are. Even if we do, we won't acknowledge our part in all this and the saddest part is that, until and unless we do, things will not turn around.

The worst part is, all this was and is being done for the sake of a God none of us has seen, or even knows exists; all this for the sake of a God we claim is all powerful and almighty.

How so stupid of us?! And how so ironical ?

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