I am in Bangalore currently, for a summer research programme at IISc and have found time to roam around. I found that if you walk along Brigade road on an afternoon you will hear at least 10 different languages before you have walked 1km. People from all parts of the country and many foreign nationals work in B'lore. So in this mix-bag of cultures, language can create problems. English does very well most of the time and knowing hindi helps; but learning Kannada might be the best thing.
I am rambling, as usual. Having put across that there are a lot of people here and that they speak different languages, let me move to the specific issue. The 'thing' that most(from my experience...but if you want to argue, many) north indians have towards south indian languages.
Here is an example-
For the background- I live together with many other summer research fellows and we are provided with transport facility to travel back and forth from IISc. On this particular day, there was some friction with the bus driver and the students as he refused to take 2 extra people and everyone had the required passes. So in the great Indian tradition we boycotted the bus and commuted by public transport. Now, I am a Malayali who speaks English and Hindi pretty well and can understand and speak bits and pieces of Tamil. The people who were riding the bus with me were all north-indians with an exception of a Hindi speaking Tamilian. After taking tickets, one of the girls wanted to ask the conductor something. The man only spoke Kannada. After making unsuccessful attempts with English and Hindi she turned to her friend and said at the top of her voice-
"Such stupid people they have here. They keep talking in their bloody language. How will people understand"
The magnitude of anger I felt upon hearing this was unprecedented. What does it speak of her attitude which is shared by a lot of people? "bloody language" indeed! What right does anyone have to abuse a language or culture just because it is not their own and what baseness to express such an opinion in front of a bus full of people whose mother tongue is the said 'bloody language'
I read an article in The Hindu not very long ago. I cannot find a link to it now but will post it if I find it. In this article the author observes how north-indians ie hindi speakers are turning out to be the 'americans' in India. The reason stated being that most americans expect english to be understood no matter which part of the world they happen to be in. They make no attempt to learn any other language. Similarly, hindi speakers expect to be understood wherever they travel within India.
I agree that a lot of people speak hindi. Knowledge of Hindi is an advantage. But I do not recognize the superiority of Hindi over my own mother tongue or any other language. My action and that of many others while speaking Hindi is purely for the sake of convenience. It is an action of choice not of preference. As to compulsorily teaching Hindi in schools and abolishing regional languages - such a suggestion can come only from arrogance, intolerance and insensitivity.
Isn't there a saying -"when in rome, do as the romans do"? Why is this so difficult for the hindi-speaking brain to assimilate? Have you seen a tamilian or a malayali in Delhi or Mumbai expecting to be spoken to in Malayalam or Tamil. Do they demand that a malayalam song be played on the radio in the cab? Don't give me any of the "It is because they are in the minority" crap. You know that is not true.
And then there is the 'Madrasi' tag. Anyone who is from south India ie who has brown skin, bathes every day and oils their hair is a Madrasi. Does this strike you as almost the same as some americans tagging anyone from the indian subcontinent irrespective of nationality as a paki?
"Their English is funny, well what did you expect? Haven't you heard that Lolakutti? All of them are the same."
All the more reason to look down upon us. Yeah right, who are you kidding? Look down on us who are almost 100% literate, have higher average incomes and better social conditions? Which are the states in which people can hardly read and write their own mother tongue let alone two other languages. Which are the states in which small children are married and girls are killed as their dowries didn't come up to the mark? South India is backward indeed.
I did not intend to start a blame game. I just want to express an opinion. In a country like India with a multitude of languages each rich in its own way, is there a need to assert that my language is superior to your's? Why cant we say that language is spoken in this state and this in the other-isn't ours a wonderful country? Why can't we respect other languages and take pride in learning to speak as many as possible. What is the need? Very simple- addressing a person in his mother tongue is the greatest way of showing respect to their language and earning respect for your effort however shoddy it might turn out to be.
Most importantly, don't abuse something just because you do not comprehend it - a language, a custom, a belief or anything else. Criticism is one thing abuse is another. If you do, it just shows immaturity and baseness. Just because the people whom you are abusing do not react, do not assume that they accept what you have said. They are just showing their better manners and your stock of esteem is definitely not going up.
This is a disclaimer: It is not my opinion that all hindi-speakers / north indians are like this. There are many marathis and gujarathis settled in Calicut that I have known for years and all of whom speak excellent Malayalam. I have met scores of others who show due respect to all languages and cultures. This is aimed at the other kind.
I am rambling, as usual. Having put across that there are a lot of people here and that they speak different languages, let me move to the specific issue. The 'thing' that most(from my experience...but if you want to argue, many) north indians have towards south indian languages.
Here is an example-
For the background- I live together with many other summer research fellows and we are provided with transport facility to travel back and forth from IISc. On this particular day, there was some friction with the bus driver and the students as he refused to take 2 extra people and everyone had the required passes. So in the great Indian tradition we boycotted the bus and commuted by public transport. Now, I am a Malayali who speaks English and Hindi pretty well and can understand and speak bits and pieces of Tamil. The people who were riding the bus with me were all north-indians with an exception of a Hindi speaking Tamilian. After taking tickets, one of the girls wanted to ask the conductor something. The man only spoke Kannada. After making unsuccessful attempts with English and Hindi she turned to her friend and said at the top of her voice-
"Such stupid people they have here. They keep talking in their bloody language. How will people understand"
The magnitude of anger I felt upon hearing this was unprecedented. What does it speak of her attitude which is shared by a lot of people? "bloody language" indeed! What right does anyone have to abuse a language or culture just because it is not their own and what baseness to express such an opinion in front of a bus full of people whose mother tongue is the said 'bloody language'
I read an article in The Hindu not very long ago. I cannot find a link to it now but will post it if I find it. In this article the author observes how north-indians ie hindi speakers are turning out to be the 'americans' in India. The reason stated being that most americans expect english to be understood no matter which part of the world they happen to be in. They make no attempt to learn any other language. Similarly, hindi speakers expect to be understood wherever they travel within India.
I agree that a lot of people speak hindi. Knowledge of Hindi is an advantage. But I do not recognize the superiority of Hindi over my own mother tongue or any other language. My action and that of many others while speaking Hindi is purely for the sake of convenience. It is an action of choice not of preference. As to compulsorily teaching Hindi in schools and abolishing regional languages - such a suggestion can come only from arrogance, intolerance and insensitivity.
Isn't there a saying -"when in rome, do as the romans do"? Why is this so difficult for the hindi-speaking brain to assimilate? Have you seen a tamilian or a malayali in Delhi or Mumbai expecting to be spoken to in Malayalam or Tamil. Do they demand that a malayalam song be played on the radio in the cab? Don't give me any of the "It is because they are in the minority" crap. You know that is not true.
And then there is the 'Madrasi' tag. Anyone who is from south India ie who has brown skin, bathes every day and oils their hair is a Madrasi. Does this strike you as almost the same as some americans tagging anyone from the indian subcontinent irrespective of nationality as a paki?
"Their English is funny, well what did you expect? Haven't you heard that Lolakutti? All of them are the same."
All the more reason to look down upon us. Yeah right, who are you kidding? Look down on us who are almost 100% literate, have higher average incomes and better social conditions? Which are the states in which people can hardly read and write their own mother tongue let alone two other languages. Which are the states in which small children are married and girls are killed as their dowries didn't come up to the mark? South India is backward indeed.
I did not intend to start a blame game. I just want to express an opinion. In a country like India with a multitude of languages each rich in its own way, is there a need to assert that my language is superior to your's? Why cant we say that language is spoken in this state and this in the other-isn't ours a wonderful country? Why can't we respect other languages and take pride in learning to speak as many as possible. What is the need? Very simple- addressing a person in his mother tongue is the greatest way of showing respect to their language and earning respect for your effort however shoddy it might turn out to be.
Most importantly, don't abuse something just because you do not comprehend it - a language, a custom, a belief or anything else. Criticism is one thing abuse is another. If you do, it just shows immaturity and baseness. Just because the people whom you are abusing do not react, do not assume that they accept what you have said. They are just showing their better manners and your stock of esteem is definitely not going up.
This is a disclaimer: It is not my opinion that all hindi-speakers / north indians are like this. There are many marathis and gujarathis settled in Calicut that I have known for years and all of whom speak excellent Malayalam. I have met scores of others who show due respect to all languages and cultures. This is aimed at the other kind.
9 comments:
http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/yours.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greengrocer%27s_apostrophe#Greengrocers.27_apostrophes
remember gong postal?
anyway. shaking off the lynn truss mode, and getting down to the blog:
1) please don't tell me malayalis aren't bigots, because i know more supremacist malayalis than i do hindi-speakers. and mostly it's the omg-kerala-is-heaven-on-earth kind that get everyone's goat. this is not to say that kerala's indices are something we should ignore, or even assume that we'd be better off without literacy/awareness, but most malayalis walk around with this built-in "i come from a state where everyone knows everything, and u're nothing but a savage" air that is laughable, to say the least. and don't u realise that when u seethe about illiteracy/child marriage/dowry deaths, u're indulging in stereotyping as much as the people u're claiming to not understand?
2) when i went to delhi last month, i got by on hindi most places, but there is always a marginal feeling of being uncomfortable with the language, that one cannot shake; i confess i tried english on every single well dressed middle class type person, and only reverted to hindi if it didn't work. u can't expect ur hindi speaking acquaintance to suddenly develop a working knowledge of kannada-as for the abuse/exasperation, i don't know about u, but i've sworn under my breath at 'biharis' too often for me to claim a moral high ground on that one.
@Vijay
#1 I bow to your supreme knowledge of the English language. Thanks for the correction. I don't normally use the apostrophe with yours but it inadvertly crept in here. I think this is because of the extra care I take to put in punctuation when I blog.
#2 I did not say Malayalis are not bigots. I was not protesting about the existence of prejudice but the proclamation of the same. I don't think any Malayali would demand malayalam to be understood in Delhi.
#3 Frustration and swearing under your breath are all very well. You are not hurting anyone. But shouting it out in the middle of a bus full of people to whom it matters is another matter altogether.
#4 Again, 'when in Rome...'. I did not say I expect anyone to instantly spout Kannada. If you go to a foreign place and do not know the language you should make do with whatever language you know instead of abusing the people there for not speaking your language.
On a philosophical ground or when talking about people who do not leave their state ever, it is perfect to say "When in Rome...", and I agree to it. Further, agreed that everyone must have respect for other languages and the cultural difference. However, with more migrations to different states and nationwide travels, it would be very very helpful to have a single language that everyone can communicate in -- afterall we developed languages for communication. It does not matter whether it is English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Oriya, Tamil or Binary -- but one.
@Rupesh
English can be that common language. And there is no call for demanding compulsory teaching/leaarning of that language.
:D @ sarcasm....
to continue with the numbering, because somehow it's become Traditional, even tho really i've got only one thing to say
1) i'd not object if the bigotry were just this side-issue, pan-mallu thing. my problem only when u claim that north indians unwashed illiterate dowrymongers... which makes the bigotry (sorry if i'm being more insulting thn i should be) ur own... as much the stereotype as anything else...
@Vijay Krishnan aka The Devil's Advocate
I was waiting for this. The bigotry my own, not really. Since everyone is claiming their right to frustration, take it to be me just letting out a bit of my own. That is why I wrote it in the first place. If it is a matter of being unpleasant, everyone can play that game. I did not say everyone living beyond the borders of Kerala are illiterate dowry mongers. I just pointed out that these things seem to happen a lot more up north than down at home.
u say north indians should not expect mayalalis(or for that matter south indian) to speak english or hindi . then suggest some form with which north of india can be connected to south.
secondly why are u making north indians a group there are ppl like oriya beganli assames gujurati marathi and those innummerable dialect speaking northeast ppl they when go to other parts dont expect ppl to learn their language they converse in hindi or english
thirdly "when in rome, do as the romans do" so when in india do as indians rt
indian contitution have made hindi natinal language and so it is duty as a citizen of our country atleast to learn hindi a bit so that india can contiue to remain one
any ways u have done a very nice work
kudos to you
keep it up
@Martha
That was never my point. I have said that being able to speak English and/or Hindi is an advantage. I didn't intend to convey that north-indians should not expect English or Hindi to be understood in the south. My point was that they need not make a fuss when up against such a situation.
Thanks for commenting.
Well written - mirrors my opinion on the same. I don't think Malayalam or Tamil or Hindi for that matter any language is superior or inferior to any other.
And, @martha, when was the constitution amended to make Hindi our national language? It is 'one of the' official languages of our country. And if you dont intend to understand and assimilate with the south indian culture, better dont :) Expecting others to learn your language so that you can be comfortable here - well if this were my page and my blog I would have had the right word used. Anyways, peace! And stay away from the Malayalis - we are backward and we hate you :D
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