There's a different kind of air blowing across the country. Everybody is instigating a fear of majoritarianism. We are the last large democracy standing in a long history of democracies being brought down by oppression of one or more minorities by a majority.
I beg to differ. I beg to present a different case.
Take a case as simple as language. All over the world, ethnicity is more divisive than language. But India's history has been dotted with language-divisive issues. Andhra Pradesh was the first of many states to be formed on a linguistic basis. Whatever the politicians or media might have said, language division has made administration easier. Difference in language doesn't invade upon culture.
India holds a peculiar reputation. The minorities, ethnic and linguistic, spread throughout the country from tribes in Orissa highlands to fishermen in the coasts of South, everybody has visibly put in efforts to learn the language of the majority. Barring one state, everybody has tried to accommodate the insecurities and needs of a large Hindi-speaking population. I have enjoyed company of people from diverse geographies of this country, and some observations have become evident.
A Hindi-speaking person expresses distaste and disdain upon finding himself among people speaking a language he doesn't understand. A person from a linguistic minority tries to adapt quickly and speak his way around if finds himself in a Hindi-speaking state. Now, TV serials and Bollywood have held people's fingers and taught them bits of Hindi. But this spread of Hindi should not be attributed to an assumption that 59% of population is trying to learn the language and a superiority of the majority 41%. This assumption makes no sense because since Independence, the linguistically diverse Southern states have recorded much higher human and infrastructure development than the Northern Hindi-speaking states. They neither look up to the northern states, nor are they trying to imitate anything.
Only one school of thought provides a justified answer to this trend of learning Hindi observed throughout the country for decades. Atithi devobhavah. If a Hindi-speaking person lands up in another part of the country, the locals wouldn't want him to feel alienated. Just a few words of Hindi creates a large comfort and relaxation, which in turn opens up the eyes to recognize a common set of human and cultural values underlying this myriad hues of lifestyle and customs throughout this great country. A country where the minorities adapt themselves to make a easier job for both themselves and the majority.
I beg to differ. I beg to present a different case.
Take a case as simple as language. All over the world, ethnicity is more divisive than language. But India's history has been dotted with language-divisive issues. Andhra Pradesh was the first of many states to be formed on a linguistic basis. Whatever the politicians or media might have said, language division has made administration easier. Difference in language doesn't invade upon culture.
India holds a peculiar reputation. The minorities, ethnic and linguistic, spread throughout the country from tribes in Orissa highlands to fishermen in the coasts of South, everybody has visibly put in efforts to learn the language of the majority. Barring one state, everybody has tried to accommodate the insecurities and needs of a large Hindi-speaking population. I have enjoyed company of people from diverse geographies of this country, and some observations have become evident.
A Hindi-speaking person expresses distaste and disdain upon finding himself among people speaking a language he doesn't understand. A person from a linguistic minority tries to adapt quickly and speak his way around if finds himself in a Hindi-speaking state. Now, TV serials and Bollywood have held people's fingers and taught them bits of Hindi. But this spread of Hindi should not be attributed to an assumption that 59% of population is trying to learn the language and a superiority of the majority 41%. This assumption makes no sense because since Independence, the linguistically diverse Southern states have recorded much higher human and infrastructure development than the Northern Hindi-speaking states. They neither look up to the northern states, nor are they trying to imitate anything.
Only one school of thought provides a justified answer to this trend of learning Hindi observed throughout the country for decades. Atithi devobhavah. If a Hindi-speaking person lands up in another part of the country, the locals wouldn't want him to feel alienated. Just a few words of Hindi creates a large comfort and relaxation, which in turn opens up the eyes to recognize a common set of human and cultural values underlying this myriad hues of lifestyle and customs throughout this great country. A country where the minorities adapt themselves to make a easier job for both themselves and the majority.
