The curious case of Hindi!

I have now lived for about 9 years in North India. One of the reasons I got my first job, as a Counsellor, in Bihar was because I knew Hindi. Hindi was compulsory in our school till Class 8. Like every other subject, I studied it with perseverance. Apart from adding to the weight of the school bag and the burden of another subject to study and write exams on, I am unable to recollect what 'harm' Hindi actually caused me.

Learning Hindi, helps me enjoy Hindi movies and programmes on TV and also helps with everyday conversations with those who don't speak English in North India. Having said this, I have seen through my own eyes, people who did not know a tittle of Hindi, come to North India and master the language in 'less than 6 months'. I know a Tamil friend who picked up Hindi enough to stand and preach among people who knew no other language than Hindi. I am yet to encounter people from TN, in my 9 years, who have 'suffered' as a result of not knowing Hindi. But even the ones who do, do not suffer any more than North Indians struggling for the first few weeks/months in Tamil Nadu.

In conclusion: I did not suffer from learning Hindi as a subject; I have not seen Tamil people suffering from not knowing Hindi too.

But the present discourse is not about my experience. But one of public policy. 'Including', and I use the word advisedly, Hindi in Tamil Nadu curriculum, I do not think will cause the kind of worry that it is perceived to be. The additional 'privilege' of knowing another language continues to be elitist in TN. And Hindi does have a wider currency in this country than any other language. On the other hand, spending a vast amount of tax resources in including Hindi as part of the curriculum (Government) seems to be fixing something that is NOT broken at all. There are several other pressing issues, TN and other non-Hindi states might spend their energy on. Add to this, the sinister political motives of Hindi being bandied about as the ONLY unifier and identifier (horrors!) of the country, defacing milestones with Hindi and the repetitive obnoxiousness repeated by even State governors about Hindi being the national language. All deplorable.

As a Tamil person living in Delhi, I speak Hindi when I go to restaurants and shops here. As a migrant labourer in Delhi, I try to speak the language of the masses here. I go to Chennai and again have to speak in Hindi. The migrant labourers there force me to talk in Hindi as they are no good with the language of the masses there. This is the Hindi hegemony I am against. Screwed both ways - we are. I guess the solution lies somewhere between a high handed #Imposition and a very paranoic #Resistance to Hindi.

Article 15 - a proud page from the Constitution

#Article15 is one step next to #PariyerumPerumal and other movies in that genre. It is not necessarily the logical next step or even the next step in cinematic brilliance. It is the next step in the cinematic narrative that has evolved in the past few years in the realm of movies that have now boldly taken on the beast of caste. What was once spoken in hushed tones is now spoken loud and clear, on a large screen, with scintillating background music, a riveting screenplay and ounces of talent oozing from each department that takes to make a full-length movie. The interval break with the camera focusing on Article 15 of the constitution and Vande Mataram in the background raises goosebumps - in sharp contrast to the forced national anthem at the beginning of the movie. You really want to get up and salute the makers of this glorious Constitution. Talking of which, I wondered, how little I know of Dr Ambedkar. He is just a mention in my General Knowledge sphere, associated with the constitution. But in three movies now that touch upon caste, he is almost the Central Figure. He is not another historical character. He is an emotion, life and blood in these movies and perhaps the caste consciousness of this country. Ayan's candid conversations with Aditi are written to speak to the urban conscience of this country, which lives, as pointed out, in another country. Sometimes it's a soft prick, then it's a jab and in some moments it is a violent thrust.

I went to the movie, as it was recommended highly on social media. It did not disappoint. While movies like Pariyerum Perumal highlighted the caste oppression, Article 15 delves on what can be done next, and now. Which, to me personally, is hugely pertinent and critical. Ayan's struggle brilliantly elucidates why eradicating caste hierarchy is not a linear exercise.

But the end though is disappointing. That a Messianic, James Bond type, Brahmin Saviour is indeed needed to arrive at the answer - something the film had laboured to negate the rest of the 125 minutes. Having said that, it is making good money at the box office, is what I hear. All good news for quality cinema in this country. No unnecessary fight scenes. No songs. No dance. Just scripted poetry in motion. So much so that now Ayushmann Khurrana has made a name for himself for the scripts he chooses. 

The Politics of Compartments

The last five years have been epochal to my thought processes. I would have liked to imagine myself as a thinking person, but the last few years made me rethink if thought processes were water-tight compartments and if I ought to align myself to any. I had to Google and find what right wing and left wing meant and ponder where I actually fit [better]. Suddenly I realised that that world has been torn asunder by these political thought processes and we are ever tossed about between these two ideologies.

Some time ago, I listened to a few talks on the resurgence of the right wing. One of the reasons espoused was that the elitist of the left felt it condescending to engage with the common people whose sentiments the right-wing politicians were successful enough in whipping up and have consequently won one election after another in different parts of the world. If the left weren’t acting like these self-appointed sanctimonious pricks, we would not be in this situation to start with, they opined.

Meanwhile, why don’t we discuss these things more often? Our WhatsApp groups are often sanitized with ground rules not to discuss politics. But then, one friend interjected, "Why not"?  Politics now affects the way we dress, eat, walk and talk. If we are not informed and discuss it enough, politicians like to revel in this disinformation and discontentment which finds no way out. What we have lost in this divergence of the two worlds is the appreciation of the other side. We have lost the ability to see an opinion as divorced from the front that is propounding it. Hence, attacks become personal and then the scene gets ugly.

Today if I agree or disagree with a government programme I have to proclaim a disclaimer if I belong to the Congress or the BJP or none - so as to be treated accordingly. While the government of the day seems to have gone overboard and branded every criticism as ‘anti-national’, mature, non-partisan praise of the initiatives taken by the government have also become rare. I do not like this government’s obsession with the cow, but I do believe that the Swacch Bharat Mission is a good ideal. A few years ago, a sentence like this would have been considered normal. But now the fractured society does not want either part of the sentence to be in the same sentence. That is the really sorry state of our times.

This is what we need to break. Friends of the BJP would like to believe that India was born in May 2014. This country was NOTHING before that day and everything that it is today is because of the last 5 years, they reiterate. At the least, educated people should not fall for this. Even, by 2014 India was already a growing superpower, with its IITs and IIMs, with landmark acts like the NREGA, RTE and RTI. Could they have done better? Of course. Did the Congress capitalise on the many decades of absolute no-opposition,  in building a country that is not corrupt? No. By the end of 2014, they did become a gigantic, colossal, epitome of ineptitude. But, has the BJP capitalised on its unimagined overwhelming majority and windfall in crude oil prices? No. Do I believe the Congress to be the only alternative to BJP and vice-versa? No. We need to rise above these compartmentalised thinking – if we need better solutions to our age-old problems.