orientations
Kipling again... instead of saying that the east and west will never meet he might have said that "the north is north and the south is south and never shall the twain meet."
I happened to study at a place where almost the entire population consisted of people below Madhya Pradesh and right now sitting in Delhi I mostly have the Hindi heartland, Punjab and Haryana all around me.
Their lack of knowledge about each other sometimes makes me wonder if our education system even makes us aware of our own country forget developing an open mind and a global perspective. The north seems to think that the south is a bunch of dark sambar eating tilak smeared bunch of oorthodox people who will never change. They are thought of as intelligent but in a sly sort of way. As far as they are concerned there is no difference between any of the four southern states: they are all Madrasis abnd a bunch of hypocrites. The southern states more than return the compliment handsomely by thinking that the north is composed of barbarians who hardly have an iota of sophistication or finese in them. They are looked upon as rowdy troublemakers who are perpetually on the liability side of the balance sheet. They are to be avoided like poisonous snakes.
If we go back in history there are very strong reasons for this. The north has always born the brunt of all the wars and battles that have raged. The north has not just had different rulers but been looted by raiders like Nadir Shah and finally have til date not been able to put the ghost of partition to rest. This is what gives them their natural aggressiveness. On the other hand the south has been relatively peaceful with hardly having great battles of the stature in the north and also so be cut off from the rest of the mainland. While this has helped art and culture to flourish and made intellectual labour a far more acceptable thing they simply refuse to budge at anything. At the risk of stirring a hornets nest it would not be very wrong to say that even during the freedom struggle the involvement of the southern states were considerably lesser. In the last few years if we look at the social movements that have happened then we see the dravidian movement when their identity was challenged and the protest against imposition of Hindi. The other major one against the cast system was also an inherently internal matter.
However the point of this piece is to question why does it still exist even today? If our communication system along with other electronice gadgetry has really removed distances between us and made us one global community then why don't we see it here? How can a house divided among itself contribute meaningfully to a social set up? How can a country not united become a global power? While it is right to celebrate our diversity it has got to be one where we acknowledge, are aware of the differences and then celebrate them. It cannot and should not be one be based on ignorance.
I then thought it might be a phenomenon with the older people and so asked a few friends around. An obscure minority of my friends had even heard of M S Subbalakshmi on her death and similarly very few of my southern mates had heard of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Now aren't both of these people national icons? Then why this dichotomy ? I then thought it might be a problem because the listeners of classical music are not many. So I asked the southerners if they had heard ghazals and the northerners if they had heard of Illye Raja. Once again the replies lead to more disappointments.
This is a great country and different corners of the land have varied treats to offer. Let us no longer live in ignorance but in knowledge of them. Watch Kamal Hasan's 'Nayakam' and the Marathi oscar nominee'Swaash', listen to Kandukondain's "Suttum Vizhi" and Rabbi sing "Bulla" for they are both beautiful and OURS.
Only then will Tagore's prayer of "Into that heaven of freedom my father let my country awake" be answered.
I happened to study at a place where almost the entire population consisted of people below Madhya Pradesh and right now sitting in Delhi I mostly have the Hindi heartland, Punjab and Haryana all around me.
Their lack of knowledge about each other sometimes makes me wonder if our education system even makes us aware of our own country forget developing an open mind and a global perspective. The north seems to think that the south is a bunch of dark sambar eating tilak smeared bunch of oorthodox people who will never change. They are thought of as intelligent but in a sly sort of way. As far as they are concerned there is no difference between any of the four southern states: they are all Madrasis abnd a bunch of hypocrites. The southern states more than return the compliment handsomely by thinking that the north is composed of barbarians who hardly have an iota of sophistication or finese in them. They are looked upon as rowdy troublemakers who are perpetually on the liability side of the balance sheet. They are to be avoided like poisonous snakes.
If we go back in history there are very strong reasons for this. The north has always born the brunt of all the wars and battles that have raged. The north has not just had different rulers but been looted by raiders like Nadir Shah and finally have til date not been able to put the ghost of partition to rest. This is what gives them their natural aggressiveness. On the other hand the south has been relatively peaceful with hardly having great battles of the stature in the north and also so be cut off from the rest of the mainland. While this has helped art and culture to flourish and made intellectual labour a far more acceptable thing they simply refuse to budge at anything. At the risk of stirring a hornets nest it would not be very wrong to say that even during the freedom struggle the involvement of the southern states were considerably lesser. In the last few years if we look at the social movements that have happened then we see the dravidian movement when their identity was challenged and the protest against imposition of Hindi. The other major one against the cast system was also an inherently internal matter.
However the point of this piece is to question why does it still exist even today? If our communication system along with other electronice gadgetry has really removed distances between us and made us one global community then why don't we see it here? How can a house divided among itself contribute meaningfully to a social set up? How can a country not united become a global power? While it is right to celebrate our diversity it has got to be one where we acknowledge, are aware of the differences and then celebrate them. It cannot and should not be one be based on ignorance.
I then thought it might be a phenomenon with the older people and so asked a few friends around. An obscure minority of my friends had even heard of M S Subbalakshmi on her death and similarly very few of my southern mates had heard of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Now aren't both of these people national icons? Then why this dichotomy ? I then thought it might be a problem because the listeners of classical music are not many. So I asked the southerners if they had heard ghazals and the northerners if they had heard of Illye Raja. Once again the replies lead to more disappointments.
This is a great country and different corners of the land have varied treats to offer. Let us no longer live in ignorance but in knowledge of them. Watch Kamal Hasan's 'Nayakam' and the Marathi oscar nominee'Swaash', listen to Kandukondain's "Suttum Vizhi" and Rabbi sing "Bulla" for they are both beautiful and OURS.
Only then will Tagore's prayer of "Into that heaven of freedom my father let my country awake" be answered.
posted by Abilin Mukherjee at 1:27 AM
3 Comments:
A sensible approach, but more from the point of a view of a North Indian, should I say?
More than anything else, I believe, trust, respect, tolerance would do wonders in any relationship. Need I say that some of my best friends happen to be North Indians. Having come from the same place, where the author of this original post claims "almost the entire population consisted of people below Madhya Pradesh", I consider myself indeed fortunate to have been there.
It must be mentioned that this place was the closest to a unique case of unity in diversity. I have been trying to find if other places were as cosmopolitan as this. Sadly none comes even close to it. Where we interact with the same fixed set of people almost everyday, where there is nothing much sans the college, where we learn to live with others despite possible differences...
Agreed that regionalism did exist. The optimist that I try to be, this place provided an ambient enough atmosphere where interaction was the key. The author has forgotten that there was a representative from almost every state of India. I learnt to interact here, and was as comfortable with people from Assam, Jammu, Rajasthan, Bihar, Bengal as with people from TN, AP, Kerala, etc.
I would not like to comment more on this topic. Agreed that it exists. We need to do something about it, by bringing a change within ourselves. From my very own experience, language does sometimes tend to be a barrier. Isnt't it ironical that the medium of communication is often English?
Having come to a land that is far away from home, I have come to cherish anything Indian, be it from the North, South, East or West. Guess that only with separation do people understand and appreciate things better.
I'll completely agree with the views on unity. I'd have been happier had the author taken this on a more neutral stand.
Nice Blog!!
About the South and North divide: Looking as far back as we can in history. The Indus Valley Civilization comprised the ethnic community. The Aryans came along, a race more used to war, and drove the ethnic community down into the heartland and south. The Aryans are regarded to have set up most of what we today have in the form of the caste system and the Hindu Religion. The Rig Veda helps point these incidents out. Infact the third caste of the Shudras or untouchables were of the ethnic resident population who were subjugated.
If this is our history. It is but natural the present reflects it. Of course this is not the way it should be.
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