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Respecting diversity
G.G. MENON
K. Balakesari’s article “Of language, railways and rivers” (Open Page, September 30) set me thinking. As Indians, we love to say that India is a shining example of unity in diversity. But at the ground level, we tend to do a lot of things which can only reinforce the diversity and undermine the unity of this country. The writer has given instances of narrow parochialism at the governmental level. But I think what happens at the policy-making level is only
a reflection of the general absence of a national perspective in the way we do things in this country.
Take the case of the destination plates displayed on buses. In quite a few towns and cities in the south, the destination plates are written only in the local language. Some of these towns and cities are otherwise cosmopolitan places, attracting people and investment not just from other corners of India but across the globe.
A large majority of the outsiders who work in these places or visit them for business or pleasure cannot read the local language. So, for boarding the right bus, they have to depend most of the time on the locals’ help. The obvious solution is to have the destination plates written bilingually in the local language and English. Yet, it is not done.
It is not that indifference to people from other States exists only in the south. The north is no better. If you are a south Indian who cannot speak Hindi, try making an enquiry in English with somebody at the post office or the railway ticket counter in a north Indian town. You can consider yourself lucky if you receive a polite response.
Things are no better at the individual level either. It is not uncommon to see people living in one State or linguistic zone harbouring all kinds of mistaken notions — some of them downright silly — about people from other States/linguistic zones.
Even today, the average non-south Indian prefers to lump everything and everyone from the south under the omnibus “Madrasi.” It simply does not matter to him that there are distinct languages and cultures in the south.
One is also reminded of a childhood experience. Way back in the early 1960s, this writer was a school student in an industrial township situated in the eastern part of the country. One day, the Social Studies class was on. The teacher, a non-south Indian, was holding forth on the food habits of Indians living in different parts of India.
To one’s horror, when it came to south India, one of the things he said was that snake flesh is eaten with relish by many “Madrasis”! By no means, this kind of distorted view of the ‘other’ is confined to the north of the Vindhyas.
It is common, for instance, to hear people in the south making unflattering sweeping statements about Indians living in other parts of India or belonging to other linguistic groups.
Emotional integration
School textbooks, of course, have done their bit to bring emotional integration among our people. But much more remains to be done at the school level since a student gathers the entire baggage of belief systems including prejudices during this phase.
The teachers teaching subjects like Social Studies need to be people who understand and respect the pluralistic ethos of this country. They need to instil it in their students’ minds that though one may not understand another’s language or culture, the latter are no less worthy of respect than one’s own language and culture.
Some kind of code of conduct needs to be in place for the film industry and TV channels as well. Holding up a section of the people to ridicule on account of their language, culture, their accented English, etc., has been a regular feature of our cinema and TV serials/ads.
One can imagine the incalculable harm this kind of crass humour can have on the worldview of young impressionable minds that are lapping it all up.
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