Indians feel free to insult each other over identities.

Date: 01 Feb 2010

Comment

Indians feel free to insult each other over identities./////////////////// by S Raghutham, Bangaluru/////////////// GANDHI WAs Mahatma but was also derided as "that Bania". No one dared call Nehru names but that did not stop people from gossipping insultingly about his alleged liaison with Edwina Mountbatten, even suggesting that he agreed to Partition under her influence. ////////////// The Congress Syndicate called Indra Gandhi "Goongi Gudiya" and believing too much the truth of their own insulting reference let her become Prime Minister, a foolishness born out of prejudice that they came to regret. ///////////// India can be called a lot of names - land of the most number of illiterates . land of the most number of o the world's poorest, and more charitably, the world's mostr populous democracy, land of the most varied cuisine, languages, attires and cultures, and many more.--but no one can accuse us of being a "politically correct" nation. ////////// In fact, if anything ,we must be called the "Land of Insults." Just think of Mera Bharat Mahan, each one of us have multiple identities, and each identity can be readily and is regularly turned into an insult. The North indian insults the South indian distrusts the East Indian, come down South and you will find the Tamil discriminates against the Malayali and the Malayali discriminates against Kannadiga and vice versa. Zoom down into say Karnatika and you will find the Mysore Kannadiga smearing the Mangolorean and that of Ultara Kannada making light of the Bangalorean. /////////////// Then there is the religious divide - the Hindus can't tolerate the Muslims and Christians and vice versa. Within the Hindus, the self appointed upper castes can not stand the denigrated lower castes. Within the upper castes, the Brahmins insult the Vokkaligas insult the Lingayats and vice versa. Within the lower castes,--usually denoting a community profession handed down from father to son over generations -- each caste shouts insults at another . And all these divisions, intolerance's and the resultant discrimination and nepotism are over layered by the universal discrimination against women.///////////// Ultimately , we are a nation where each of us proudly believes in the "freedom to insult" all others. And we perform it almost religiously as a duty every day of our lives. insulting bus drivers auto rickshaw drivers, policemen, et el., and in turn get insulted by them. No less than a former Prime Minister calls the elected chief minister of a state b****** on television. In 60 years this is how far We, the people have come. Quite naturally , therefore, we never felt insulted or at least not enough to work up the kind of rage we do daily on the roads, when the world referred to our " Hindu rate of Growth" or foreign companies came here and said they would make cars for " Indian road conditions" or when Pakistan inspired terror has continued for over twenty years.////////////// Nor when Australian officials regularly point out that although dozens of Indians have been attacked , some even killed in their country, Indians are still more secure Down Under rather than in India itself. Sorry Sir, we are too busy exercising our freedom to insult, and be insulted, in our own country to notice. /////////////////// 000000000