Saturday, November 5, 2011

Misplaced notion

Ra.One, Metallica, F1, Rath Yatra....These are the hot events that occurred recently. No, I am not talking about any of them. Those are left to the experts. So sit back and take a deep breath.

November 1st 1956 was when southern states were carved out from the erstwhile Madras presidency. Since then, every year November 1st is celebrated as 'Karnataka Rajyotsava' meaning 'birth of the state of Karnataka. I dont know somehow when, but eventually it got renamed as "Kannada Rajyotsava' - no harm but please note that the name of the state has now been replaced by the state language.

The day's celebration was extended by a week for convenience; later the entire month was celebrated as Rajyotsava; off late the celebration goes beyond the end of year. We have mandatory holiday that day. Auto rickshaws display huge Kannada flags. There are others who display the flag as well; I will come to it later.

This day is marked with the government asserting Rajyotsava awards to people who have contributed to the growth of the state; cultural shows are held along with the procession of the state Goddess. Few others choose to show patronage to Kannada by "showing" hatred or intolerance to other languages; especially Tamil.

Its a known bitter truth that few sections view Tamils as close to their enemies. God knows for what reason. The Cauvery issue in 1992 saw the struggle on Tamils in the state. The abduction of Rajkumar; by Veerappan in 2000 saw fear among Tamils in the state. He was in captivity for 108 days; and those days were smeared with unrest and violence. The so-called self promoted protectors of the state and the language blocked all Tamil channels and no Tamil movies screened.

Other two south Indian languages dont get affected. Anyway, so what happened this time. Screening of a  Tamil Diwali release which was running packed houses was abruptly halted. What if it protagonist of the movie was invited just couple of months ago to grace the occasion of the music launch of a mega budget Kannada movie? What if he greeted his fans with few words in Kannada? What if the function created traffic jams and uncontrollable crowd; which was falsely attributed to a made up reason "fans of Kannada".

The posters were teared down; theaters forced to stall the shows; threatening the theater authorities of dire consequences if the movie was screened. When the actor visited Bangalore; he was garlanded with Mysore Jasmine, Mysore turban and a sword; interestingly these movies distribution rights are bought by Kannadigas.
All these happened just because there was not a single Kannada movie releasing on Nov.1

Earlier in the post; I said there are others also who display Kannada flag. Yeah, the self proclaimed saviors of Kannada attached to a "kannada outfit" whose job is to target MNCs and other corporations and extort money. They act as judiciary system as well. They are moral police who have the power to vandalize properties. Its not common to see Kannada flag and a photo of Rajkumar who is considered the cultural icon of Karnataka displayed at prominent places like shopping malls, MNC offices. These are considered as respect and patriotism; when in fact the sad but true reason is these malls and MNCs are scared of their properties being vandalized; scared of their work being stalled, scared of inviting wrath of these narrow-minded men who are linguistic fanatics; when in fact they are not patriotic but have used this as a tool to make easy money and fool the innocent folks.

Does it reflect the insecurity? Hell! yes. Every year during these times; we prepare to hear to lectures on "How to save Kannada", watch patriotic songs on TV, few patriotic folks at workplaces start a movement to teach free Kannada. How can you love your language when you cannot respect others? Does one show patriotism by hating others? It will really help the cause if "outsiders" as they like to call feel at home, are allowed to take active participation. No one likes to be forced; when would these ignorant folks realize they cant invoke love for Kannada by stalling movies and threatening common people?

25 comments:

  1. Money & Power...flows out afterwards..born out of hatred.

    They are businessmen. Just Businessmen.

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  2. A sense of insecurity due short sighted small men who unfortunately are powerful!Well written!

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  3. your last para explains all.we are living the legacy of rule by divide..every state categorises people as outsiders and insiderss be it maharashtra, Tamilnadu or karnataka..that way north indian states dont have this, may be because they are lacking in education and progress....

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  4. Very good post, Insignia and gutsy too. I have felt similarly even in smaller incidents like road rage, the other one who is at fault starts bossing around because he speaks Kannada and I am not fluent. These political outfits and goonda elements flare these sentiments to let people fight among each other and so-called "outsiders" because they will not do anything to make their lot better. I was brought up in Mumbai and never once felt discriminated in my growing up years, but now look at the viciousness that Shiv Sena and MNS has unleashed on innocent "outsiders." As you rightly pointed out, such events become one inducing fear where one wishes to stay out of trouble and goes with the flow not out of respect but not to stand out. In the long run, there is a lot of bitterness in the bargain. Don't know when and how India will be for Indians.

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  5. A woman incensed is as the aftermath of a fuming volcano, a'la Kannagi!

    Cool down B.

    My comment on this , first and foremost "man" is a violent creature. Frenzy is in his blood.The sophistication and the apparent display of suave we see is only superficial.It depends upon our person, formative times and breed as to how and which way we behave to overcome this natural aggression .

    The Kannadiga fanatics who burn books in other languages, tarnish sign boards in Tamil , Hindi or English etc , though do that in the name of their "love"(sic)for Kannada - ask them how many books in Kannada literature they can tell.

    The same applies to the hooligans who swear by Tamil, Malayalam , Hindi Bengali and so on.

    India has become intolerant like the fanatic Muslim Middle East.The goodness of tradition and culture have been eclipsed by bigotry , and myopic idea,

    One last comment- This guy RajKumar , perhaps is the least eligible person to caricature Kannada Art and culture. He was ( I ve seen few clips of his movies) the worst of Thespians.He could not act. For the love of God like MGR he did not have an iota of expressiveness in his face. These guys were like Christ on the cross passionless in expressions. Call it acting?

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  6. B, just to add on- when vandalism take place where are the law enforcing agencies? The whole matter is ignited,incited and encouraged by politicians. We have enough unemployed fellows around to be used as fodder.

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  7. this made me smile :)
    the reason is we all know we are being ruled
    we all know its politics and what our leaders do for the sake of the chair
    YET we run after them anyway ...

    and the case of south .. well the same is in punjab too.. the whole of himachal-haryana-pakistan-parts of afghnistan WAS punjab .. look what it is now .. all because of politics and all that bloodhsed that took place
    so many died

    does it matter to anyone nope.. and we are still doing it making more states ...

    the problem is even the educated are STUPID.. including me :)

    dont know what else to say

    and by the way saw Ra-One what a waste of money and all ...

    Bikram's

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  8. Never was there a nation called India; never will be. There is nothing to unite us, not even Gods. India is just a federation of states. The division was further deepened when after Independence, states were created on the basis of languages.

    Regionalism is an identity for the teeming masses. It is a venue where one could identify with one group and turn against the others. Behind those poor 'dumb bastards' stand the politicians, snickering.

    As the lay public becomes more and more insecure- economically and politically - such acts of parochialism would multiply.

    About MNCs - one should really give it a deep thought - how MNCs are affecting the economy of the nation - how much do they leave after sucking out the resources of the country...

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  9. Very Interesting indeed. And sad. People are blinded by faith. Haven't we heard of temples for Actress. I guess this is also on the same line. Crazy, uneducated lot. I guess even education cannot help them. Most educationists too fall under the same category.

    I take it that you can understand Kannada. Do you read speak too?

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  10. Similar things happen in Mumbai too, the ways are different, motive - the same. People are corrupted. Nothing else. And what can be done about it. Just see them spreading shit all around.

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  11. Very informative post. I had no clue about it..none of what you wrote. Thanks.

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  12. Some folks dangerously need something bigger to relate them;to live a life.For others it's hidden game for power.Either way,who bears ?

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  13. We are very peculiar people.We all know that given an opportunity,politicians have and will continue to divide us, be on regional,religion, caste.
    We all have accepted them as our masters and agree with the idea of being treated as subjects.

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  14. Makk,

    True

    Rahul,

    I agree and we suffer.

    Renu,

    I wonder if its because they have other worse problems in life like food and clothing than lacking in education and progress.

    Rachna,

    Its fact Rachna. Very true; the one who doesnt know the language is at the receiving end. Its evident in places like RTO, government bus service, autos....

    They forget that its due to the "outsiders" that the state has achieved this prosperity.

    If one analyses the contribution of "insiders" it would be minuscule.

    Anil,

    I agree; what happens in Middle East is attributed to lack of education while the same happens here even with education. Rajkumar? I would say he is much better actor than what they have in "Sandalwood" now

    When vandalism takes place, it just happens because the politicians feed on it. Remember the movie Mudhalvan?

    Bik,

    :-) Just have to take it easy.

    Balan,

    And we talk about racism against us in other countries.

    MNC stuff - there are pros and cons to it Balan. We can get to live a decent life courtesy many MNCs

    Jyothi,

    Education doesnt help here Jyothi. Its all political fiasco; riding on emotions of people. You know the Kannada flag does not have legal status and yet they are hoisted in government offices alongside Indian flag. Its a crime. A bill was recently passed to ban it and people created issue so they had to revoke it

    Well I can read, write and speak better Kannada than many other self proclaimed Kannada loyalists.

    Neha,

    Yes, what can be done?

    A,

    This was just so mild; lot more to know

    Melange,

    Yup! people are so stupid

    Chowla sir,

    I agree sir; we are to blame.

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  15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MTS_Kjc7A80#t=329s

    watch at 5:30... hmmm... interesting.

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  16. first time i'm seeing something like this. playing tamil movie dubbed in tamil, when they have the original version available.

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  17. Its common on Kannada channels :) They would rather screen Telugu dubbed than a Tamil original :)

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  18. I am a kannadathi too but I never force my non-kannada speaking friends to speak or learn kannada (I don't discourage them if they want to learn) but I have observed a common behavior among all non-kannada localites & outsiders who have come here to stay for few years or months and that is, a conductor in a bus wrongs them, they curse all kannada people. A shop keeper cheats them, they curse all kannada people. Does that even make sense? The bus conductor's mother tongue might not be kannada at all for all we know. It hurts my ego when they do that because it's just not possible to ignore such insults. I get into fight then. We exchange words but I would like if those people got some sense into their dumb heads instead.

    And period, a girl told me that Bangalore is improving because other state people started moving to this place.

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  19. Nethra,

    Glad you brought up this issue - cursing all in general. Is this the only time we assume things generically? If a student in the class behaves bad, the teacher has the tendency to brand the entire class as naughty. So its our inherent habit of us Indians to generalize as a whole.

    Another thing I want to point which you will agree, nothing can be done by force; instead of showing intolerance and hatred; it works when you are one. Yes, Bangalore was a pensioner's paradise; having its own charm. Why do people from all over the world come here? Its because of the opportunities. Who created this opportunity? Not a Tamil or a Kannada or a Hindi fellow. Each one of us irrespective of our language, background...

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  20. Yes, I agree. But it was silly of her when she said Bangalore improved because of outsiders, right? Didn't we contribute at all?

    By the way, when we don't judge all tamilians for what Veerapan did, why judge all kannada people for what a conductor, shopkeeper or any one individual does?

    I know tit-for-tat ain't good but when someone throws an insult on your face, it's natural to get defensive. I understand that when Veerapan kidnapped Rajkumar, kannada sangha people wronged Tamilians living here. I don't support them at all; not even 0.00000001% but shouldn't tamilians do the same too. When they don't want to be blamed for what Veerapan did, then why blame all kannada people for what one person does?

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  21. In 1956, not only the South Indian states but also many North Indian states were formed on paper too. But they don't figured out some dates of their own and celebrate the formation on those dates only.

    I found it amusing actually. After spending one year here, I got to know that this Yellow Red flag is apparantly the Kannada Pride Flag. I thought it was Auto Rickshaw Union Flag.

    Anyways, I guess, we as Indians, wherever we may be, believe in one thing. 'Sare Jahaan se Achha, Hindustan humara, aur Saare jahaan se ghatiya desh tumhara'. As in, our land is all bliss and perfect. And we not stop at this. Your land is all crap and idiotic. What kind of patriotism is this?

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  22. Ignore the word "don't" from 2nd line.

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  23. Nethra,

    See this is what! Tit for tat. At the end of the day its all senseless. One of us have to be matured and laugh out at stupidity.

    Abhinav,

    That flag doesnt have a legal status :)It was apparently a party flag symbolizing turmeric and vermilion.

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