Questions are everywhere, even on harmless bus rides.
I was on a bus back to Bangalore, and had the good fortune (or otherwise) of having a chatty neighbour. She was elucidating at length about the vagaries and the various vices of Bangalore auto drivers, and at some point, made a statement that I find disturbing.
She said, "Most of my friends were foreign nationals, and there were a couple of people from North-East, but I was the only one who looked Indian."
Oh yes, we could argue that the people from the North-East look distinctively Chinese or Nepalese or whatever. But what I wonder is: Suddenly we have a distinct facial characteristic; some of us "look Indian" while others don't?
What is this idea of "Indian" that we have built in our heads? How come, for someone as normal as you and me, the Indians in the North-East just aren't Indian enough? How is it that such a thought is so deeply ingrained in us that we never realise the import of what's been said?
So who is Indian, now? What are the criteria to be? Religion, income, class, caste, region? Who is to decide all of this?
What is it that we have to do, or be, or not do to be Indian?
5 comments:
Nice to see your blog open to the general public again.
Oh. :)
Who is this, may I know, please?
Certainly something for all of us to ponder about. Why is it that we have certain preconcieved notions about being 'Indian'?
I think the reason lies in our inability to accept, recognise or tolerate difference and diversity. We have become so selfish and narrow-minded that we tend to see everything through our own eyes. Hence, soemone who isn't our colour, doesn't speak our language, has different sexual preferences or just thinks differently becomes the Other. And we, consciously or unconsciously, tend to keep 'othering' the Other, distancing ourselves from it as far as possible.
Why? Because we're all nice, good, righteous people - True Indians. And from whose perspective? Why, ours of course! After all, since we 'conform' to some abstract norm of correctness, that's somehow been ingrained in us, we see ourselves as Perfect, so nobody else can be Perfect, if they're Different. Anyone who does is a Threat, a Challenge, to our idea of 'Indiannness' or whatever else. And they...are simply not Truly Indian - because we set the standard, we expect everyone else to conform to it.
Ask people from various regions of the country as to what their concept of an Indian is. In all probability, you will get a variety of answers so large that the only possible definition can be obtained through an empirical summing up of all of them.
But we can't tolerate that, can we? There has to be A Uniform Standard, given the way we've stereotyped our lives. So, we continue with this needless parochialism. And proudly proclaim that we're a living example of Unity in Diversity.
werz ur blog?
@Manish:
Perhaps. I feel, though, that it's more a case of indifference than deliberate 'othering'.
@seer:
Just. Felt like it. Don't ask me like what.
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