Shining India, a Satire

The following appeared in India Abroad as khao-piyo-mauj-karo

On my recent trip to India I could feel the material progress in India – the glittering malls, the dual carriage toll roads, the flyovers, and lavish weddings in farm houses. All parties, all dining table and living room discussions revolved around material goods that are available in India which were once available only in the US. Everyone has a smart phone and many have ipods, Mack air, and laptops. While the children and the youth phone and SMS, the middle aged adults watch TV serials or Sa-re- ga-ma. In their leisure they either watch or deliberate upon the troubles between silver screen mother and daughter in laws. I saw few reading books, magazines or even newspapers. I, too, did not read the newspaper because it was filled by the trinity of scams, Bollywood and cricket. The Hindi papers were gossipy tabloids with very poor diction and syntax. Everyone was watching or talking or surfing the net. No one was reading and discussing history, literature, poetry or talking about global events such as global warning. Everything was mostly inane and trivial when it came to national discourse. While Bollywood has touched upon a few important topics through art movies, the TV serials have dumbed down whatever little intellectual curiosity was extant among Indians and whatever intellectual content was in broadcast media in India. TV serials are like a soporific, stilling the mind and insulating it from all the realities of the world. And isn’t that is what broadcast media are supposed to be. Work hard to earn nice dough and then enjoy it with your family and friends. They, the politicians and economists, will take care of the world. Drinking alcohol has become a symbol of modernism. More pubs have opened in Delhi in the last ten years than libraries, according to a playwright. But is there anything more than khao-piyo-mauj-karo in life? Yes, and it is called culture. The culture consists of language, literature, values, music, theatre, other performing arts, painting and other fine arts, and the external accoutrements of attire and food.

Before the advent of broadcast media, Indian culture was informed by tradition, literature, newspapers, discourses in religious institutions, coffee houses or village parks, theatre and fine arts. After independence, Bollywood slowly took over, because the former requires some effort but Bollywood required only a few rupees. Today the popular culture is shaped almost entirely by the glitter and jazz provided by Bollywood. Our dance forms that had a glorious history have been relegated to antiquity by lip synching and hip swinging histrionics of Bollywood dance, instead of thoughtful op-eds and investigative reports, the main pages of our newspapers are dominated by Bollywood gossip and cricket. Our TV either plays Bollywood or emulates it both in song and act - in song through sa-re-ga-ma and in act though intellectually empty serials. Rarely is there a poetry competition or recital, a discussion of a new or old novel, of performing arts, or important social issues. Few know about poets such as Jayashanker Prasad or writers like Mulk Raj Anand. There is a collective amnesia about our colonial history and its heroes. Zee TV and Sony TV have accelerated the cultural decline. The serials hold attention by their vapid plots bringing advertisement dollars to two companies that are incorporated outside of India and have no stake in refining Indian culture. There is no parallel to public broadcasting corporation to refine the taste. Our languages have been polluted by a khichri (pidgin), sometimes outright vulgar, Bollywood language full of clichés and devoid of metaphor. Bollywood projects a boozing and smooching life style that few Indians can afford and puts Indian womanhood on sensual display for middle easterners to whistle and pass lewd remarks on.

I am not blaming only Bollywood or TV for this cultural dumbing down. Despite tall claims of religiosity religious institutions in India have failed to stall the loss of traditional values. Secularism has been misinterpreted as a separation between religious institutions and all other aspects of life while it is only a separation of religion and state operations. Ethics, or righteous conduct, the true reason d’être of religion has been relegated to a background. Religion has become a glitzy tug-of-war for benedictions and votes. While most stalwarts of Indian freedom struggle such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave, Tagore and Rajagopalchari drew their soul force from the principles of Hinduisms, today even the slightest mention of Hindu ideals gets a label of communalism from the secularists.

The liberal media, too, has contributed to the cultural nihilism by deriding all Indian values as archaic and socially exploitative. Borrowing most of the paradigms from the west, these ultraliberals dub everything from sari to lajja or haya and sexual modesty as tools of women’s exploitation and glorify drinking, smoking and getting laid outside of marriage as women’s lib. They dub all Indian history as figment of imagination of the nationalists and Indian languages as native vernaculars.

The Indian educators, too, have done an abysmal job by making education as a commodity that is being mass produced on an assembly line. Yes, our education produces great quality doctors and engineers by gives a “pre-determined set skills. According to the great American philosopher educator, John Dewey, the purpose of education is to lead to “the realization of one’s full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good.” Yes, Indians have good content knowledge but they do they become fully informed citizens of a democratic civil society or promoters of only their personal good through their knowledge. Sadly in the recent decades, education, like everything in India, has been politicized and is being used as a weapon in vote bank politics.

India has progressed economically at the cost of its culture. The body has grown while the soul has shrunk. The technology-savvy Indians have brought money and fame to India and Bollywood, too, has brought money and fame to India. And the combination of the two has produced a vast entertainment industry through which Indians are ‘amusing themselves to death,” as Neil Postman says about Americans in his book by this name. Wayfaring stranger, a blogger, on August 15th, 2010, quotes from this book about Aldus Huxley’s prediction in Brave New World that “we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.” And we will be controlled and killed by pleasure.

Translation of Tagore's poem Senses from Gitanjali

मुक्ति नहीं मेरे लिए वैराग्य में
स्वतंत्रा अनुभव करता हूँ मैं
हर्ष के सहस्त्र पाश में

मदिरा कई रंगों और सुगंधों की

भरते हो तुम मेरे पात्र में

प्रज्जवलित करेगा शत दीप

मेरा संसार तुम्हारे प्रकाश से

और समर्पित करेगा उन्हें
तुम्हारे मंदिर की वेदी पर
बंद नहीं कभी करूंगा
अपनी इन्द्रियों के द्वार मैं
आनंद देंगे जब दृश्य, ध्वनि,
और स्पर्श तेरी शोभा का
मिट जायेंगे मेरे सब भ्रम
उल्लास के प्रकाश से

The State of Hindi in India

मेरी भाषा अनाथ असहाय
नयी पीढ़ी के अधरों पर
ढूंढ रही है कोई उदगार
टीवी, फिल्मों और संगीत में

उर्दू का कब्ज़ा है

स्कूल, कार्यालयों और व्यापारों में

धन लिप्सा से इंग्लिश में ही चर्चा है
हिंदी अशांत, घायल, आहत
मरुभूमि में कराह रही है
में सुसज्जित अलंकृत थी
... भारत माँ की प्यारी बेटी थी
तुलसी दास, मीरा की मुखबोली सहेली थी
तुम्हारे दादा दादी की भाषा अलबेली थी
तुम्हे बचपन में लोरी सुनाती थी
रामायण, महाभारत की कहानी  बतलाती थी
किंचित अपने अधरों से सराहो मुझे
स्वयं और अपने बच्चों को सिखायो मुझे
में अनपढ गंवार नहीं, सुसंकृत हूँ, बचायो मुझे
इंग्लिश सीखो, अवश्य धन और एश्वर्य पाओगे
पर क्या अपनी गरीब माँ भाषा को भूल जायोगे

A Dialogue with God

हे प्रभु !
कहते हैं तुम हो माता पिता मेरे
फिर क्यों में गाऊँ विरदावली
तुम्हारी सांझ सवेरे
नैवेद्य चढाऊं और हार पहनाऊँ
महल जेसे मंदिरों में बिठाके
रत्न जडित वस्त्र पहनाऊँ
पिता हो तो समझो स्वयमं
पीड़ा, त्रुटियाँ और क्षमता मेरी
दिशा, ज्ञान और साहस दो
... के बनू में तुम्हारा सपूत
चलकर तुम्हारे आदर्शों पर
बनू इस जगत में तुम्हारा दूत
में नन्हा बालक नहीं की
छोटे छोटे उपहारों के लिए
या कर्म दंड से बचने के लिए
करूं चापलूसी तुम्हारी दिन रात
या अपराधियों की तरह
करूं लेन देन की बात

A Thought (Ek Vichaar)

गीत को शब्द ही नहीं
भाव चाहियें
संगीत को साज ही नहीं
सुर भी चाहिए
वक्ता को श्रोता ही नहीं
श्रवण चाहिए
देश को नेता ही नहीं
नेतृत्व चाहिए
अपराधी को वकील ही नहीं
दंड चाहिए
... इष्टदेव को मंदिर ही नहीं
मनन चाहिए
रामायण को पाठ ही नहीं
पठन चाहिए
धर्मं को पूजा ही नहीं
धारना चाहिए

A song needs meaning and feeling
not only words
Music needs rhythm or melody
not only orchestra
Speaker needs to be listened
Not only listners
Country needs leadership
Not only leaders
A criminal needs punishment
Not only lawyers
A temple needs meditation and assimilation
Not only a deity

Devotee (A Poem in Hindi)

एक लम्बी यात्रा
के बाद लम्बी कतार
से आगे निकलने 
का करके व्यापार
अँधेरे मंदिर के दो स्तंभों
के बीच चिंके से स्थान
से किया भक्त ने
श्रष्टि के रचयिता का 
छणिक साक्षात्कार
और मंदिर के पार्श्व में
पर्वत के शिखर
बलखाती चलती नदियां   
कलरव करते निर्झर
पंछियों की चरचराहट
मंद बयार से हिलते
पत्तों की सरसराहट
उषा का बादलों के रथ में प्रयाण
निशा में चन्द्रमा की मुस्कान
विश्व के उन्मुक्त प्रांगन में
दर्शन के लिए निशुल्क 
महारचयिता की महाकला
औद्योगिक दूषण से बिगड़ती रही
और ऊँचे भवनों की छाया में
अपमानित, अवहेलित सुकडती रही

Ode to a Modern Asian Indian Mother

Feeds breast milk to the last drop

lest the baby not be a flop

She looks for a preschool

even before the baby sits on a stool

She takes the baby to jungle gym

so that he stays fit and trim

buys videos, software and books

Montessori like her home looks

a day later than charts child speaks

And developmental opinion she seeks

She puts him in a part time daycare

So that he learns to play and share

Every second of the child is planned

Every moment is scanned

Every minute has to be sculpted

for nature cannot be trusted

As the day fills with birthdays and play datings

She starts looking for preschool ratings

For my baby I will find the best

Good in not enough, only best begets the best

Even if he and me have to take many a test

For preschool she buys a big hatchback car

For the baby will have to be hauled near and far

Soon comes the grammar school

When the child is easy and cool

But his mama is not to be fooled

In music and dance he has to be schooled

For religion and language, Sunday schooled

Soon mamas begin culture fight

Over how many events for one child right

Everyone has to get even chance

For life can change with one or two dance

In middle school mama’s effort picks up speed

To math and spelling bees and sports she pays heed

Sprinkles a little volunteerism, if there be need

Come what may my child will be the best is her creed

She monitors friends and foes around

To see if anyone has gone far

Then her child has to get afar

Activities to beat others can be found

In high school begins the Ivy League fever

Life of the child has to be made now or never

Volunteerism, projects, sports, leadership galore

Fill up the resume more and more

College applications, essays and trips

With these parents cannot make any slips

For worthy are only Princeton, Columbia,

U-Penn, Stanford, MIT, Cornell and Yale

Besides these everything is pale

If he fails I fail losing my bragging rights.

And will die of shame on party nights.

Hindi dénouement (Hindi Upsamhar)

Ivy league ke bina mein kese jiyoomgi

Sharm se chhipoongi yaa maroongi 

Kah kavi Bhushan, Ivy league mein baccha jiska jaye, vo maa itraye

Rutgers, metrotech mein baccha jiska jajye vo sharm se maari jaaye

Waiver: Although I fully understand that due to intense competition for college admissions parents have to and should work hard to nurtute their chidlren, but they should strike a balance between the natural ability and desire of a child to learn and supplanting it with their own ambitions and anxieties. I respect and salute all the young mothers who sacrifice so much of themselves for their children.

A Yesteryear Asian Indian Marriage

On this snowy day, I am ruminating about the institution of marriage that led to our wives becoming the mothers and grandmothers of today. Many of us were married in an era when the parents or relatives introduced us to our spouses-to-be and we decided for or against the marriage after a few brief meetings. In our times introduction, marriage and children followed in a rapid succession. Few had premarital romance and an opportunity to get to know each other. And only a few of us looked comprehensively into the various facets of the marriage; social, emotional, and physical before we tied the knot.   As we transitioned from adolescence to adulthood the body and the mind developed certain urges that required fulfillment – of the body through sex, and of mind through intimacy. Many married despite the absence of personal urges, due to social pressure – marriage was an essential social duty and norm in our times after men completed their studies and landed a suitable job and girls, as soon as they found a suitable boy with good education (preferably medicine or engineering) and a suitable job. Along with sex came its corollary, children, whether we desired them or were ready for them or not, again the society wanted to see a tangible proof of consummation of marriage, soon after marriage. Social questions surfaced if this sequence was not followed. 

Once the children came along the social need to nurture them took precedence over romantic and personal intimacy. By personal intimacy I mean, emotional intimacy, an ability to feel for one another, share each other's pains, sorrows, joys and share common interests and support each other in mutual and individual fulfillment.  Romantic intimacy was private and subtle. Public expression of romantic love, despite its egregious expression in Bollywood movies, was almost taboo. No hugs or kisses in public, are you kidding me! Maybe holding each other’s hands, or putting a gajra in the jooda, but not in the mohalla – only at India Gate or Buddha Jayanti Park. Even in the absence of overt intimacy, once children came along, sometimes even before that, lok lajja or social pressure kept most of us together even if we felt that we had different interests and aspirations. In Hinduism, marriage is described as an eternal non-annullable relation. The society looked down upon divorce devaluing both the partners. Hinduism nails the woman to the man by elevating her to the level of an Überwoman who follows naari dharma - devotion to the husband and his parents, come what may, upholding the religion of the family by following the rituals such as fasting etc. and raising the children. Even the reform movements which prohibited exploitation of women and promoted their right to education did not relieve them of their role as Überwomen, only attempted to make them more efficient in it. The woman was supposed to be protected and cared for (as if she were somehow impotent to do so herself), as long she performed naari-dharma.  Although some argue that it was a division of labor, perhaps it was imposition of a patriarchal order on woman because if it were a matter of mutual consent and the woman accepted the role willingly, or had an honorable cop out, it might be considered division of labor, but most did not have a choice. Good for us men that even professional wives followed naari-dharma and raised our children, took care of our parents and us and achieved professional success. We, the men, were perhaps good sports too or just helped them in their professional endeavors for our own good. No one minds the extra income and status.

Now after 25 or more years in the US conditions have changed dramatically. As acculturation in the American society occurred, both men and women diverted from the millennia-old paradigms of man-woman relationships. Most professional wives have wriggled out of this bondage of naari-dharma. They assert and demand equality and sometimes ascendance. Bring me flowers now although you never brought me flowers before. Surrounded by assertive and demanding feminism of the prevalent culture many men changed too. They share in house work and do not expect a working wife to serve them food after she comes back from work, although she may still do it. Most are more deferential to their wives. Therefore, marriages, in general have stayed strong, albeit different. But a few men like their American counterparts, wanting more expression of romantic love than the subdued and subtle romanticism of Indian marriage sought younger pastures. And a few women too, not submitting to the older paradigms of relationships ventured legally out of naari-dharma.

Therefore, in this postmodern, post menopausal and post silver anniversary Indian marriage there is a need for some introspection. As sexual needs and skills wane and the children outgrow diapers, soccer games, and college dormitories, the knots tied around the sacred fire may become strained and in some cases come lose altogether, unless we make some changes.  To make these changes we need to be ask if the marriage has emotional, romantic, and physical congruity, or the spouses are hanging together out of sheer habit, or to keep the semblance of normality for lok lajja, or for the sake of children, or because they are cowards, fearful of a single life. Are we emotionally together; like friends sharing each other's interests or at least supporting each other's interests and aspirations even if these are different? In marriage spouses cannot be like two banks of a river having entirely different interests and neither can they be clones or twins of each other. Some commonality of ideas and interests has to be there. Always asserting each other's right to pursue individual but diametrically incongruent interests can be burdensome on the marriage. Indian spouses may have to make extra effort to develop common interests and activities which fulfill both together, because many of them, like most first generation immigrants, were too busy to develop common hobbies and interests for the golden years. Because of enmeshed family structure many spent little time together (with only each other) out of the bed. Most of the leisure time was spent in collective social activities such as teen patti and dinner parties. They will have to learn to spend some time together in theatre, restaurants, and travels in companionship and camaraderie. Other activities that can be done together include dancing, hiking, theatre, traveling, music, and gardening. Sharing physical, emotional and intellectual life with the partner we have to derive satisfaction from the affection that we receive from each other.

The spouses may have to work to meet each other's physical needs, both sexual and bodily? Indian culture tends to shove sex under the bedcover, despite flouting it brazenly on the outer walls of temples in Khajuraho. Sex is an integral component of the four purusharthras of life and we should not ignore it at any age – I mean sexuality not sensuality (In Sanskrit the words are kaam versus vaasna). There are many treatises on mature age sexuality that involve looking good, touching, caressing, kissing that transcend gross sensuality. With widespread expression of mature sexuality in the American culture strains can develop in an Indian marriage if one or the other partner ignores this aspect thinking it immoral at this age or in front of grown up children while the other values it.  This romantic aspect of marriage should not be ignored.

The bodily aspect involves looking after each other's health. I think that most Indians are good at that. They take care of each other's diet, cholesterol, and exercise. However, some meeting of the minds is necessary here as well, in terms of diet and exercise, for each other's sake. While the women serve their disabled husbands as ideal naaris, men have to get used to it as well. Marriage requires commitment, devotion to each other, a willingness to sacrifice for each other without resentment.

Communication of affection, an occasional, you look great, I love you, is also an important aspect of marriage, although we take it for granted and communicate mainly ideas, opinions, needs, plans, work, and finances. Besides the content the process of communication has to be soft and sweet. No one should put down the other in the relationship. If one is irate for some reason – we often project the anger from other onto spouses using them as shock absorbers – the other can ignore the temporary outburst or speculate and empathize with the real reasons instead of reacting, stonewalling and preaching.  

It is time that we, the Indian baby-boomers, stop harping on the past or brooding about the future of children or grandchildren and start living our own personal lives in the present as well. I would welcome ideas and an open forum.

Vidya Bhushan Gupta

Do we Need to Simplify our Religion in North America?

Joining the ranks of the other successful Asian-Indian American politicians, Dr. Ami Bera, too, does not identify with the religion he was born into. He says that he is a Unitarian Universalist. Religion was not even a factor in his congressional district. Therefore we cannot say that he distanced himself from Hinduism because of political expediency. What are then the reasons that our politicians shun the religion they are born into? Are our eastern religions too esoteric, archaic and weird for our younger generation or just complex and confusing? Or are the older generations not able to articulate the basic tenets, the beatitudes and practices in a language easily comprehensible to the younger generations? Or the practices simply not cool enough in the American landscape?

In all these scenarios there is a need for introspection by us to find ways to adapt our practices, if not beliefs, to match the American landscape and to market our religions in a language that our American children can relate to. Transplanting religious practices from the Indian subcontinent as is has not worked for the second generation, although it does enhance the ethnic pride of the first generation. We have transplanted gopurams, consecrated gods in marble, goshalas, shobha yatras, kirtans, havans, hanuman chalisa, satya narayan katha, bhagwati jagaran etc. etc. and have large presence at these places, mostly of first generation Asian Indians who pride themselves with trying to instill religious and cultural values in the youngsters, and maybe of a few youngsters out of deference to their loving and caring parents and grandparents, but when the temple bells and chants fade off into silence, I wonder how many youngsters understand and will carry forward the vast baggage of ritual and myth that is displayed.

Dr Bera’s choice is a food for thought. Unitarian Universalists have only seven principles to adhere too. Can we come to a consensus about the common denominator of the vast array of Hindu beliefs and practices so that the youngsters do not have to wade through the vast jungle of Hinduism and yet learn its basic essence? Can we make the services more spiritual than ritual? Can we change the focus on how we live better on this earth than how we fare after birth?  Can we, in the words of theosophist Annie Besant, highlight the best in our religion while admitting the evils of medieval practice of caste perpetrated in its name, a weakness that has been so effectively used by our detractors to malign us? All Hindus believe in an immanent God or Brahman who has created us and nature for us to enjoy, respect and preserve. All Hindus believe that the true self of a person is the eternal soul or Atman which transmigrates, basically to satisfy our existentialist need to defy or deny death.  All Hindus subscribe to the five don’t and five do’s, called yums and niyams, of the first rung of yogic practice. And to top it all, Hinduism is not prescriptive; allowing us to be eclectic when the Veda says that let noble thoughts flow to us from all sides. All eastern religions will have to make their services more spiritual and linguistically and physically suitable for the American milieu. The venerable Dalai Lama has succeeded in marketing Buddhism as the philosophical Buddhism, close to Theravada Buddhism rather than as the northern Mahayana Buddhism with countless Buddhas, Boddhisatvas, Lokpalas and goddesses.

I hope that instead of looking for the causes outside we will look inside and evolve and adapt our religious practices and beliefs to suit the North American mindset of our youngsters.

Some Thoughts on the Gangrape in India

Since times immemorial two deterrents have prevented people from acting out their animal impulses, the external deterrent of law and an inner deterrent of conscience. In India both have become weak as demonstrated by the gang rape in Delhi. The former, although now at its nadir was always plagued by inefficient bureaucracy and rampant corruption. But the latter has deteriorated faster in the free democratic secular republic of India faster than ever before in the history of India. 

The inner conscience has been traditionally built by religion, not organized religion, not the religion of meaningless rituals to placate Gods for selfish ends, but by dharma or righteous conduct.  Dharma is what sustains this world.  Dharma or deen-o-iman of Islam, Tem Commandments of Christianity and Dhamma of Buddhism teach those values, those mores and those behaviors that make a man a man. These values are passed on by parents, by religious institutions and by schools. And that is where India has failed miserably.

In post independence India religion, in the name of secularism, was removed from the schools and was maligned by politicians who used it for electoral purposes - Congress party maligning the majority religion to appease minorities and BJP stroking passions by assuming the mantle of its savior. While politicians all over the world, even in secular countries like the United States use religion as a moralizing force, freely quoting from scriptures to make a moral point, politicians in India discard or use religion only as an electoral weapon.

Religious institutions and leaders, too, lost the true purpose of dharma, of maintaining rita or order or Islam or peace in the world by producing the fear of karma phal or khauphe khuda or fear of the wrath of God. Instead of working selflessly, from village to village, city to city, to promote moral values and conduct, as the itinerant mendicants or the katha vachaks, tabligis, fakirs and saints of medieval and ancient India, they opened big institutions to get worshiped as Gods by selling self improvement to the newly rich middle class or to worship God for personal gains.

If crimes such as the heinous gang rape of Delhi have to be controlled we will have to work on deterrents, the external deterrent of law and the inner deterrent of conscience.  While the politicians and administrators should work to improve law and order, the religious leader and institutions should work on improving moral values. Instead of wasting their resources on improving the world hereafter they should focus here on earth. Instead of making huge places of worship, they should work to make huge hearts of their followers, hearts that will be willing to sacrifice their own selfish ends for others; hearts that will not hurt one another physically or economically.  The focus of religion should be dharma or righteous conduct and not meaningless rituals and propitiation for personal good.  

We Killed our Mother Tongue

I was groping for a lullaby to put my nephew's son to sleep.  From the recesses of my mind a lullaby that my grandfather used to sing to me in Hindi, my mother tongue, when I was a baby came to my lips. With that lullaby came many memories of my grandfather, father, uncles and aunts who used to tell me stories and parables that I am sure they have must have heard from their parents and grandparents. Those parables and stories became part of my fabric, my being. My father, a teacher of Hindi and Sanskrit, often quoted a Sanskrit verse to make a point and my mother often quoted from Ramayana. They read Hindi newspapers, weeklies and novels. They gave us Hindi novels and magazines to read and discussed the characters and their foibles with us. They were primary and secondary schoolteachers satisfied with their lower middle income, their small house, and their bicycles and with their children's accomplishments. While others around them moved into bigger houses, bigger vehicles and better neighborhoods, they stayed where they were.  My parents knew only Hindi but the others knew English.  The others were babus, clerks, who did not read novels or scriptures but could read and fill forms in English.

In free India, the Hindi speakers, scholars, teachers and preachers, the foot soldiers of Gandhi, were left behind and relegated to a secondary status. Those who thought, talked and wrote in Hindi were marginalized. They became archaic, old types and out of touch. English became the engine of progress in India and the bureaucrats who were the sepoys of British colonialism became modern and were elevated. Hindi education was eliminated for the technology and medicine bound children after the eighth grade setting the stage for the biggest educational divide and hence economic divide in India between native language speakers and English speakers.  My Auntie's, uncles who were wise, literate in Hindi became illiterate and so did a vast multitude of people who lived in the country side. Hindi poetry, prose, ballads and epics, were shelved as dead archives, or trashed, only to be recited ritually at religious rites without any understanding or discourse.  Hindi newspapers became smaller, their language became less literary and slowly they became unworthy of Hindi literati, and being a Hindi speaker became unworthy for literati. Today, most think tanks, most policy wonks in India think and write in English drawing upon sources from the west and using western paradigms. Hindi was trivialized, bastardized and vulgarized in which one talked to the rikshawallah, or sprinkled with a few words of ill pronounced English for ribaldry, light talk or a wise crack. All serious business in English only!

English speakers became the elites creating the biggest cultural and economic inequality in India. The Hindi speaking laborer would now remain a laborer; a (chotu) domestic servant will remain a chotu because they cannot access education in English. The plight of Government schools where I received bilingual education from well read and devoted Hindi speaking teachers, in today's India, symbolizes this divide – the government schools now prepare the servant class for servitude with little possibility of vertical movement while the English medium public schools teach the children of nouveau riche who on the wings of broken English become even richer. The wise priests, the wandering monks, well read in Vedas, the Upanishads and epics, who could give intelligent and articulate talks in Hindi with annotated and supported arguments, were eliminated as a source of education for the masses who cannot access schools in the vast rural and slum landscapes of India.

In a rush to overproduce mediocre work force we overlooked the possibility of bilingual education where the language of lore and culture could have prevailed and thrived with the language of universalism and economic prosperity. The children would have understood the symbolic nature of language and in learning and comparing the two would have learned the beatitudes of both.  The vast multitude of native language speaking population whom we marginalized would have been included in new prosperity. Students would have benefitted from the wisdom and erudition of people like my folks who were the keepers of our culture and would give Indian solutions to Indian problems. Today Indians look to the west for the solution of their problems, they draw our inspirations from western paradigms, history and literature when we could draw upon from own literature that we trashed. Whatever Indianness we show and the culture that we profess is broken bits and pieces that we construct from Bollywood, from TV soap operas or from literature about India written in English by Indians who study in the halls of Columbia University or live in the neighborhoods of London or New York – culture that we could have gotten wholesomely from our own sources had we nurtured our native languages along with English. Children can learn two languages and are better for it as many scientific studies have shown. They would write original expositions based upon what they hear from real people on the street, from their parents and grandparents rather that borrowing hackneyed phrases and pieces from Google or Facebook or create some phantasmagorical lore like Rushdie did in Midnight’s Children. They could articulate what their parents talked, they would have chosen correct words in either language where they now contend with Hinglish or some patois brand of language. They would not have to buy CDs of English lullabies that sing the glory of the plague of England or some baba black sheep from Scotland which few have seen but would sing to Chanda mama whom every child can see anywhere, or to wind, nanhi pari sone chali hava dhire aana, that every child feels when we cradle her, thus becoming the bearers of centuries old tradition and which they could proudly tell their children, my grandmother sang that for me and like Kunta Kinte could even trace their ancestry based upon these lullabies.  

Yes, I am lamenting the death of my mother tongue, my history and my culture, because in today’s Delhi, my father, a teacher of Hindi and Sanskrit, would be lost in a mall where all signs and are in English and my grandfather who was well versed and educated in Urdu and Farsi would have to request an almost uneducated clerk in the corridors of Delhi High Court to fill a form. No, I am not lamenting the ascendance of English for both could have thrived had we not trivialized and trashed Hindi and other native languages but treated all with egalitarianism and respect.

Evolving Asian Indian Names - All Bets are Off!

What is in a Name?

I recently came across a name Justine Patel that stirred a few thoughts in my mind. After all, name conveys some social information about a person, conjuring up an idea a person based upon our common knowledge. Most of the patels that I have come across in my life have been Hindu Patels with Hindu names with a few exceptions who had a Muslim name. Is he an offspring of a mixed marriage between and Indian and an American. Is he a Christian?  Or his parents named him or he chose the name Justine solely because of convenience of pronunciation by mainstream Americans. Or he simply wants to identify himself as an American, hiding or diminishing his Indian identity.

A person’s identity is woven around his name. As early as 8 months of age an infant recognizes its name. All attributes, achievements and aspirations of a person are linked to his or her name. Realizing the centrality of name as the conveyor of ancestral, cultural and religious information, the parents plan meticulously about the name since a child is conceived.

In India names used to be given collectively by the parents and grandparents after consulting the family astrologer who will often prescribe the first letter. They followed the Vedic injunction that the name should have a meaning and convey some semiotic information about the person (naam abhipraayakum). Depending upon the region one came from, name would convey information about the region, grandparents, religion or/and caste.

When I was a child Hindi Hindu names used to have a middle name that complimented or expanded the meaning of the first name - enlighten the world with the name of God or Om, Prakash, or adorn the family, Kul, as an ornament, Bhushan or Lal, or a servant of God, Ram, Das or Dasi; or a gift of God, Rameshawar, Prasad, or clarify that the child was a boy, Kumar or a girl, Kumari. The girls used to be Rani, queen; goddess, Devi, or Bala, a young girl. Boys were very often Indras or kings, of people, Narendra, of kings, Rajendra or simply big Indra, Mahendra. Families often followed a convention in that every male child would be a das, Bhushan, Kumar or Prakash and every female child will be a Prabha, Rani or Kumari. Gods figured very prominently in names, an easy method of chanting God’s name for his benediction. Ram, Krishna, Gopal, Mohan, Radha, Sita Ganesh, Subramanium, and Om were ubiquitous. Mythological characters, of course, the virtuous ones, were common, Arjun, Yudhister, Balram, Bhishma, Draupadi, Savitri and Damayanti. Female Hindu saint Meera was very popular. Tamil Hindu names were even more magnanimous such as Arumgathamudhu Thambapillai. Parents’ names or the village names used to figure as middle names - as in Mohan Das Karma Chand Gandhi. Although parents symbolized their aspirations in naming their child, a few children belied their expectations, becoming the butts of humorists’ jokes as a child named Bhima turned out to be wimpy.  Some were embarrassed by the names given by their parents because they were not contemporary or unknown. The former included names from an older era such as Nathu Ram or Bhagwan Das in sixties. A classical example of the latter was Gogol, the protagonist of Namesake who was embarrassed by the name given by his father.  Protestant Christians confounded the field of names by using Indian language names as first or middle names with or without a biblical middle name.  For example L. Laksman Sathyan, a Hindu-sounding name, could actually be Lazarus Laksman Sathyan.

As with everything in India, names started changing after independence.  A seismic shift occurred in society’s mindset. While in the past tradition was sacrosanct and parents and grandparents maintained and passed it on, deviating from tradition became a sign of modernity and progress. Instead of God, the attributes of God and nature became popular; Shashi, Shanti, Raksha, Usha, Nisha, Sheila, Prabhakar, Amitabh, Divakar, Naveen. Politicians like Jawahar Lalji or Subhash Chandra Bose started featuring in manes. While in the past Urdu names such as Iqbal or Kabir were used in Hindu families, Hindu names became more Hindi. The middle name was dropped – the first name could convey all the meaning. Bollywood made its dent, as in Dimple or Simple. With liberalization and modernization, names stared becoming even smaller, one syllable, Sanskrit roots, Adi, Abhi, Anu, Ansh, Anya, or at most two syllable words such as Shreya or Priya.  Non conventional names such as Neena, Sheena, Tina and Tanya were often heard.   God disappeared almost totally from Hindu names. Unlike Muslims and Jews who are adhering or even reverting back to their traditions Hindus shed their traditions like snake’s skin. I even heard a young Hindu relative of mine name her daughter, Mayra (yes, not Mira). She loves America, a heaven she is longing and living for.  

As South Asians moved to the USA, names evolved further as the ease of pronunciation or possibility of embarrassing mispronunciation by mainstream society became important considerations. For example, Ashit could be pronounced “ā shit” or “a sheet” (American English is a stressed language). A poignant example of embarrassing shortening of a name occurred for Piscine Molitor Patel, the hero of Life of Pi, who became piss. Hindus are not unique in shortening the names in the USA. Many immigrants from Greece and Eastern Europe shortened their names too. Now names reflect where a family falls on the acculturation spectrum. Those toward the Indian side of the hyphen or multi-culturists look forward to India, their native language or Sanskrit for names while those on the American side, the integrationists, want names that sound American, such as Sheila, Neena, Tina, Maya. In mixed marriages (at least one third of Hindus are having mixed marriages), parents try to mix and juxtapose names from two cultures in given and middle names, such as Gavin Raj Sharma or Sheila Stacey Goldwater. Muslims and Sikhs have more or less kept their names traditional, although American sounding or neutral abbreviations are quite common. Hindus who are on modernity aka Americanism juggernaut have been the most progressive with naming.

The names of our offspring in the USA are going to change like Justine’s, a Hindu Gujarati child, whose mother just liked the name, Justine. To some they will appear confusing because they convey information contradictory to general stereotype as in the case of Justine, while to others, liberating because name will be dissociated from a preconceived notion about a person. What is in a name after all? It is just a linguistic symbol to refer to someone and does it need to convey more information about the referred to others?