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E-mail from readers the world over
'Shalabh Kumar wants to force everyone to accept what he defines as India'Date Sent: Thu, 20 May 1999 10:49:21 -0400
The problem with Shalabh Kumar's argument is that he seems to want to force everyone to accept what he defines as India. If I am from Kottayam in Kerala, why should I not be proud of, say, Vallathol instead of Harivansh Rai Bachchan?
There is no concept of a nation, a republic, if there is no freedom for the individuals who constitute it. Kumar should be free to be proud of Bachchan and leave me to my Vallathol, and leave others to Wordsworth if that is what they want to do.
It is meaningless to talk of patriotism to a nation without an appreciation for the concept of individual freedom in a republic.
Karun
Date Sent: Thu, 20 May 1999 07:28:55 -0700 (PDT)
Hi,
Let's at least be honest. The resistance that we have to Sonia Gandhi being PM is not rooted in any national pride. Far from it. It stems from a sense of national insecurity that haunts us like some ghost of the British empire. The fact that the western countries are relatively more prosperous compounds this feeling of inadequacy.
Imagine another white-skinned person ruling our country, it almost like we have failed as a race. It's like a failure of our struggle for freedom from white people. Isn't that what it is, something that hits at the "core insecurity of every Indian"?
The fact that Sonia doesn't have a whole lot of credentials to be PM is another matter entirely. That, I believe, can be a legitimate ground for rejecting her. But certainly not this pathetic excuse of national
pride.
Gautama
Date Sent: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:39:46 -0400
Congratulations for your insight and courage in writing this piece.
I have forwarded your fine article to my "highly educated (missionary school graduates) so-called India loving friends". Keep on writing. I am very proud of you. I hope -- though I doubt if it will happen -- that the people will wake up.
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 20:43:53 EDT
Excellent article. It goes to the roots of the Indian psyche, which is still dominated by the 150 years of slavery.
Vinod Prakash
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 19:46:32 -0400
Mr.Kumar says "...Where the poetry of Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' is quoted with greater felicity than that of William Wordsworth and Lord Tennyson, where the achievements of Ramanujam and Aryabhatta are celebrated as much as those of Einstein and Newton..."
There are two problems with this school of thought. First, as a Tamilian, I see no reason why I should gain disproportionate exposure to the poetry of Dinkar and Bachchan. I would rather read the poetry of Bharathi, Bharathidasan and Amarar Kalki. Since there are obvious limits on the time and effort that I am willing to make on learning languages, I would much rather learn English than Hindi as a second language I'd want to be proficient in.
Knowledge and mastery of English is critical to opening the doors to world of commerce and science. Hindi, on the other hand, offers me nothing on a comparable scale. I would, therefore, much rather read Tamil and English poetry (since my investment in both languages will allows me to do so) than the works of Dinkar and Bachchan (excellent as those works, definitely are).
Similarly, a Malayali would prefer learning Malayalam and English as a Bengali would Bengali and English.
Secondly, it is wrong to celebrate the achievements of Aryabhatta on par with those of Einstein and Newton. As any non-doctrinaire physicist would tell you, Einstein and Newton were far, far greater scientists than Aryabhatta was. And that Euclid and Archimedes tower above Bhaskaracharya.
Science should not be treated as a captive of nationalistic doctrine. Let us instead celebrate Newton, Einstein, Ramanujam and Euclid as the collective inheritance of all of mankind, instead of teaching children untruths at the altar of nationalism. There is much that Indians can be proud of which has been achieved by Indians, but surely, there is no need to make Indian children learn highly flawed science and history.
By the way, as a student of the Kendriya Vidyalaya system, I was taught the works of Dinkar and Bachchan and have learned to appreciate them. I also realised that the choice of what poetry to read is best left to the individual and not be mandated by the state. Dinakar as much as Shakespeare, Thiruvalluvar and Dante is part of our collective heritage and not owned by any nation.
Ravi Aron
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 15:40:00 PDT
Dear Shalabh,
You are right on target. Without a strong sense of pride, we will not be respected in this world. Without respect, whatever little pride we have left, gets eroded. It's all downhill from there.
I have keenly observed the American people. They may be people who have come from different parts of the world but they are one proud group of people. Pride gives them the determination to be the very best.
Unfortunately, Indians have no sense of pride. Indians respect white-skinned foreigners but denigrate their own people. Perhaps, this is because foreigners ruled Indians for a 1000 years. Whatever the reason, we do need to revamp our education system in a way that will help the future generations to be proud of themselves, their culture, and their country. You definitely have my 100 per cent support on this.
Krisnananda
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 13:54:30 -0700
I guess this is a very dangerous situation for the country. People who just wanted to show that they are broad-minded are wildly supporting Sonia Gandhi.
There are enough reasons to suspect her actions, which clearly were displayed during the time of the confidence motion.
What I really want to mention here is the role of the media. Ignoring the very danger the country might face, the media chooses to debate on issues like who to choose from -- Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka -- or if what Pawar has done is wrong. Yes, they are reporting news, but there is a responsibility they have to
each one of us.
I had somebody call me a fanatic for what I wrote elsewhere regarding Pawar's stance. India would be in a vulnerable situation if she becomes our PM. Why should a country take that risk? Is this what you want to give pass on to your next generation?
Sunil Krishnan
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 13:55:06 -0400
It's a very well-written article and he has echoed my thoughts on the English language, our so-called elite, our education system, and the origins of the complexes most us Indians suffer from. I also consider myself a victim of this system to a large extent and have fought all along to get rid of prejudices.
What is it that we should do to change the situation? Voluntary service in our towns, villages, schools and other places? Maybe, some of us should quit our careers for a year or so and plunge into some kind of voluntary service in order to resurrect our nation and the psyche of our people.
I hope more and more of our countrymen think in favour of our nation's interest.
Nagendra Beladakere
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 14:01:49 -0400
Excellent feature. We should hear more from Mr Kumar. Yet it is not merely the missionary schools which indoctrinate our children. After all they teach us, in general, what they are asked to teach us. The real problem lies with the Hindu slave mentality, epitomised by the likes of Nehru and other alienated leftist Hindus who see very little if any merit in their own heritage and become intellectual, linguistic and cultural apes of the white man.
Vivekananda set out to destroy this very mentality a century ago. Yet so deeply has this poison seeped into the Hindu mind that it will take far more than just one Vivekananda or one century to liberate the Hindu from this yoke. I am counting even the Christians here, for they too are alienated Hindus, only they are alienated in the most fundamental way possible, religiously and spiritually.
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 11:09:02 -0700
Dear Mr Kumar,
Perhaps you were educated outside India during your school years. But we who went through the post-independence education system were in fact the first generation who did read Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, not to mention Premchand, Mirabai and Kabir's poetry quite routinely as part of our Hindi syllabus.
In fact, it was precisely because of the Nehruvian education reforms that this literature was put
into our textbooks at all. And besides let's remember that all these people created their literature by being avid readers of foreign literature and prose. True genius doesn't need to hide insecurely behind shrill xenophobia. Only mediocre hacks do.
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 10:07:47 PDT
Congratulations, Shalabh Kumar for your enlightening column, "Sonia and Macaulay's children". I fully appreciate your sentiments, as I too am a product of the Macaulayian system. Very few persons who have undergone this process will get to think right. The majority of them have their views completely distorted. As you have mentioned, Macaulay must be grinning in his grave.
The sooner this system is done away, the better.
Bandy
Date Sent: Wed, 19 May 1999 20:37:21 -0700
Hi,
I think Shalabh hits the nail right on the head, and with a very heavy hammer at that.
The arguments people have to justify Sonia Gandhi's eligibility for PM are amazing. Even though the Constitution doesn't debar people other than "natural born citizens" from the post in letter, in spirit it does.
The reason, though it is never stated explicitly, is simply that it was unthinkable that any such person could vie for the post. Another possible reason could be that Sir Ambedkar just copied the British constitution, which of course doesn't debar that either.
Yes the colonial legacy lives on. The easiest way to enslave someone is to indoctrinate them right from childhood. If you don't even know that you're a slave, how can you ever be free.
Rajinder Singh
Date Sent: Thu, 20 May 1999 10:54:23 -0400
It is good that somebody brought me face to face with my dual loyalties. It is not every day that we delve into our past and see where and how all our beliefs took shape. Having studied in a missionary school most of my life I have come to believe that everything English is superior.
The education, no doubt, was the best but it was also biased. Though I often find myself getting passionate about our heritage as Indians, the question that keeps popping up is: What has the present day India given me to be proud of? The thought steers me again to my acquired bias towards the West.
Giving the matter a little more thought I can come up with umpteen achievements and breakthroughs of modern India. The only reason why this takes some effort is, I guess, because such things are not talked about, the media and the 'intelligentsia' also being populated by 'Macaulay`s children' like me.
I am a descendent of the Nehru legacy, believing the only way to move ahead is to follow the West. Since the Sonia issue is so closely related to this issue, I can't help but mention it.
I must confess here that to me it was completely rational not to go by a person's birth and nationality. I was comfortable with the idea of Sonia becoming Congress president, and was not averse to the idea of her being PM one day.
That was till the day she started fooling around, doing a volte face on Bihar. But it was not till I got reasons to question her loyalty, that I tried to analyse her. She is someone we know as a wife, a daughter-in-law, a mother of some famous names. But what is she like in person? What do we know about her?
We don't even know how she thinks, what her views are on vital issues? I would not have given the liberty I gave her to anyone else. But why should it be so. Because she is a woman? Well, that may be true, but also because her skin is white. Meaning that anything foreign has to be better than a local product.
There are other pertinent reasons why I have decided she does not get my vote, but that is irrelevant here. Me and many others like me who call ourselves 'Indians' have no problems in saying that Sonia, born in Italy, is better than a someone born in India. That's because we, the more privileged, have grown up with the idea that whatever is produced in the west is better than that which is made in India.
So it is true after all that'Angrez chale gaye angreziyat chor gaye'. We are still slaves of the same lot. If we were true Indians issues like this would "hit at the core pride" of our collective being.
Nitu Kashyap
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