Engaging the culture vultures!

We get influenced by a superior culture- It’s the law of nature. This was true for Sanskrit when Brahminism was dominant, for Parsi and Arabic when Mughals ruled India. So naturally when English is the “lingua franka” – world language- most of us aspire to have a better command over this language.

English did not teach us casteism neither they prevent us casting that off – lock stock and barrel- to make our culture superior. We decide to continue the evil practice of casteism for our own selfish interests. What else proves large number of Brhmins carrying the so-called sacred threads on their shoulders- in 21st century?

This hypocrisy, of claiming to have universal love– Basudhaiva Kutumbakam- yet being grossly intolerant towards the next door neighbor becomes all that acute when we factor the example of Gandhiji- the father of our nation- into the inaction of the vast majority of his successors. Till his late youth, being a devout Baishnava, he- Gandhiji- also wore sacred threads but when he realized what a sadistic system these threads represented, he stopped wearing such threads. Despite having such a glowing example and having accepted him as our father of nation how can Brahmins of today justify wearing sacred threads, which proudly represents casteism? All other excuses for continuing this evil practice simply do not wash, do they?

For that matter; is there anything to be proud of our culture of obscurantism represented by the blatant discrimination practiced by the priestly class of Puri with respect to granting admission into Jagannath temple?

Till 1970s Dalits were not admitted into this sacred shrine. Yet to fasten the Dalits to Jagannath cult and there by continue their economic exploitation we fashioned such stories like “Dasia Bauri” etc.! Compare and contrast the situations of today and the story depicted in Dasia Bauri and the truth would reveal itself. In the impugned story the lord accepted his coconut yet never mentioned about granting him admission or advised Pandas to invite him or his representative into the temple. And today when the Dalits have got an automatic admittance – so as to have the numbers to fight with non-Hindus- no one talks of anything wrong happening and Sri Mandira becoming “Apabitra”!

Yet just 80 years back Gandhiji did not go to the shrine when he knew about this practice. What is galling is that in case of many other important shrines Dalits were granted admittance- even if temporarily- as a token of deference to Gandhiji but in Puri he faced virulent opposition and the Pandas were in no mood to accommodate Mahatma’s humanistic concerns.

Before that incident, the humiliation of Madhu Barister’s daughter – Sailabala- is well recorded in “Desha Kala Patra” -a magnum opus by Jagannath Prasd Das ( a retired IAS officer). Her reluctant entry into this shrine after the fervent pleading by a Panda and then that having been made an issue by other pandas snow balled into a major issue and not only she- sailabala- was humiliated and subsequently rescued with the help of police, a lot of food articles were also destroyed to placate the recalcitrant Pandas.

Very recently our Rajya Sabha MP- Pyari Mohan Mohapatra -joined issues with respect to temple entry and we know how a strong cohort ridiculed him for expressing a humanitarian view that Jagannath temple should be open for all.

Now lets look at the language issue:

Its common knowledge that when a rustic western Odia addresses his father as "Bua", so called cultured people of east laugh at him and if he happens to be in Cuttack or Bhubaneswar he apes these people in order to avoid being ridiculed. Remember, he does not speak anything wrongly. It’s we who ridicule his language (koshali or a dialect of that) as Bengalis did to Odias just 150 years ago! What better example of “History repeats itself!”

In contrast the contribution of John Beams, Revenshaw - British officers- and that of many other British officers is immense in saving our beloved mother tongue- Odia. And what is this farce of creating hatred for English because some people choose to address their mother as Mummy instead of Maa? I address my mother as Maa but does that give me a right to ridicule others who do not do so?

IMHO, by sending our wards to Odia medium schools we do not automatically get a right to ridicule others who send theirs to English medium schools.

If some people are educating their children through Odia medium schools, it’s fine. If the standard of education in Odia medium schools has come down then we- the alumni of such schools- have every reason to worry. Yet, we cannot raise the standard by ridiculing English medium schools. We- who studied in Odia medium schools- have to tighten our belts and reach out to our alma maters and then do something to arrest the rot and then, and then only, we can take pride in being the products of those schools.

So, why don’t we do that and instead go for the softer alternative- of ridiculing English medium schools? I have decided to run the full course, would you?