Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Truth that hurts

After almost incessantly perusing various blogs, news web-sites, and transcripts of TV channels and shows, I have come to a conclusion. As bitter and divisive it may be, it is the only conclusion any logical and rational person can arrive at. The pseudo-secular bourgeois media has a deep-rooted hatred and resentment towards the Marathi population. I would like to present an analytical argument to support my claim. Here goes.

Firstly, Delhi has always been the seat of power in India. The Hindi belt has always chosen India's prime minister, and the most important portfolios have largely been handled by ministers chosen in U.P. or Bihar. Only lately when getting a clear majority has becoming difficult that the sudden mushrooming of regional parties has cast certain regional parties into the national mix. But, still, it is the Hindi-speaking populace that has the significant say in choosing elected representatives for India. What do these politicians make as their bread and butter? The poorer, exploited masses in the cow belt. Based on caste-ist or class-ist fissures, they relentlessly play dirty politics to get elected. It is to their advantage to keep the common man in states like Bihar and U.P. impoverished. So what do these poor people do? They have no choice but to emigrate to other states. Yet again, these dirty minds see an opportunity to spread their tentacles into other states, other regions. By concentrating voters into regions, slums and underdeveloped parts of urban centres, they get a nice vote-bank. Getting their party member elected from such a vote-bank in a prosperous urban centre translates into big-time cash. By giving the deceptive appearance of acting in this vote-bank's interests, they ensure that that particular section continues to be a loyal support for their ambitions. Any blind man could see this vicious circle repeat itself ad nauseam, till the poor are reduced to mere cattle to be traded and exploited by inciting whatever passions they cling to in their misery. Statistics and history will show that the poorest communities are almost always the most desperate, leading to high crime rate, lower safety standards, and an overall decrease in the standard of living. How does this affect the local residents of an urban centre into which such sub-communities are formed? They see that the influx of immigrants threatens their very community fabric. Crimes start occurring where there were none. Cartels of special interest groups are formed. Culture, infrastructure, cleanliness, orderliness - everything starts showing signs of strain.

If you tell me that the national media and the local English and Hindi media in Mumbai do not understand this, comprehend this, then I would call them utterly stupid and devoid of any shred of intelligence. I do not think that's true. Media is usually too cunning to be this stupid. Then wherefore comes the continued apathy towards the genuine grievances of existing residents in the media? How is it that a prestigious publication like the Times of India (it's online presence is little more than a tabloid, but still, it is a big name), allow articles that make statements like Rahul Raj was an avenging angel of Patna. How is it that inflammatory statements from Bihari leaders like Lalu and other Bhojpuri leaders get national limelight? How is that MLAs that say "Hey, I will give 1 crore to kill Raj Thackeray" - get dubbed as heroes? How is it possible that the media continually tries to rub into the local residents that in Mumbai, the capital of the Marathi state of Maharashtra, Maharashtrians should continue to be second-class citizens?

How can Bihari leaders that claim that they will stop using Maharashtrian products like onions, Bollywood products involving Maharashtrians, etc., get portrayed in adulatory tones? Why is an agitation against an unreasonble influx of immigrants get morphed into a "why India is being balkanised" argument? It is YOU - the national media that is accelerating the Balkanisation of the Indian community by continuing your senseless assault against the local residents. Why does a police action against a bus-hijacker known to have attacked passengers require a judicial probe, simply because the hijacker was from Bihar? Where does this senseless propagation of Hindi hegemony stop?

I cannot find the answers to any of these questions in the role that mass media, a vast majority of the citizens of India, and politicians continue to adopt. There is only one explanation that really makes sense. There is a deep-rooted hatred against the Marathi community, since we have Mumbai, a truely great city as our state capital. People have still not forgiven us for claiming Mumbai from the ridiculous Mumbai presidency. People like Suketu Mehta have termed Samyukta Marathi Andolan as a revenge of the ghatis. It is this very alienation of the Marathi community that is being consciously achieved by the actions of the media and the politicians. You have now exposed that which we already suspected. You like to think of a Marathi person as a Ghati, a threat to your Hindi hegemony. The same as you would think of a Tamil person. Why? Because we are proud of our own cultures and heritage? Because we don't turn into cattle ripe for being converted into yet another loyal subject of the Hindi imperialism?

Shed that sheep's clothing, we can count your wolverine teeth from a mile away.

5 comments:

  1. hi there,

    i've been following your blog for some time now (congrats on the new look).

    couple of suggestions ...
    1. embed links to articles that you use for reference (you mostly do that but this post didn't).

    2. also, how familiar are you with the samyukta maharashtra movement? the wikipedia entry is a good summary, but you'll find this link particularly interesting.

    http://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/langMove/samyukta.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your suggestions! Mi nakkich te sarva karin. Mala Samyukta Maharashtra chalwalibaddal sadharan mahiti aahe, pan ajun vachayla jaroor avdel. Link forward kelyabaddal dhanyavaad!

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  3. Hi! Abhinandan aani dhanyavaad aapla aawaz uthavlyabaddal. Tula kadaachit hee link baghaayla aavdel : http://musicandnoise.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-defence-of-marathi.html

    Jai Maharashtra!

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  4. Indian vernacular media is generally so gross that you can best avoid it. And vernacular includes hindi and many other regional languages. Media hypes everything and many a times also mis-report. But to say that Hindi media is anti-marathi is spinning conspiracy theories.

    In fact when I read your posts and your grouse against north indians, they sound very similar to what a kashmiri bloggers write about Indians, or a muslim blogger writes about hindu india, or what a dalit bloggers would write about rest of India . You are suffering from what is called a persecution complex and in your case it is imaginary to me. In this has happended before when Shiv sena had targeted South Indians in Mumbai.

    Before MNS pitched up thier protest against outsiders and spread the hate compaign, nobody in Mumbai use to bother about other's identities, now suddenly everyone wants to know wheather you are wagle or sharma. That is the poison injected into Mumbai. And for this to happen in most cosmopolitan city of India, it is secriligious , an attack on Idea of India itself.

    You say "Statistics and history will show that the poorest communities are almost always the most desperate, leading to high crime rate, lower safety standards, and an overall decrease in the standard of living. How does this affect the local residents of an urban centre into which such sub-communities are formed"

    Lets assume you are right, so do you mean to say that poors should be driven out of cities and towns and a country!! Is that what a modern civilisation should do?? Is that your solution? If so, then , a man richer than you (and I am sue there would be many thousands in Mumbai) can tomorrow ask for you to be driven out. Also Poor in Mumbai are not only migrants from Bihar/UP but more so from hinterland of Maharashtra.

    You say that "I cannot find the answers to any of these questions in the role that mass media, a vast majority of the citizens of India, and politicians continue to adopt"

    You said "vast majority of India". So if vast majority of India which includes north indians and before them, south indians, are conspiring against you what could be the reason?

    And then you seem to give an answer yourself which is as incredulous as the question itself a, so you say "There is a deep-rooted hatred against the Marathi community, since we have Mumbai, a truely great city as our state capital..."

    Yes, Mumbai is a great city . And Mumbai was made a great city by many, gujratis, par.sis, punjabis, muslims, marathis and south indians. And before them, it was British who gave it a certain character which you still see in some of best instituions and landmarks in Mumbai. So Mumbai doesnt belong to marathis alone and by changing name of prince of Wales museum to Chtrapati shivjai museum means nothing. By renaming all airports and train stations to Chatrapati terminus also proves nothing. It only means denying of a history and converting a great leader like Shivaji into provincial god. When people from all across India come to Mumbai, they dont come think that they are coming to Maharashtra but to Mumbai. Mumbai in indian's mind and consiousness stands on its own as an entity.

    Mumbai is not Solapur or Kohlapur where we must and should have a marathi flavour and predominant marathi culture, but Mumbai is a wannabe international city which should have a culture of its own. If we indians were pragmatic people, we should have realised it that Mumbia, Bnaglore Delhi and few other cities should be made into autonomus units. IN fact we need 50 such cities which should belong to India and not to any particular state.

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  5. I wish to respond to some of the comments here, but am extremely starved for any writing time. Please stay tuned, I have some interesting stuff coming up.

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