GHANDHI was mahatma, but was also derided as "that Bania".NO one dared cal Nehru names, but that didn't stop people from gossiping insultingly about his alleged liaison with Edwina Mountbatten, even suggesting that he agreed to Partition under her influence.
The Congress syndicate called Indira Gandhi "Goongi Gudia," and believing too much the truth of their own insulting reference let her become prime minister, a foolishness born out of prejudice that they came to regret.India can be called a lot of names - Land of the most of illiterates , land of the most number of the world's poorest, and more charitably, the world's most populous democracy, land of the most varied cuisine, languages, attires and cultures, and many more - but no one can accuse us of being a " politically correct " nation.
In fact , if anything, we must be called the " Land of insults ". Just think about it .In Mera Mahaan Bharat , each one of us have multiple identities,and each identity can be readily and is regurarly turned in to an Insult.
The North India insults the South India and disturbs the East Indians., come down South, and you will find the Tamil discriminates against the Malayali and the Malayali discriminates against Kannadiga and vice versa.Zoom down into , say, Karnataka , and you will find the Mysore Kannadiga smearing the Mangaloreanand that of Uttara kannada making light of the Bengalurean .Then there's the religious divide - the Hindus can't tolerate the Muslims and Cristians and vice versa.Within the Hindus the self-appointed upper castes cannot stand the denigrated lower castes.
Within the upper castes ,theBrahmins insult the Vokkaligas and the Lingayats and vice verse.Within the lower castes - usually denoting a community profession handed down from father to son over generations - each castes shouts insults at another.
And all these divisions, intolerance, and the insultant discrimination and nepotism are over layered by the Ultimately, we are a nation where each of us proudly believes in the " Freedom to insult" to all others.And we perform it every day of our lives, insulting bus drivers, auto drivers, policemen, etc.and in tern are insulted by them . No less than a former prime minister calls the elected Chief Minister of a state "b******** " on television . In 60 years, this is how far we, the people, have come.
Therefore, we never felt Insulted, at least not enough to work up the kind of rage we do daily on the roads, when the world referred to our "Hindu rate of growth," or foreign companies came here and said they would make cars for " Indian road conditions," or when Pakistan - inspired terror has continued on for over 20 years. Nor when Australian officials regularly point out that although dozens of Indians have been attacked, some even killed in their country, Indians are still more secure Down Under rather in India itself.
Sorry sir, we are too busy exercising our Freedom to insult, and be insulted, in our country to notice.
deccan cronicles....
on 26th, jan,2010
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