Parochial terrorism

A healthy debate can and does churn up interesting aspects of life and its complex problems. In the context of the debate going on regarding north Indians vis-à-vis Marathi manoos what has come to the fore is that Indians have to pass through the linguistic shibboleth if they have to cross into Mumbai or into the north east, particularly Assam.

In the Bible the word shibboleth means 'ear of corn'. The Jews had difficulty in pronouncing the word and thus they were identified and persecuted. So etymologically the word has a context of terrorizing a whole community.

In our national context ostracizing is still the functional use of the shibboleth. In the ancient time it was used as a tool to determine the nationals of Judaism. Our society is passing through national and intra-national aspects of this phenomenon. However, terror is the heart of the matter.

Shiv Sena and MNS use the word manoos for men as a composite noun with 'Marathi'. This gives them a kind of sense of identifying with the land of birth. This is rather supra-logical as a section of people in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Barkatpura (Hyderabad), Vadodra (Gujarat) also speak Marathi. The Thackeray family should know it well. For, by anglicizing their name they are nowhere near the sophistication of the English novelist born in Bengal, William Makepeace Thackeray. Nor have they shed crudity which migrating back and forth between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh should have brought about. It has also failed to instill the kind of national ethos of being together which is essential for the integrity of the nation. Using patriotism for the cricket pitch and playing it for an exclusivist sub linguistic culture smacks of what Dr Samuel Johnson so famously said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The culture of taking on the different language groups from time to time--Tamils at one time, North Indians now--is fraught with danger. It also flies in the face of the other dominant ideology of 'cultural nationalism' of which Rajnath Singh and his saffron groups are so proud of.

BJP and RSS have had a divisive look at the migrants' issue. In Assam they vociferously cry foul at the Bengali speaking migrants as Bangladeshi even if all the Bengali speaking people are not Bangladeshi. Many of the migrants are Indian Muslims of Bengali origin. The saffron groups do not say anything about the Tamil speaking migrants who are displaced in Sri Lanka and sneak into India as refugees. For them the shibboleth is the litmus test of faith of the migrants. Not language but religion is the main component of 'cultural nationalism'.

This is even more ominously brought out in the present controversy when Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav mouth the bravado of saving Hindi speakers (read, Hindus but not bhayas) in the communal riots of 1992. Similarly, the 'Italian mummy' who is so 'Indianised' not only in dress and language and dot on forehead but also eating arhar ki dal and having married an Indian cannot have a right to say that Mumbai belongs to her.

In a way the innuendos used by Thackeray senior often border on sexual prowess or macho self delusion. Much like the kechdi eating Gujarati whom Babu Bajrangi wanted to show their virility by raping and murdering Muslim girls and women. Thackeray says that since Rahul Gandhi cannot grow physically, he has grown horns and wisdom tooth. This is washing Rahul's dirty linen in the public by making out the youthful leader as a cuckold. Who is frustrated by what is difficult to say.

But what is not so difficult to know is that this violation of modesty is sheer terror. It is an outrage as terror is an outrage. What the FBI lady interrogator did to Fahim Ansari, accused in 26/11, is the nearest in comparison. Did she do to Ansari what the prostitute in Catcher in the Rye of late JD Salinger do to Holden Caulfield, jab at his crotch in frustration?

The Marathi manoos would truly enjoy this boisterous jab as pure fun. But if the hordes of Saniks lunge at Bihari students and UP migrant workers in railway station, examination centres or work places it would be pure terror. The cops who shot dead the Bihari youth wielding a gun in the Mumbai bus few months back made no mistake in going for their kill. Hope, the volunteers in khaki chaddi and holding lathis would not hear clarion call from Ram Madhav.

Fortunately, in the present scenario the opponents are only sparring for the time being.