Thursday, January 08, 2009
Sainiks Helped Fight Mumbai Attackers
Since Maharashtrians are being bashed in the media a lot these days, it's worth mentioning this story about how some Shiv Sena members went above and beyond civic duty during the Mumbai attacks.
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11 comments:
San, I think the title of the post is misleading. it seems from the title that the sainiks helped the attackers when in fact they helped the rescue effort. Thanks!
san,
that does not make marathi chauvinism right.
Yeah thats true San, the title is very misleading
Well, I am no Marathi but I can tell you this - it is not in India's interest when Hindi people overrun the local population there. It applies to any state for that matter.
I may sound like Raj Thackeray (no problem with that) but here is what I see as the solution - Those who migrate to other states can speak whatever language they prefer but their children growing up there should start education in Marathi in primary school. This way, Indianness, in its diverse splendour, can be preserved.
There, I fixed the title.
shankar,
then let not mumbai pretend to be a great cosmopolitan city and the financial capital of india. this is hypocrisy, plain and simple.
in any case the horrible infrastructure and expensive housing have compelled many firms to shift their corporate offices out of mumbai.
and if the marathis are such a proud people - chhatrapati shivaji et al who fought aurungzeb and defended hindu rights, then why have they elected this corrupt congress govt which has propped up the muslim underworld?
btw, migrants do anyway learn local languages. there is no need to impose anything.
Non Carborundum,
I am afraid I would not agree with you on many counts..
Cosmopolitanism does not mean, allowing yourself to be run over.. India's lingusitic diveristy and richness is its great strength.. It needs to b respected not belittled in the name of Hindi or some other language...
Bombay can remain a very cosmopolitan city by expecting people who move there for jobs to learn marathi..What's wrong with it..
as for marathis.. dont blame them for electing corrupt governments..
every state and every Hindu is guilty of supporting and giving power to people who wish nothing but harm upon them...
Both Banglore and Bombay in the name of some nebuluous idea of ('Indian version') of cosmpalitinism are losing their native culture/identity and that is plain wrong...India and Hindus even if they speak 2 dozen different languages are extremely cosmpolitan and welcoming people.. Thats who we are..Period..
and no migrants do not learn the local language naturally.. Many of them live in their own cocoons for generation..and many of them have disdain or complete contempt for the local language and that is plainly NOT acceptable..
harish,
i completely support the concept of teaching local languages in schools. in fact three languages should be taught - english, the state language, and hindi (if different from the state language).you talk of linguistic diversity - but have the baboons in-charge of developing our languages made the necessary changes in vocabulary to reflect modern times, especially modern scientific concepts? for instance, how many indian languages have words for internet, mobile phone etc?
further, i think all schools should be english medium. otherwise children will not be able to learn properly. this is just a hard fact as we have not developed our languages sufficiently.
there are several more things that come to mind as far as the matter of language is concerned, but i don't want to ramble on. just think that we cannot afford to be jingoistic with language or even state identities.
Harish, maybe the migrants have contempt because the locals themselves have comtempt for their own language. How much respect Indians have for their local language as compared to english is a naked truth staring in everyone's face. Just by bashing up some migrants you are only showing that you bunch of hooligans, whatever language you speak, are worthy of still more contempt.
The immigration into any city should be tightly controlled, and it is to ensure a good quality of life. you cant force people to speak a certain language and no one is aksing what is acceptable to you.
Nandakumaran,
Coming up with words for internet, mobile phone or software would not force anybody to use a language over english. I can give you the local indian language equivalent for Internet in half a dozen language. I will be hardpressed to find even one person who would use those words in his day to day use.
I strongly believe, knowldege of English is crucial in today's world, but it should never be at the expense of Marathi, Kannada, Tamil or which ever language u wanna pick..When people dont understand or speak their native language they are much more prone to be deracinated individuals and more prone to being brain washed by "superior" west.
Let's be clear here. nobody is being jingoistic here..Its important for India's well being to nurture and appreciate our incredible linguistic diveristy..
And for sure migrants have a role in making that happen which in many cases they fail to perform because they think its not important.. when it is..
kp11,
Nobody here is encouragaing bashing up of anybody...over some language issue..Well if locals have pride about their language, they are immediately deemed ."jingositic","conservative" etc etc..and migrants come with their own baggae of "superiority".. so of course you are asking for troble then..
I belive its upon us as Indians to learn and appreciate our lingusitic diveristy.. Ancient Indian language like Sanskrit, Tamil etc have unbelivably valuable information about who we are. Why turn our back at them in the name of a 'national language' or English or something else..We should learn to live with all of them...
People are right about English being better for education purposes, but this to me seems to be confined to science fields especially in higher education, i don't think you need english to be a lawyer, after all we have enough law treatises written in our local languages from olden times.
As for coining words, i agree but they may not have widespread use plus not every word can be coined, some borrowals are ok right now, but what really is disgusting is to see so called "educated" Indians who use english words everywhere even when speaking a local language, watch any "bollywood" or even Tamizh/Telugu movie, you will realize about 40% of the words are English, these are not even technical terms but the most common terms in any language such as mother and father ("educated" Indians use mummy and daddy instead of amma/maa and appa). There are many more examples, "clean pannu" in proper Tamizh would be "suttham pannu", friend would be nanban/maccha/kuttali.
When you have people using english words even for basic terms like mother, father, friend, salt, rice, then you know the local languages are in trouble. There is no use railing against the West when Indians themselves have no respect for their heritage or languages.
by the way i am a different harish.
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