Now we have a brown man in 10 Downing Street. Indians across the world are orgasmic, to say the very least! Everybody is now noticing the sacred thread on his wrist and saying ‘wow look at that such a grounded Hindu, a man of Indian origin now governing Britain that ruled us for two centuries! He wears his religion on his wrist’
Now let’s explain what that sacred thread is for those who do not really know about it. It is called Kautuka which is a red-yellow coloured ritual protection thread, sometimes with knots, found in Hindustan. It is sometimes called mauli, raksasutra, (in Northern parts of India), kaapu, kayiru or charandu (in Southern parts). That much for the etymology.
Of course, most Hindus were excited when Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to several Hindu temples and sacred shrines in the last several years. In 2014, PM Modi began his journey by performing the Ganga Aarti on the bustling ghats of Varanasi. Headlines screamed (some in sarcasm) Cultural awakening: How PM Modi is leading the revival of temples in India. A renaissance of sorts. Some shout Hindutva! The left was rightly-in their right, right?-Up in arms.
Some Indians were nitpicking as usual when PM Modi went to several temples across the country. One goes like this in The Telegraph ‘Modi hails only one religion for protecting faith ‘during slavery’.
The same Telegraph is going gaga over Rishi Sunak meeting King Charles in Buckingham palace a few days later with his sacred thread tied to his wrist. It reports, though obliquely, “Yesterday was Diwali, that great festival of lights celebrating triumph over adversity. As PM-in-waiting, Mr Sunak doubtless will have lit his own candle, hoping to chart a way through the adversity that is surely to come. For the rest of us, the fact that Britain now has its first non-white Prime Minister is a triumph of its own, though it is perhaps how little the colour of his skin matters that is the greatest cause for celebration.”
“‘Proud Hindu’ Rishi Sunak sports sacred thread during 1st speech as UK PM | 5 times he displayed his roots- After the 2017 general elections, Sunak took his oath of allegiance as a lawmaker on the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita”, reported India Today. Voila.
Now also Angrezi Hindus need a stamp of a practising brown Hindu from White land to feel proud of being a Hindu. Yes, he is a man but are you? I am proud of Him as someone with roots in India, but not you.
No wonder PM Modi does not bother about blinkered liberal’s comments on these things.
How deep-rooted is the rot of colonization set in our mind? No wonder PM says decolonization of ‘Indian Minds’ is required. They had been brainwashed for two centuries, now some minds need to be re-washed to clean and white-washed to bring them to normalcy.
English is a bridge language between many nations today. There are around 1.5 billion people worldwide who speak English either natively or as a second language. Hindi (with 615 million) speakers and Spanish accounted for the third and fourth most widespread languages.
The mindset problem
We are incorrigible. I am aghast when Indian parents, especially Indian mothers, speak to their children only in English at home and of course outside (they have to); And Dada Dadi, Nana Nani too. A poor waiter in a restaurant is far from fluent in English and the mothers insist on speaking to him in English! They are taught good morning and not Namaste.
So White saabs are dead and gone but Brown saabs still live on.
English is still fine but many speak Hindi in English which gives you (at least me) goosebumps. It is not very uncommon to see some brown saabs and their mems saying ‘Hum Abhee Ataa hai, tum kahan jataa hai’ types.
We are so phoren impacted that we struggle in a Chinese restaurant with chopsticks but will probably not use a spoon and a fork. We eat Tandoori chicken with a fork and knife. Is this an inferiority complex- yes I think it is.
We the modern Indians say Ciao for bye (a Spanish word meaning goodbye). But hesitate in saying Namaste which is used for both greeting and goodbye.
They also say proudly that they cannot count more than three in Hindi. To an average middle-class Indian, English is sacred and is like an ‘educated hai’ tag.
We are taught table manners very proudly in every English-speaking domain. Do you know why a quarter/side plate is kept on the left of the centre/dinner plate? Let me explain. The British had continental food and they had the main dish like roast chicken or cutlets and sauce on the centre plate and bread or bread rolls on the side plate. They used a fork and knife to cut the main dish and put it in the mouth and then broke a piece of bread with the left hand and put it in the mouth. Simple. Logical too.
We do the same with Indian food too. Cut copy and paste. We have butter chicken or chicken curry on the centre plate and tandoori roti on the side plate on the left. And now the circus starts- Saab takes his right hand stretching over his centre plate to reach the roti struggling to break it and then makes a ‘girahi’ (morsel) dipping it in the butter chicken and then putting it in his mouth. The entire exercise is so clumsy and inconvenient. If it is not boneless chicken then chicken leg can be leg before wicket and slips into the coat. But we still follow it. This is the colonization of mind in action.
We must thank Indian cinema (baptized as Bollywood) that they have made Hindi a popular language not only in India but across the world. ‘Mera joota hai Japani..’ of Raj Kapoor fame is still popular in Putin’s Russia.
