Multiculturalism and Runaiyat

I wanted to address the issue of multiculturalism and spiritualism in the Indian context in today's blog, even before I received this e-mail from a friend of mine, Sunitha. This is her account of a musical concert she went to in Chennai, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, 2500km from Delhi where I live. But the thoughts are the same.

Runaiyat - One Evening of Splendour. By Sunitha Rangaswami

"Last evening went to this beautiful concert. It was on the lawns of the Race Course, lovely pleasant night under the stars and a gentle breeze. We sat under the damask sky with the distant sparkle of stars carried away by the divine music of small village sufis celebrating eternal love of the beloved."

"A 70 year old cobbler from a remote village in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) clad in a simple white dhoti & kurta and a white turban, with soda bottle glasses singing Kabeer's Lohri accompanied by five young men in colorful turbans playing traditional instruments - one in particular kind of wooden flat claps was an amazing performer! They were preceded by the Qawals from Hyderbad singing a Meera Bhajan! How much more secular can it get! There were the drummers from Kerala and the Buddist monks from Tibet, the Chisti Qawali group from Moradabad who made me yearn tounderstand Urdu: the lyrics were specacular, and the Sufis from Punjab."

"It was a magical evening, the kind that lifts you up and at the same time makes you feel miniscule in the larger scheme of things. The programme was called Runayiat; I later asked two burqa clad women what it meant and they said it meant 'spiritual'! Made me think that this country is so rich in its diversity and all the fundamentalist groups strive for is a homogenous culture - like we were the MacDonald's of the world! And in some way i abett their endeavor, by not remembering often enough to give thanks to this diverse and rich cultural heritage and learning more about it. No my dears, I am not being nationalist or patriotic here. Just thought to myself if these rural men with simple lives could celebrate diverse faith no matter what form it takes, what of me? Instead, here I am aspiring to belong to a global village of lost souls."

Globalization steroids

India is one of the fastest globalizing countries in the world. Simply put, it is on globalization steroids. But the impression is that only a small part of the 1 billion plus people are hooked onto this bandwagon - those who are university educated, have access to the internet, speaks English. I argue that this is not the whole story.

Take education for example. After years of neglect, finally we have some good news. According to the largest independent survey carried out by Pratham, an educational NGO, 93.6 percent of children in the 6 - 14 age group is in school. But that still leaves 11 million children out of school, a number which is larger than the population of Belgium. What I saw in Tamil Nadu in south India recently gives hope that even this task will be accomplished soon. A government school in an interior village has built a new science laboratory, is hooking up to Edusat (the only satellite exclusively for education in the world), feeding a nutritious lunch to its students, and treating its teachers well. But wait, there is something else.

The kids are also learning English from 6 years of age. I had trouble talking to the taxi drivers in Chennai, but had no problem interacting with village kids. We found the common language! Often I am asked how different linguistic groups in India communicate with each other, since we do not understand the other's language. True, but that also gives us the ability to pick up another language more easily than others, and therefore globalize faster. Every person in India now knows that without English ability, they cannot be part of this process. That also makes the job of a Bengali travelling in south India a bit easier! So is globalization helping unify India also? Seems to be so.

Finally, connectivity. The call rates are falling faster than any other country in the world. What it does is to bring the neighborhood grocer and the distant relative in the same ambit. Personal and business relations are getting transformed. If news reports are to be believed, internet connection through terrestrial lines will be ancient in about two years time. In a remote village in India, the kids will connect to the Net from their school PCs using a mobile phone, at broadband speed. Remember, they already know english.

India has been at the centre of globalization processes throughout history, and has not always managed it well. This time it should do better.

The First Post

I do not know why I chose 11:30 am on a working day to start my blog. But since I have spent all of half an hour, let me just waste until lunchtime giving you a brief introduction about the 'Phissmarket'. It actually means 'fish' market, but it becomes 'phiss' due to certain deficiency in pronouncing the letter 'F' in the part of the world I come from (Calcutta, Kolkata, Calcuta, made famous by Mother Teresa, peace be upon her!). A fish market is also about a cacophony of voices, some selling, some buying, but taken in its entirety, it is a constant hum of activity, much like this blog thing. There are also the actual 'phiss', some fresh, some not so fresh, prawns, shrimps, carps, hilsa, bekti, tuna, sardines, crabs...you name it. Some black, some white. Some local, some imported. Some sweet water, some salt water, some from the delta of the river Ganges, where the two waters meet. Some perennial, some seasonal. Some live, some frozen. And so on.

The fish market always seemed to me to be a microcosm of our own world, or our own existence. Events far away would disrupt supplies, drive up the prices much like gasoline in the recent past. There were the regular customers, who got a good price and the correct weight, non-regulars cheated of both - like the nepotism and corruption in the wider society. You have to check the colour of the gills, to know whether the carp is fresh or not, much like news stories that seem innocent from outside, but you have to probe deeper to get its real meaning. And then there is wisdom...to know which fish has the best caviar inside, which prawns will taste great when cooked in coconut, which part of the fish will make the best fillets. That is like experience one acquires by observation, which we all have in our own ways.

That is the idea. I am a small-time economist with a social conscience, so that will be the flavour of the blog. I am also a small-time linguist, and interested in global affairs. I am a small-time traveller, so some travel stories that I would pick up from time to time. I am completely irreverant, politically and religiously, so a bit of malice will creep in for sure.

So, welcome to the 'phissmarket'. Its lunchtime, folks!