M. Karunanidhi – and my Chennai experience
by Santanu Sengupta
I had forever been told by my friends and colleagues north of the Vindhyas, that a transfer to Chennai was the modern-day equivalent of a long vacation in Andaman’s Cellular Jail. Apparently, the localites were unfriendly and distrustful of anyone who did not speak their tongue; only spoke Tamil, even to those who didn’t know a word of it; and ate idly, sambar, curd rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with dosa being the rare delicacy, partaken of sparingly.
Thankfully, I did get an opportunity to spend close to a year and a half in Chennai. And how wrong an entitled North Indian was. The non-veg fare available in Chennai is one of the best I have had – from the lip-smackingly delicious Chettinad cuisine to the roadside restaurant serving steaming hot beef biryani, to the wonderful non-veg fare at Ponnusamy, to the exotic tapas at Zara, to my daily trips to the shacks at Adyar beach – Chennai’s non-veg won me over. And the people? Yes, they didn’t have a lot of regard for Hindi, and why would they? It is more alien to them than English is. English works like a charm, everywhere – even with auto drivers, the broken English version of it, with just the key buzzwords thrown in, in isolation – as a note of comprehension appears on the faces first, followed by a dazzling smile. I made numerous friends – warm, friendly, hospitable, genuine friends, and left the city with a heavy heart. Oh, and the dosas and the idlis were wonderful too. And, when he considers you a friend, the Tamilian does venture occasionally into Hindi territory as well.
Nowhere is the patronizing entitlement of the average North Indian more evident than in his caricature of M. Karunanidhi. To him, it is incomprehensible that an octogenarian, wheelchair-bound man in dark glasses, who doesn’t speak Hindi or even English, can be a towering leader of the Tamil heartland, for decades. There must be something wrong with these Madrassis! (And there goes one more quintessential North Indian stereotype of the South Indian – Madrassi). And, what he cannot comprehend, he ridicules, of course.
I have always found Tamil politics enthralling. Since my childhood, I have followed elections diligently, and the clean sweep by either one of the two similar sounding regional Dravidian parties (DMK and AIADMK) in TN, was a given. And Tamil Nadu stood out, in that, it was the only big Indian state where the key national parties did not matter, and almost did not exist. As I grew up, I read about the Tamil Language movement and the deep passion and love, the Tamilians had for their identity, their language, their culture, and how fiercely they defended it. As someone who comes from people who are deeply passionate about their language, it was easy to understand this sentiment and respect them for it.
No, patriotism does not mean bending over and surrendering to the hegemony and diktats of a bigoted, casteist band of hoodlums with a clear agenda – that of infecting the entire country with its monolithic language, its intolerant culture, its deep-rooted prejudices, its religious bigotry and its casteist beliefs. In a free country that is truly patriotic, each individual is equal – no matter where he comes from, which religion he follows, whichever language he speaks. Nothing can be more unpatriotic than pushing a narrow set of beliefs and practices down the throat of the entire country – this goes against the fundamental tenet of the concept of India – that of unity in diversity, that of respect for every fellow Indian.
Tamilians have led the way – in kicking the heartland bigots out, long before the rest of the country woke up to the grave danger they present – evident now in every corner of the country, every state, in the colossal amounts of money and muscle being poured into each ‘non conforming’ state to make them pliant, servile to the one true God, the one true language, the one true culture, in essentially making this colorful mosaic that is our country, a brainwashed, obedient, conforming monolith.
And Kalaignar has been at the forefront of it – the avowed atheist who valued human happiness above religious dogmas, who relentlessly fought against the hundred-headed hydra that is the caste system, who instilled the sense of Tamil pride like no other, who was instrumental in stopping Hindi hegemony in its tracks, who was responsible for the model Indian state that Tamil Nadu is presently, towering above most other Indian states in almost all human development indices.
Tamil Nadu thanks him. So does India.
Much respect, Sir.
The Madras Magazine 