राष्ट्रीयता
I don’t speak on politics. Politics is not my subject but Indianism is and I get moved by many big small things.
I liked the movie Chak De India. One of the best recently made movies on patriotism and otherwise.
In the movie when SRK asks his team members to introduce themselves, only one girl says she is from India, rest were from different states. And he selects only her. That, that was the moment. In fact there were many such.
I never introduce myself as a Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, UPite or Tamilian etc. Unless asked for, I don’t mention my religion; I don’t even publicize my surname because it does not matter to me. For me, humanism is MY religion. But I know my caste/religion matters to others.
I always say I am an Indian, currently in Mumbai. Yes, currently.. because I don’t yet know what would be my final destination. To me, whole of
Tomorrow if I continue to stay here, my child will be educated in
We had guests at home and today they were supposed to leave for station at 8 PM but following Mumbai police’s announcement of filing a FIR against a political leader and a tense situation, they had to leave a few hours early. On the road they saw more police vans than taxis.
This week on two days my Maharashtrian maid did not turn up for work. Reason ? There were small sporadic incidents of violence on the roads and the shops were closed. See, even Maharashtrians are not safe. And not only Mumbai, this nonsense scare is affecting other towns like Pune, Nashik also.
Cinema halls, houses, offices, cabbies, autoricksha drivers, vegetable vendors, even the students are made targets. Why oh why ? What wrong have they done ? Can you put your child in that position when he goes to another place for studies and gets thrashed ?
Oh so called supporter of cause of Maharashtra, you also questioned Amitabh Bachchan’s move to construct a girls school in Uttar Pradesh named after his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai. Oh, so you thought you have the right over individual’s money and mind as well ?
Mind you, he owns the money and he is free to spend as he wills.
Now let me ask you. What have YOU done for
Don’t blame others for your incapability.
Why do you think non-Marathis should go out of
It is something similar to what we Indians are doing abroad.
Do you have any idea what impact your insane statement will make eventually ? Have you forgotten Godhra or Babri Masjid ? Do you ever realize what will happen if other states also follow the same suit ? Are you not on the path of creating many countries within
Cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi etc. were not made in a day. They were developed as centers of different trades as they had some favorable conditions. The effort of generations has gone into the development. And now all of a sudden Mumbai becomes a Maharashtrian property ? Seriously, don’t you have any other work ?
Can you afford to ask all the Ambanis, Bachachans, Tatas, Birlas, Godrejs to get out of Mumbai ? They are non-Marathis as well.
NO.
Because you know without them your Mumbai will be as crippled as you are right now. You have an inferiority complex and at present your will to power and dominate is not being fulfilled.
I always admired Mumbai for its diversity and social activities and this was one of the reasons I charted it on top of Indian cities. Today if it stands with strength, it is because it was never a typical Maharashtrian place.
Please don’t try to malign Mumbai’s image over this issue.
JAI HIND
Current song-Kaisi Tanhai Hai, Kaisi Rut Aayi Hai – Lucky Ali
Technorati Tags:India Mumbai Issues
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Anonymous said,
February 12, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
I absolutely agree with you. These politicians misguide the public with their meethi meethi baten and go to the top.
He shud be behind the bars now.
peter said,
February 12, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
Here, I have no comments to make for the moment, except that I continue to learn about your country … and that I will be back to read all the comments that I expect will follow on this post!
Ask the Ambanis, Bachachans, Tatas, Birlas, Godrejs to get out of Mumbai at Blogbharti said,
February 12, 2008 @ 3:30 pm
[...] Cuckoo has some questions for Raj Thackeray: Do you have any idea what impact your insane statement will make eventually ? Have you forgotten Godhra or Babri Masjid ? Do you ever realize what will happen if other states also follow the same suit ? Are you not on the path of creating many countries within India? Cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi etc. were not made in a day. They were developed as centers of different trades as they had some favorable conditions. The effort of generations has gone into the development. And now all of a sudden Mumbai becomes a Maharashtrian property ? Seriously, don’t you have any other work ? Can you afford to ask all the Ambanis, Bachachans, Tatas, Birlas, Godrejs to get out of Mumbai ? They are non-Marathis as well. NO. [...]
globalvoicesonline-India:Regional Identities said,
February 12, 2008 @ 7:29 pm
Amey said,
February 12, 2008 @ 10:51 pm
I am Marathi, and I am proud enough of the fact to mention it often. But then, I don’t think we should stop “other” people from coming into Maharashtra and so on (Incidentally, one of my friends faced a similar abuse in a considered-touristy town in Karnataka).
I don’t think any of the people coming out on the road for protests there deserve any response. For one thing, if they are out there, chances are they are not going to listen to any logic. For another, they are not going to go through blogs like ours. I guess they (at least the leaders) also know about Godhra and Babri Masjid as their once-partner BJP was somehow connected to both.
At most we can hope for is to change the minds of people who are the silent backers of the “movement”. Those middle-class people who really are affected by all this are gullible enough to be persuaded by regionalism, and more prone to support it if backed by violence/incentives (Case in point: Germany in WW-II). But then, they are also more open to logical argument.
Ajeya Rao said,
February 13, 2008 @ 10:45 am
I totally agree to your thoughts…
My direction of viewing this has been slightly different. I prefer to analyze the root cause. In USA, the same happens, people move from one state to another and they live there as Americans…..But here in India we move to different places and live as Kannadiga, or Marati or north Indian, south Indian….Well the reason i find is the difference in Langauge and culture…India before British has never been a united country by itself….it was ruled by different kings from different cultural background….Hence this disparity…But for todays world, this will not work…and there are a set of people who can not understand that….Probably this is the reason we still have to make movies like Chak De and Baghat singh or any other….We still are insecure about being Patriots.
PM said,
February 13, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
I think, the government should employ military forces to ensure peace and none of the incidents should be reported in any newspapers or channels. With instigation, he is creating more eyeballs and trying to incite fear, and he uses media as the form of creating heroes out of no-good dumb asses like himself.
leziblogger said,
February 13, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
Agreed, Cuckoo!I think you have echoed the sentiments of the vast majority in this post.
peter said,
February 13, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
As promised, I follow the discussion… so far as a neutral Swede!
hpy said,
February 13, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
I don’t know so much about what happens but what you say makes sense (but I’m not a neutral Swede like Peter)
Out of Many, One | DesiPundit said,
February 13, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
[...] rightfully asks if Ambanis, Bachachans, Tatas, Birlas, Godrejs will also be asked to get out of Mumbai since they too are non-Marathis [via]. I wonder how a city of 15 million often can be [...]
Out of Many, One | DesiPundit said,
February 13, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
[...] rightfully asks if Ambanis, Bachachans, Tatas, Birlas, Godrejs will also be asked to get out of Mumbai since they too are non-Marathis [via]. I wonder how a city of 15 million often can be [...]
SiD.. said,
February 14, 2008 @ 12:58 am
yeh sab bakwaas to chalti rahegi umar bhar… you can be either lucky, not getting directly affected by it.. or get unlucky by getting hit…
Each and every damn person knows that this is simple politics.. bad politics..
Jam said,
February 14, 2008 @ 9:51 am
The biggest issue that India has today which indirectly causes all these other issues is the lack of primary education. Primary education brings with it the ability to think with a little common sense and the ability for a person to think of making a decent living without having to resort to petty crimes like stone pelting, and becoming cronies of politicians.
Educate every person in the country till Class 10 (not with the current system where cramming is given paramount importance, but with a system which will teach him skills to survive in the real world outside), and that in itself will ensure that there aren’t enough jobless guys around who will fall for rhetoric like the MNS cronies have right now.
That will also ensure that jackasses and dipshits don’t get to influence people the way they do right now.
Celine said,
February 15, 2008 @ 8:01 pm
I’m sure you have echoed the feelings of many Indians with this post, mine included. Thank you for voicing out boldly.
Cuckoo said,
February 16, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
Thank you all… I normally avoid politics but this one just had to come. In fact I can write some more on the consequences of the whole affair. Time (lack of it) is helping me to refrain.
Popular Weekly Links: Feb.10 - Feb.16 | DesiPundit said,
February 17, 2008 @ 10:00 pm
[...] on the issue of asking North Indians to move out of Mumbai, Cuckoo wonders if Raj Thackeray also includes Ambanis, Birlas, and the Bachchans who have brought tremendous economic growth to Mumbai [...]
Raghu said,
February 25, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
Totally Agree……
Cheap politics played to win support i guess…….
Vijay said,
February 28, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
Hey.. you moved… anyway updated my reader…
Alok Meshram said,
April 6, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
I agree totally with the write up.
But there is an issue here. See, I’m not backing any views or something. A true Maharashtrian will never bring regionalism into picture, that’s the reason why this “revolution” isn’t gaining any serious following.
What I want to say is, look at the enormous amounts of people who migrate to Mumbai to find work, but end up in slums like Dharavi. Is it not something to be worried about?
Shouldn’t the reality about Mumbai be quite apparent so that there are less broken hopes?
Shouldn’t development reach other areas so that people aren’t forced to move here? Isn’t that the better way out?
I know that it isn’t right to stop people from moving in here. But I’d like to see people working towards the development of their own areas for a change. I’d like to see people not looking for easier ways for earning money. I’d like people to stop blaming the Govt. for everything, because a democracy will always reflect it’s people’s attitude.
Maybe I’ve strayed from the topic. But this is a core issue, whatever it is being made of by Politicians.