THE INDIAN CLOWN IN THE AMERICAN CIRCUS

THE INDIAN CLOWN IN THE AMERICAN CIRCUS

Chaste pronunciation of English is becoming increasingly a thing of the past. Having to hear 'said' as 'sad', 'Olympic' as 'Olumpic/Olampic', 'best' as 'bast', 'against' as 'aganst' (as in 'bad'), 'sovereignty' as 'sovreignity', 'publicly' as 'publically' and 'corruption' as 'curruption', to cite but a few instances, is hard, especially when it comes from newsreaders and moderators of television news channels and sports channels. Lewd mannerism is another bother. 

A Vedanta preacher who is now located in USA changes over from his long-associated Indian accent to a horrendous version of American accent within months, managing only to quickly alter utterance of 'pāst' as 'past', 'lāst' as 'last', 'fāst' as 'fast', 'bāth' as 'bath', 'pāth' as 'path' (as in 'bad', 'dad', 'glad'). Such shallowness of alien absorption, such superficiality in impefect imitation suits the Indian of the day like none other. 

Earlier it was 'bathroom'. It became 'loo' in the intermediary phase. Now it is 'washroom'. 'Anyway' had suddenly for a decade become 'anyways', then switched back to its own nest as 'anyway'. 'Global player', 'the India story' etc.---all these and so much more of everyday import from the West is irritating as they are instances in poor imitation of whatever pedestrian comes into being in the West. 'Guy' instead of 'person', 'dude' instead of whatever, are of constant cancellation of classical words that was the embellishment of the English language. This base imitation becomes a shallow nation that has lost its roots and was warned against by Swami Vivekananda in what has come to bear the title 'Svadesh Mantra'. But who cares about him? Who would listen to him when there is big American 'bro' (for 'brother') to better heed to? We have to live our 'dreams' after all---using 'dream' typically in the American usage of it as in 'the American dream'. 

How much more need be stated to drive home the point that we as a nation have lost our mooring, casting anchor in alien culture of crass commonality, and need to relocate ourselves in a semblance of classical continuity. Language, it may be argued, is like a meandering river and needs must change with the tide of times, but it may equally be posited that parody is not poetry nor is imitation in course-correction meandering of the linguistic river. 

'Pitaji', 'mataji' have universally in Northern India---at least to all visible intent on television---become 'Mummy', 'Papa' as parents close in cosily to crass commercial Hindi movie culture to set up a new tradition of indigenous cultural amnesia and alien cultural absorption of a despicable kind. 

Loudness of speech, lack of musical harmony in dialogue, discourse, discussion  and debate on open platform, intellectual shallowness, hype and hoopla over trifles, stupidity of billionaires that blazons as advertised time-torture, nocturnal news-nuisance that are video representations of raucous rogues hooting in the open market of licentious life that comes in the wake of a newly-found footing in the world of capital, Parliament becoming a place of roguish disruption of proceedings where the nation's life-breath is being held 'in captive bonds'---all these are national characteristics today that daily put to shame our ancestors of seminal attainments and brightest hopes which they reposed in their would-be descendants. 

We have failed ourselves in attempting to become what we may never be---the western variation of the Indian breed, what Macaulay had so successfully implanted in the heart of India to our eternal shame. In our imperfect imitation of the West lies the perfected success of Macaulay's ploy and our perfected failure to be perfect in anything. It is time to return to national roots and rediscover ourselves.

Written by Sugata Bose