Today is Vinayaka Chathurthi. I wish every one a great time praying to the most affable God from the Indian Pantheon.
Today was also a day when I was in the same shoes as Rajni.
After a lot of coaxing I was convinced by my mom to perform the puja on the Vinayaka clay murthi. I might be a qualified Embedded Video Engineer , but when it comes to chanting Vedic Mantras, I am as skillful as my 'Puratchi Deivam' Sam Anderson trying to dance. For the uninitiated, Vedic Mantras is as easy as Microbiology, Neuroscience and Astrophysics put together. Anyways, my parents who are quite aware of my IQ in Vedic Mantras asked me to follow my father's lead.
All was going well until I was asked to repeat a piece of mantra at the speed in which my father chanted it. To get the drift of my father's speed, just think of Eminem rapping 'Way I am' in twice the speed. Over the years I have adapted fairly enough to following his lead, but this one left me stunned and gasping for comprehension. Which is the mantra you ask? Look at 2:14 in the below video.
Now I felt what Rajni must have felt. I have promised myself to find out what this Mantra is and what it actually means. Any idea which mantra this is?
BTW, take a look at my 'Puratchi Deivam' dancing to the tunes of 'Rasathi'. Enjoy!!
Showing posts with label Tamil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tamil. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Minority Report
After a long day at the office, all I wanted was to get home and relax and watch a movie... "My Fat Greek Wedding" to be precise, but one glimpse at what was going on CNN-IBN's "Face The Nation" and I knew that I simply had to write about it.
The topic under debate on the channel was the recent protests and treatment of the ethnic Indian minority. I for one am an Indian, born a Hindu and most certainly a Tamil. So it goes without saying that I have an opinion about what is going on in Malaysia. However, I will refrain from writing my two cents about the actual happenings because in order to do so, one has to collect more data than just random news clippings in order to provide a disinterested view of the situation.
What really caught my eye during the debate was the name of the organization leading the protests... The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).
I couldn't but notice the irony in the name. Think about it... a group of ethnic Indian Tamils (at least the majority of the ethnic Indians in Malaysia are Tamils) identify themselves as Hindus. This comes at a time when a sizable chunk of their native brethren consider themselves as being a group of distinctive non-Hindus with some going to the extent of terming Hinduism as a whole being a plot to oppress Tamils. What is even more ironic is that the rise of anti-Hinduism in Tamil Nadu over the last one century pretty much coincides chronologically with the rise of Hindu identity among ethnic Indian/Tamils in Malaysia.
This jarring contradiction of people of the same origin choosing and opposing the same idea raises questions in my mind. What is the religious identity of Tamils? More importantly, what is the religious identity of any minority group?
A closer look reveals that this is something that can be determined only in the context of the situation that makes the group a minority or to be more politically incorrect, it is the majority which determines the religious identity of the minority.
There are two ways in which the religious identity of the minority gets defined.
(i) It is seen as a way to distinguish the minority from the majority.
(ii) It serves as form of rebellion against the majority.
The religious leanings of Malaysian ethnic Tamils and the converse behavior of many Tamilians here in India serves as an example of the former. In case of the Malaysian Tamils, since the line between majority and minority has already been drawn, religion is seen as a rallying point because religion indirectly represents culture which in turn indirectly represents ethnic divide.
The same theory can be applied to Indian Tamils as well, with their non-Hindu identity seen as representing something distinctly different from the North Indians.
Strong examples of religious identity being a weapon of rebellion can be seen in the slow tilt of African-Americans towards Islam as well as the mass conversions of Dalits to Buddhism.In these cases the minority-majority have had the same religious affiliations (at least in the recent past) and hence see the move away from the majority's religion as a way of asserting themselves.
You may agree with me or you may not agree with me, but you are more than welcome to leave your comments on this post. Before you do so, please remember that this is not a rant against any religion. All I have done here is provide my own observations about sociological behavior of groups of lesser numbers in a multicultural/multi ethnic society.
The topic under debate on the channel was the recent protests and treatment of the ethnic Indian minority. I for one am an Indian, born a Hindu and most certainly a Tamil. So it goes without saying that I have an opinion about what is going on in Malaysia. However, I will refrain from writing my two cents about the actual happenings because in order to do so, one has to collect more data than just random news clippings in order to provide a disinterested view of the situation.
What really caught my eye during the debate was the name of the organization leading the protests... The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).
I couldn't but notice the irony in the name. Think about it... a group of ethnic Indian Tamils (at least the majority of the ethnic Indians in Malaysia are Tamils) identify themselves as Hindus. This comes at a time when a sizable chunk of their native brethren consider themselves as being a group of distinctive non-Hindus with some going to the extent of terming Hinduism as a whole being a plot to oppress Tamils. What is even more ironic is that the rise of anti-Hinduism in Tamil Nadu over the last one century pretty much coincides chronologically with the rise of Hindu identity among ethnic Indian/Tamils in Malaysia.
This jarring contradiction of people of the same origin choosing and opposing the same idea raises questions in my mind. What is the religious identity of Tamils? More importantly, what is the religious identity of any minority group?
A closer look reveals that this is something that can be determined only in the context of the situation that makes the group a minority or to be more politically incorrect, it is the majority which determines the religious identity of the minority.
There are two ways in which the religious identity of the minority gets defined.
(i) It is seen as a way to distinguish the minority from the majority.
(ii) It serves as form of rebellion against the majority.
The religious leanings of Malaysian ethnic Tamils and the converse behavior of many Tamilians here in India serves as an example of the former. In case of the Malaysian Tamils, since the line between majority and minority has already been drawn, religion is seen as a rallying point because religion indirectly represents culture which in turn indirectly represents ethnic divide.
The same theory can be applied to Indian Tamils as well, with their non-Hindu identity seen as representing something distinctly different from the North Indians.
Strong examples of religious identity being a weapon of rebellion can be seen in the slow tilt of African-Americans towards Islam as well as the mass conversions of Dalits to Buddhism.In these cases the minority-majority have had the same religious affiliations (at least in the recent past) and hence see the move away from the majority's religion as a way of asserting themselves.
You may agree with me or you may not agree with me, but you are more than welcome to leave your comments on this post. Before you do so, please remember that this is not a rant against any religion. All I have done here is provide my own observations about sociological behavior of groups of lesser numbers in a multicultural/multi ethnic society.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Is Tamil and Tamil Culture in danger?
This is the question that is on the minds of the PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) et al who are worried about the future of oldest spoken language in the world, as well as its culture.
For those, new to Tamil Nadu politics, PMK is one of the major political parties in Tamil Nadu with strong presence in both the State Assembly as well as the Lok Sabha.
It is one thing that the beautiful language of Tamil (which is also my mother tongue) has an unbroken history of oral and written literature. Countless invasions and mixing with other races has not affected the central nerve of this language. Nevertheless, I agree with the PMK that Tamil indeed faces the danger of redundancy in a world where English is fast becoming the most dominant language. But the approach of the PMK and many others towards such a threat is far from constructive. Many feel that the only way to counter such threats is to reject their proponents. I have a contrary approach though, that the correct way to tackle the issue would be to encourage the Tamil language and instill a sense of pride for Tamil.
At first glance, it looked like PMK along with a few others was under the same impression as mine, when it launched of the Tamil Ina Maanam Meetpu Iyakkam (Tamil Ethnic Pride Retrieval Movement) . It is one thing that the PMK would not consider me to be a Tamil enough (I am a TamBrahm) to be worthy of an opinon but I support the rejunvenation of Tamil all the same. That was until I came across this article about the launch of the movement.
Dr. Ramadoss, the chief of the PMK seems to have a narrow notion of what constitutes Tamil culture. Here is a feeler...
It is one thing that the beautiful language of Tamil (which is also my mother tongue) has an unbroken history of oral and written literature. Countless invasions and mixing with other races has not affected the central nerve of this language. Nevertheless, I agree with the PMK that Tamil indeed faces the danger of redundancy in a world where English is fast becoming the most dominant language. But the approach of the PMK and many others towards such a threat is far from constructive. Many feel that the only way to counter such threats is to reject their proponents. I have a contrary approach though, that the correct way to tackle the issue would be to encourage the Tamil language and instill a sense of pride for Tamil.
At first glance, it looked like PMK along with a few others was under the same impression as mine, when it launched of the Tamil Ina Maanam Meetpu Iyakkam (Tamil Ethnic Pride Retrieval Movement) . It is one thing that the PMK would not consider me to be a Tamil enough (I am a TamBrahm) to be worthy of an opinon but I support the rejunvenation of Tamil all the same. That was until I came across this article about the launch of the movement.
Dr. Ramadoss, the chief of the PMK seems to have a narrow notion of what constitutes Tamil culture. Here is a feeler...
Party founder S. Ramadoss declared that youngsters should not be seen on
the streets after 8 p.m. "Students and youth seen roaming without a valid reason
should be taken into police custody. If they do it repeatedly, they should be
punished by the judiciary," he said
This may sound as innocuous ranting to some, but there were two other features in the article that really caught my eye. This is the first one...
Call me an alarmist, call me anti-Tamil or what you will, still I can't but compare this to these Black Shirts, despite it sounding far-fetched.
The above may be attributed to my sense of paranoia, but this following quote is what really made me write a post about this issue...
Such a blanket statement really does sound ominous. It gives the party a free hand for misuse and a moral right (as questioning a Tamil Pride movement would be blasphemy) to launch a tirade of action against those it considers as opponents to it, under the false garb of Tamil Nationalism.
I might be just overreacting here (and I truly hope so too), but something does not seem right about this. I sincerely hope that people see that preserving Tamil culture is not about expelling whom they consider "undesirables" but is about making sure that all the good values of Tamil Culture are passed on for generations to come and by actively encouraging the Tamil language and arts so that the uniqueness and richness of this land is savored not just by Tamils but by the entire globe.
The movement's (Tamil Ethnic Pride Retrieval) 300 trained volunteers, called the
Army of Black Shirts, will fan out to different districts and address the
'social problems' concerning youth and women.
Call me an alarmist, call me anti-Tamil or what you will, still I can't but compare this to these Black Shirts, despite it sounding far-fetched.
The above may be attributed to my sense of paranoia, but this following quote is what really made me write a post about this issue...
The next job is to ensure that people from other states do not exploit Tamils.
"We do not mind people coming to Tamil Nadu to earn their living but we will not
allow them to exploit Tamils,"said Selvan (PMK Youth Wing Secretary).
Such a blanket statement really does sound ominous. It gives the party a free hand for misuse and a moral right (as questioning a Tamil Pride movement would be blasphemy) to launch a tirade of action against those it considers as opponents to it, under the false garb of Tamil Nationalism.
I might be just overreacting here (and I truly hope so too), but something does not seem right about this. I sincerely hope that people see that preserving Tamil culture is not about expelling whom they consider "undesirables" but is about making sure that all the good values of Tamil Culture are passed on for generations to come and by actively encouraging the Tamil language and arts so that the uniqueness and richness of this land is savored not just by Tamils but by the entire globe.
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