US-educated Ramesh Ramanathan admits he flies business class while working on issues concerning the urban-poor, and lets the water run while he shaves. But that doesn’t stop him from writing in Mint:
“Hypocrisy is a big issue in most societies, but it’s a particularly problematic one in India.
“We believe that “mamatha”—a mother’s affection—is a sacred emotion, and yet unflinchingly inflict horrors upon our women. We take bribes, and then hope to wash away our sins by thrusting thousands down the slit-eyed hundis of our temples.
“We speak of compassion, but show little for the household help who toil away in our homes. We study “moral science” in our schools (whoever coined that phrase?) and are tested to see if we got the spelling right when we have the essence wrong.
“We learn about civics and citizenship, and yet are often asked—and ask ourselves—why we have such a strong sense of family, but such a poor sense of a larger community: How can our homes be so clean, and our streets so littered with garbage?”
Read the full column: A nation of hypocrites
“We are like that only”!!
it’s all very easy to come up with far fetched generalizations like this, which make for good rhetoric but are useless otherwise.
For long, it was time that Ramanathan confessed to his sins. The whole world knew he was a hypocrite and now he has confessed it himself. Good work, Ramesh. If you think this article would provid you an alibi you should be wrong, please stop preaching.
It is here people whose children go to Baldwins will abolish English medium schools inspite of parents wanting it and then cry hoarse about reservation after creating this class of uneducated(lack of english knowledge) workers
Any comments on this are not worth. Our people go abroad and come back praising the civic sense etc. there. Oce they landed on Indian soil they forget to put into practice what they saw there. It is individual’s attitude which should be corrected
We are not the only hypocritical nation in the world, if that is any comfort. Imperialism and colonialism both used Christianity and Islam as their war cry. In India casteism long served as divine justification for oppression. The descendants of the oppressed now oppress the the descendants of the putative oppressors.
Preaching is easy because that is the easiest form of discourse. Requires no sweat.
captainjohann,
I do not see how your comments are consistent with the post. If the definition of “educated”=knowing to speak and write english then we might as well call the british back.
Most of the commentators here have deliberated over the language issue. Nobody here spoke of denying education in english medium which is in tune with the opportunities brought about by a shrinking global village. The concern was more with how to save kannada and make it viable for the present and future generations of kannadigas to come.
Request you to carefully go through the later posts in this link below:
http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2007/12/08/if-it-takes-away-bangalores-values-burn-it/
captainjohan,
The chinese manage in their mother tongue and they make all the stuff you use. The Japanese and Koreans do too. So do the Malaysians and Indonesians. And the Saudis, Israelis and others. The Europeans (besides the British) also speak their own languages. And most of the South Americans. They learn english only after they have mastered their own mother tongue if at all.
So lack of english knowledge = uneducated according to you and most of the world is uneducated by your standards. Maybe you are talking about creating slaves for some masters you have in mind?
While anyone will agree that Baldwins is an excellent school – why did you bring it up here? What has it got to do with anything? Besides the fact that you have a christian nickname and Baldwin is a school where christianity is peddled in addition to education…
AG–
You are right. My own greatest problem is my attachment to Kannada as a Kannadiga. Practically speaking, we have no reason to insist that we hang on to it. Those who do, DG and his family for instance, do so because they have a language deficit. To think we are ruled by the likes of them is enough to make me want to take a trip to Muththathhi.
Hi, This is from BangaloreOrbit.com..Can any body contribute any article for muththathhi…
BangaloreOrbit Editor Team