Jay Ganesh Baba??

Taking up the “pen” today, after a long time to write about one of my favourite themes- regionalism/racism within India. In the recent past I was particularly disturbed to read a series of Facebook posts by “progressive, liberal Bengali-s”. Many of them took exception to the fact that Bengali youngsters are posting “Ganapati Bappa Moriya” on their Facebook walls during Ganesha Puja in Mumbai, or celebrating “Dhanteras”, but they do not celebrate traditional Bengali festivals like “Sindur Khela” after Durga Puja, Haalkhata on Bengali New Years’ Day (Nababarsho) etc. Many of these devout Bengali-s were distressed to see Bengali-s forgetting their own culture, and blindly copying others’. Some saw racism in it- that non-Bengali-s (whatever that means) are working overtime with their grand conspiracy to systematically wipe out Bengali culture by propaganda through television, movies etc.

Racism, really? I wondered who are being racist. In a democracy, which India is supposed to be, isn’t every person free to choose which festival (s)he wants to celebrate? Even if we assume that modern Bengali-s have scant regard for their Bengali tradition (my own experience suggests otherwise), isn’t it totally a matter of individual choice? If a particular person is born in a Bengali-speaking family, but finds Ganesha Puja more attractive than Durga Puja, what exactly is wrong with it? The community into which (s)he was born was chosen just by chance, isn’t it? By expecting a person to follow the tradition of the community into which (s)he was born, one puts communal identity above individual identity. Isn’t  that itself racism???

And then regarding the issue of blindly copying others, isn’t that what everone does anyway? A child born in a Bengali family does not know either Durga Puja or Ganesha Puja to begin with, it is not a genetic thing. (S)he learns what others around her do, and copies them. If others around her celebrate Durga Puja, she may learn to celebrate it. If some people around her are celebrating Ganesha Puja also, then she may celebrate whichever she finds attractive, or maybe both! In any case she is copying others. To say that it is correct to copy some (those in her community), but wrong/bad to copy others (those outside her community)- is complete bigotry.

Moving away from the philosophical premise that individual preference is above racial/regional stereotyping, I would like to make a few observations. Some Bengali-s are upset that in all-India institutions like corporate offices, “non-Bengali” festivals like Dandiya etc are celebrated but never the Bengali festivals. Again, they find racism in this. My own experience suggests that most (not all, say myself) Bengali people, on coming to any new place, seek out other Bengali-s, and form a closed sub-community among themselves, considering others as different or outsiders, by labelling them all with that one attribute: "non-Bengali". That’s the reason they get isolated from the rest, and their festivals do not  get known to the others! And somewhat anomalously, many people who shout “racism against Bengali-s”, identify themselves as “liberals”, and consider nationalism as vile. They hate it when right-wing parties or organizations denounce “westernization” or “foreign influence in India”. I do not approve of such parties/organizations/jingoist sentiments either, but isn’t these liberals’ way of thought at the regional level equivalent to the militant nationalism of the right-wing parties?