Why I am Indian and not Bengali

India is a country of 26 states, all of which represent a single language, and many of which are the only region where that language is spoken. Although Hindi is the most widely spoken and the so-called "official language", 17 more languages are actually listed as official. Most of these languages have been used in cultural activities like literature, poetry, drama, cinema. On the other hand, for a country to exist as a single entity, there must be something common. Lots of books have been written about unity in diversity in India. Most people accept this theory, though some do not. And yet India has survived for over 64 years, and it can be said with poise that it will continue to survive long. Whatever the case, a question often discussed in india is, do people put their regional identities ahead of national identity? I am from the State of West Bengal, and I have often heard the question being discussed in mass media, "Are we Bengali first or Indian first?" Let me try to answer this question logically.

Before starting the debate, let us think: what are the definitions of "Bengali" and "Indian"? One possible answer is very objective and factual: a person whose mother tongue is the language bengali is "Bengali", and a person whose nationality is Indian is "Indian". Well if these are the definitions, then the question in question is quite meaningless as mother-tongue and nationality are not comparable. Then the people asking the question surely don't consider this definition. Possibly they are talking about identification with a community of people. A person identifies himself with another person if they have similar culture and taste in common. Possibly by "Bengali" they mean a person who identifies himself with other Bengalis, and the base case of this recursion is one who speaks the Bengali language, follows Bengali literature and arts, eats rice, fish and some other particular dishes, celebrates Durga Puja, enjoys Sourav Ganguly's batting etc. What about Indian? Possibly a person who identifies himself with other indians, and the base case being a person who lives or once lived somewhere in the nation called India, speaks one of the Indian languages, follows the art/literature in some Indian etc etc.

Next comes the question. As I see, one possible interpretation of the question is, "Should we put the interest of the Bengali community ahead of the interest of India?" Another interpretation may be, "Do we identify with Bengali people much more easily than people with the rest of India?" In other words, "Do the people of other parts of India appear foreign to us compared to Bengalis?"

There are two main ways of viewing hierarchies. Firstly, a person is himself, then he belongs to his state/linguistic group, then to his country, then to his continent, then to his planet, then to his galaxy etc. This is the bottom-up approach. The top-down approach will say, a person first belongs to the universe, then galaxy, then planet, the continent, then country, then state, and lastly himself. It is easy to see, the first approach says "Bengali first", and the second approach says "Indian first". Which of these approaches should be taken? Remember we have given two interpretations of the question. If the first interpretation (weighing of interest) is true, then of course one should be Indian first, as it is ethical to put interest of a larger cause ahead of those of a smaller cause. If building an atom bomb strengthens my country's position against its enemy, but also puts the world's safety and security in doubt, the bomb should not be built. Again if selecting an incompetant cricketer from my state into the national team gives some prestige to my state but weakens the team, it is not worth doing.

Regarding the second interpretation of the question (weighing of identity), the answer is much more complicated. For identification purpose the bottom-up approach is more natural, but the different steps in the hierarchy may not be equally important to a person in terms of identifying himself. In fact the most important step for a person may be missing from the hierarchy stated above. For example one can identify himself with people from his city/village only, and all other people look equally alien to him, even if they say the same language. A step in the mentioned hierarchy which is not significant to most people is the continent, at least for Asians. Africans and Europeans, in my belief, do attach some weightage to their continental identities. So it can wholly differ from person to person how he identifies himself with his linguistic group rather than to his country. As far as I am concerned, I can say without doubt that I identify fully with the "Indian" community, not at all with the "Bengali" community. Yes, my mother tongue is Bengali, i speak it, i follow bengali literature, music and cinema to some extent, and also celebrate durga puja. But i don't particularly identify with other people who do these things. I live in a campus with people from all over the country, but people not doing the above things do not seem alien to me at all. While I certainly have many friends who are from West Bengal and/or do all those things, i also have one friend from each of Punjab, Uttaranchal, Gujarat, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, and several from Rajasthan, Delhi, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, AP and TN. I never feel different from them, in fact i am fascinated to see the similarities in the mindsets, ettiquettes, customs, and even languages. And again, i have many differences from Bengalies: i do not like rice and do not eat fish, and am no great fan of Sourav Ganguly. I do watch bengali movies, but like bollywood more. I speak bengali at home, but in campus i speak more hindi and english. So i have no doubt that i am indian only, not bengali.

Finally, SHOULD one be bengali first or indian first? If the first interpretation (weighing of interests) is being considered, then i have already given the answer. If the weighing of identities is being considered, then too i feel one should be indian first. Most "bengali" people i have come across attach significant weights to both

the nation and the linguistic steps. That is fine, i just feel the weightage at the nation step should be more, for the sake of india's unity. It is only natural that people may love their mother-tongue and their food and festival and the cricket icon who does and loves all these. But given that india needs to stay united as a nation, one should also try to adjust themselves with the languages and habits of the other parts of india. It is not difficult to do. One just needs to keep a broad mind, and far more unities will show up than diversities. And if someone thinks he cannot manage without speaking bengali all the time, or eating bengali-style food etc, then it is an inability on his part. But apart from inability, if someone refuses to do so and insists that his "bengali"-step is more important, then i cannot say what he is wrong or illogical, i can only say that he is opposed to the ideals of an united india, and hence my enemy from this perspective. On the other hand if someone says

that for him the Bengali and Indian steps are not important, he is a globally-minded person who can identify with anyone from any country, i think he is somewhat advanced of his ages, but i do not criticize him.

My school

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are based on my own general impression of different schools. I have made no detailed study in this regard. )


A school often has a great influence in shaping the outlook of a person for the rest of his/her life. I studied for 15 years in a school called South Point in Kolkata. It was (and still is) a most extraordinary school.

There are broadly three types of schools in Kolkata. There are the posh, ultra-urban schools in the South-Central Part of the city- like Apeejay, Don Bosco, La Martineare's, Modern High School etc. These are mostly English-medium school affilated to the CBSE and ICSE boards, and are attended mostly by children of the rich and elite class of the city. These schools are known for their posh, urban culture, their glitterring fests, and also their academic performance at the National Level. These are the only schools in West Bengal which do quite well in exams like IIT-JEE, PMT etc, because their syllabi are aligned with that of these national level exams. In the second category are the traditional "middle class schools"- Patha Bhavan, Nava Nalanda, Jodhpur Park Boys and Girls, Carmel, Ballygunge Government, Hare, Hindu etc. These are mostly affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary (and Higher Secondary) education, and the medium of instruction is mostly Bengali, even though the textbooks are in English in some of these schools. They are less glitterring and posh than the earlier category, and have a more traditional Indian/Bengali outlook. Some of them, like Hare and Hindu, boast of producing many stalwarts, academic or otherwise, from their haydays during the British Raj. The third category includes the numerous humble local schools, found more in the residential areas and localities. They are also affiliated to the West Bengal board, and the medium is mostly Bengali (some Hindi-medium schools are also there). These schools do not boast of either stalwart alumni or urban glamour, nor do they possess top-class equiment and infrastructure. However that doesn't mean these schools are academically backward.....many of them outperform the better-known schools in average performance in the state-level board exams. Needless to say this categorization is not hard, the boundaries between the classes are certainly not pronounced.

South Point is a curious case in this society of schools. It was founded in 1954 by the academician Satikanta Guha, aimed at "providing middle class students quality education at a reasonable cost". It is affiliated to the West Bengal Board. It is supposed to be english-medium as the textbooks are in english, but the medium of instructions is mainly bengali. Its haydays were in the 1960s, when it had some extraordinary teachers and even more extraordinary students. It dominated the state-level exams, and produced numerous outstanding personalities who distinguished themselves in their respective fields, not necessarily academic. But as the days proceeded, South Point saw a paradigm shift. Quality was traded for quantity, and the number of students increased exponentially. It soon acquired the status of the school with the second-largest number of students in Asia (the leader being a school in Lucknow). It had two buildings now...one for Nursery classes and Class I-V, and the other for classes VI to XII. In our year, over 800 students appeared in the Class X board exam. Meanwhile, the founder Mr. Guha passed away in 1989, and his son Indranath controlled the school for a few years. But he had problems in his family, and could not control the ever-expanding institute. In 1995, the Birla Family took over it. The stalwart enterpreneur Sri Madhav Prasadji Birla had set up a technological museum and an astronomical observatory in kolkata, and had proceeded to build a chain of schools, into which South Point was also drafted.

As I have seen South Point, the educational and cultural standards are quite curious. There are some very brilliant students who shine in college and afterwards. There are well-equipped labs for classes XI and XII. But the average academic performance is no longer outstanding (but nonetheless more than decent). The teaching staff, which was really extraordinary in the 1960s, is now not different from other schools in the city. The school is really really rich, it is further expanding the student count, and its Golden Jubilee was celebrated with pomp in 2004 with a week-long chain of gala events. The high school now has a spanking clean office which resembles a corporate house more than a school office. The annual prize distribution ceremonies which also includes a host of cultural programs, attracts enough people to fill (and overflow) the Netaji Indoor Stadium. The school also has an alumni association which holds a dazzling reunion every year in a most fashionable venue in Kolkata. At the student level, till the VIIth or VIIIth classes, traditional Indian middle class culture dominates, like the schools of the second category as mentioned above. But in the higher classes the school becomes more like the first category. In these classes South Point is now known less for its academic excellence but more for its glamour and progressive (?) mentality. A South Point student is considered more likely to have danced in a disco than those from other schools. The higher class students use slang language at an extent which is considered unimaginable in other schools, and speculations do rounds that porn-watching is not uncommon among Pointers. It is often said that "South Point is a school where there is no Discipline". These dubious reputations mark a complete departure from the middle-class idealism of the 1960s and 1970s, but then that is true of the whole urban indian society. Though I am myself not a big fan of this new urban culture, I don't have anything negative against it. Rather, according to me, South Point is not just a school....it is a culture of its own, and it is the reflection of current urban india.

Design Lab, JU

Let me share with you, a hilarious experience from my college days. I did an undergraduate engineering (B.E.) course in Computer Science from Jadavpur University of Kolkata, my home town. As most of you know it was a 4-year course, with theoretical and practical classes related to Computer Science and engineering spread over these years.

The incident I will talk about, happened in the first semester of the third year. It was September, 2006. We had to take a lab course titled "Design Lab-1". Students were supposed to form groups of 3, and each group was assigned a project involving digital logic and basic electronics. A circuit had to be designed and implemented on a breadboard, using ICs of Logic Gates, Flip-Flops, Resistors and wires. It was a course I thought I would enjoy thoroughly. At that time I was really passionate about digital system design.....and could do them pretty well...both the design and the implementation. In my group were two friends- Arijit and Avisek. The class was to be conducted by the strict, angry and fearsome Prof Suranjan Ghosh and the mild and friendly Prof Mita Nasipuri.


Our first project was "Frequency Divider Circuit". It was assigned in July, and we were given two weeks time for it. Prof Ghosh threatened that failure to meet the deadline will result in a Zero for the project. The lab assistant, Bimalda, told us that the threat should be taken seriously.I designed the circuit on paper within a few minutes, and got it approved by the prof. We were ecstatic....half the job had been done in no time. But the joy was short-lived. While trying to implement in hardware, we ran into all sorts of trouble. Half the ICs seemed to be defunct, and we could not manage the CRO to display the output. The input clockpulse too seemed problematic. Soon the two weeks ran out, our implementation still far from over. Most of the groups had not been able to complete their projects...so the prof threatened to give Zero to all these groups. Fortunately after a lot of appeals he agreed to extend by a week. The three of us worked overtime, bunking class after class to sit in the lab and complete the circuit. We found that the J-K Flip-Flop, IC 7476 was not working, and the clockpulse input was also not working properly. After making elaborate changes, we finally managed to get the circuit working, and got Prof Nasipuri to approve it. A mild-natured lady, she did not press too hard and accepted our demo.


The second project was the design of a digital clock, with interrupt button. Once again the design was complete quickly, and implementation started. But I fell sick and could not come to college for a week, causing vital loss of time. After rejoining, I often had to bunk classes to complete the implementation. This time I kept on checking the outputs of every single component as I inserted them, so that no redesigning would be needed. But still we ran into the last day, the circuit not yet complete. I ran to the lab well before the lab hours (3:00PM-5:15PM), and skipped lunch and several classes. Shortly before 3:00PM my group-partners joined. The circuit was now almost complete and it had been performing decently, but suddenly we found it had become totally defunct. No output was coming at all. I was at a complete loss to explain how come the input power was just getting lost. Time was running out.....something had to be done quickly. I started applying power to the circuit, and check at varoius point if it was receiving the power or not. Suddenly I discovered a short circuit. A 470Ohm resistor was not working, so I had replaced it temporarily by a wire, and forgotten about this. The wire had very low resistance, so the current was flowing fully through it, and the main circuit had no input at all. Arijit ran to get a new 470Ohm, we put it in, and Bingo!!! the clock was running perfectly. I threw my hands into the air and jumped up, Arijit and Avisek hugged me....we had made it!! Both the profs were around in the lab, supervising the other groups who too were struggling with their projects. We called Prof Nasipuri again, and got the project accepted by her.

Our work was over....we could go home now. But suddenly Arijit wanted to show it to Prof Ghosh as well...he wanted to face his angry comments as a challenge. Me and Avisek tried to dissuade him but he was adamant. He went and called the Prof, who was then looking into the circuit built by another group-Ankit,Sagar and Swagato. He said he would see ours once he was done with theirs'. Meanwhile, we readied the final demo for him. And to our shock, the circuit wasn't working now!!!!!!!! How come? We had no idea....may be someone had accidentally disturbed the loosely constructed wirings....resulting in a loose connection somewhere. But how will I find that out? The prof will be coming to us in a minute...if we could not show him the demo he would overrule Prof Nasipuri's grading and just give use a zero!!!

We stared at each other....not knowing what to do. Finally, we did the only option left....just evaded the prof's eyes and ran out of the lab!! We escaped the lab and came out on the adjacent corridor....but what to do next? Our circuit was still lying on the table, and so were our bags. We could not go home without getting them...but if we reentered the lab we would be caught! I peeped in from behind the door.....Prof Ghosh had finished with Ankit's group and was staring curiously at our circuit....and wondering whose circuit it was. Fortunately Debarshi from another group (with Chiradeep and Haimasree) called him at that point, and he joined them. His back was now turned towards our circuit. This was our only chance. Me and Avisek entered the lab, and moved stealthily to the table. I lifted my bag and the circuit, Avisek lifted his own and Arijit's bag. I managed to sneak the circuit into the cupboard where they were kept, and ran out, followed by Avisek. Out of the lab, the three of us ran in three different directions, lest Prof Ghosh would catch us!

Fortunately Prof Ghosh had forgotten that we had called him, and remained busy with the other groups. The grades given to use by Prof Nasipur prevailed.... :-D

My first blog post

Hello World!

This is the first time I am trying my hand at blogging. Let me introduce myself....I am Adway Mitra (অদ্বয় মিত্র , अद्वय मित्र ) from India (ভারত, भारत), currently 25 years of age and a Graduate Student of Computer Science and Engineering at IISc, Bangalore, India. Although my native languages are Bengali (বাংলা)  and Hindi (हिंदी ), in this blog I will post only in English.

I have not created this blog for any single dedicated purpose. I will try to write on a range of topics....varying from interesting experiences (good/bad/funny) from my school/college days, my takes on contemporary topics of general interest ranging over sports, politics, social issues, movies and books (mostly in Indian context), and sometimes my opinion on some philosophical issues.