Indianization of India – I

by Prof. Nalin de Silva

(October 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have to respond to Dr. Kumar David on "Global Science" who following Mr. R. M. B. Senanayake has dragged me into the discussion on the medium of instruction of science though they were both reacting to Mr. Aelian de Silva, who is also of the opinion that science is global. Mr. Aelian de Silva however differs in that according to him the language of instruction is not global. I have a different opinion altogether and I do not subscribe to the belief that "science" is global. However, I agree with Mr. Aelian de Silva that "science" can be taught in Sinhala (or Tamil or any other language) though there are differences in the nuances, while emphasising that creating science is different from teaching it or reading some paper on a peripheral topic at one of those con-ferences which are mainly pastimes of some of the middle class products of western Christian modernity that also produced the so called science.

These con-ferences, workshops etc., which are financed by various western "scientific organisations" also help the hotels in the "third world" to keep them going apart from training the much needed middle class without which western modernity cannot survive. I experienced the con-ference culture during my short visit to India as well, though I did not participate in any of the con-ferences as I am not a scientist even of nth order to get recognition. The intellectuals in Sri Lanka would rush to point out that I do not know even the jargon of "science" let alone the substance. However, let me first give my experience as a wanderer, though not exactly a paribarajika, before I discuss "global science", in about two weeks..

I was able to spend a little over two weeks in India wandering over many parts of the country. Two weeks is certainly not enough to go into an in-depth study of a country though many of the experts coming from the west to Sri Lanka have managed to come out with detailed reports on the so called ethnic problem of the country. However, in their defence as well as mine I would say that for a person with some background knowledge of a country two weeks is suffice to observe some salient features relating to the country. This is not a detailed report on the current situation in India where mavericks such as Mr. Waiko in Tamil Nadu are unsuccessfully trying to agitate against the humanitarian operations by the armed forces in Killinochchi. His demonstration in favour of the LTTE failed to attract people and he only managed himself to get arrested. However, Tamil Nadu government had called an All Party Conference, which would have been held on Tuesday to discuss the situation regarding the civil population in Killinochchi. Ms. Jayalalithaa is on record stating that her party would not attend the conference and it is clear that some Tamil Nadu politicians are only reacting to the mavericks of Waiko and others. In any event the conference was not to be on the LTTE, and the Sri Lankan government is concerned with the plight of the ordinary Tamils living in and around Killinochchi. The Sri Lankan government may even get the assistance of a non western NGO to distribute food and other essential items to the ordinary people in the area.

The Indianized middle class had other problems to engage in during the time I spent in India. Though not in the order of priority among those problems were the pullout of nanocar project from Bengal by Tata, the effect of the collapse of the world financial market as experienced by India, the "voluntary" retirement of Ganguly, the breaking of the record for the highest number of test runs by Tendulkar, the stomach ache of Amitab Bachchan on his sixty sixth birthday and of course the signing of the "nuke deal" with USA. The Indianized middle class had no time for the LTTE nor for the mavericks of Mr. Waiko.

Before I define what is meant by Indianization of India, let me describe a phenomenon that eludes the brilliant sociologists not only among the Sri Lankans but in the whole world. The sociologists tell us that there is no way of distinguishing a Sinhala from a Tamil or from a Maharashtrian. The brilliant sociologists have failed to come up with a definition or criteria to identify a Sinhala and for that reason they would go to the extent of denying the existence of nations, cultures etc., except for the citizenship which is merely derived from registration as a citizen in what are called nation states that are also well defined according to certain criteria involving boundaries.

However, wherever we ( I went with my wife and daughter) went we were identified as Sinhalas, especially by the vendors. It was not only in the so called Buddhist sector (it has to be mentioned that the roads in this "Buddhist sector" are hopeless except for the road from Buddha Gaya to Varanasi – the old Baranes of so many Brahmadattas- and I thought that in spite of Ashokan emblem being used as a national emblem the Indian government is not that interested in promoting Buddhism. It has to be mentioned that Varanasi is the holiest city in the whole universe according to Hinduism and it may explain why the road to Varanasi from Buddha Gaya is in a good condition. India is a Hindu country though the pundits may claim that it is secular and I will deal with this aspect later) that we were identified as Sinhalas but in Agra, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai as well. The vendors seem to know the criteria to identify at least the Sinhalas without even talking to them and in that respect the worthy sociologist intellectuals might conduct a "well thought out survey" among the vendors to learn a trick or two in identification of different cultures. A pundit would say that the vendors are interested in selling their goods but then the intellectuals are also interested in selling their theories if they have any.

An interesting thing happened while we were in Chennai. A middle aged Tamil lady asked in Sinhala "ogollo lankavenda" (Are you from Sri Lanka?), When I answered in the affirmative she was very happy and continued to talk in Sinhala. It was later found out that she was from Dandenong area in Melbourne where we (myself, my wife and our eldest son) also had lived some thirty three years ago and both parties were delighted to meet each other. The lady did not insist in talking in English, was not against using Sinhala in Chennai let alone in Colombo unlike some Tamil politicians who are partly responsible for the present situation. I must say that she spoke Sinhala very fluently. She went on to give my wife some advice on shopping in Chennai and we are very grateful to her for having volunteered to help us.

It was my third visit to India and what I observed was the expansion of the middle class over a period of about thirty years in that country. The middle class (not to be confused with Marxian categories) is the effective class of western Christian modernity, and how much a country has become modern could be judged by the percentage and the "quality" of the middle class in the society. The "quality" simply means how much an average person in the middle class imitates the average middle class person in the west, in manners, attitudes, knowledge, epistemology etc. About thirty years ago the Indian middle class looked up to the Sri Lankan middle class but now things have changed. I know it is dangerous to generalize from limited observations but not being an intellectual I am not guided by the jargon nor the so called methodology of western science. It is clear that the Sri Lankan middle class now has to look up to the Indian middle class for guidance. With Sinhalisation of English in the country the Sri Lankan elite cannot even boast of their English pronunciation and the rolling ‘r’s of the Indians are not something that would be laughed at by the elite. It is the expanding Indian middle class that has Indianized India and we will take it up in the next installment of the series.

(To be continued) - Sri Lanka Guardian