Saurabh Garg on The New New Thing

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Mr. Raj Thackery has now said that all the shops and establishments in Mumbai Maharashtra (or is it Maharashtra Mumbai) have to have their signboards in Marathi (IBN, TOI). He has also gone ahead and said that

Two days is what the shopkeepers have. Consider it a threat or whatever

I obviously respect Mr. Thackery’s enthusiasm and affection for the Marathi language but he has ignored a few very important things in his blinding excitement. Things like law and order in the state. Things like livelihood of these business owners. Things like putting the nation of a billion people first (compared to the proverbial Marathi-Manoos). Things like development of his beloved state of Maharashtra. Things like dividing the country into pieces.

I understand that with proliferation of media and advancements in technology, people, especially the youth today, are forgetting our rich culture and adopting things more western. It is creating a huge divide in the generations and newer generations are actually forgetting what Indianness is all about. A time might come when we would loose our centuries old traditions. When the kids would not know what joy Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and other regional languages are. And a time like that would totally suck. But forcing people to adopt regional languages and dividing people on that criteria .. ?

The implications of this seemingly politically motivated move by Mr. Thackery are very huge. To start with, it will create a divide between Marathis and Non-Marathis. It will disturb the law and order situation in the state of Maharashtra. It will create unnecessary and avoidable clashes between the groups. It will do everything but promote the Marathi language.

What about a Marathi Manoos? Do they really care? Are you trying to say that Marathi Manoos is so dumb that he cant read what’s written in English/Hindi on signboards? That he can’t identify global logos/brands from a distance?

What about the businesses? For them this is just one more nuisance that they have to cope up with while conducting business in India. They would incur one-time expenses in painting the new boards. And they would retain a life-long disgust for a political party and would hate with all their might. Who losses in the end? The political party, its workers and supporters.

Lets for a second assume that we go all-Marathi in the financial capital of the country. Fast-forward 10 years. No foreign company would want to open businesses in India. No investment would happen. No intellectual and/or academic and/or business exchange would happen and Marathis would remain where they are. Backward, poor, still fighting for Roti, Kapda and Makaan. Do we really want to remain there?

And yes, I love India, Hindi and my roots. I am as proud Indian as I can ever be. Yet at the same time I am forward looking and I don’t mind accepting new things that the world has to offer. I look forward to a day when people would introduce themselves as Indians rather than Maathis, Punjabis, Bengalis, Asamese. I look forward to a day when we would have a communal harmony and “leaders” like Mr. Thackery would have to find new ways of getting those idiotic votes.

And in the end, may be I am too blinded with the thoughts of development and progress and I am ignoring something very important. Can someone show me the missing pieces?