Meeting of Cultures is Important, not words

News pulse, Politics | admin | March 16, 2011 at 4:25 am

It was sometime around 10 AM when I lost myself in the heaps of work, a colleague came up to me, and asked me ‘brother, are you in favour of division or unification?’ Well, this was not a strange question to me as all my life I have been hearing the same one, in one form or the other. Looking at my wrist watch I corrected the dear brother. You feel it like a division and people at large look at it as a struggle for independence. It all depends on one’s perception, I replied. The unhappy colleague bringing his eyebrows closer once again asked me the same question stressing the word ‘your opinion please’. I told him clearly that when I entered the field of fourth estate people’s opinion became my opinion, and when I had an option to choose between a pen and a suit, I chose the poor people’s mouthpiece—pen. And I’m here in the profession by choice to be of some good to people and not to earn big fat bucks. My answer supposedly didn’t convince the person, who came up with statements such as: ‘I have a small selfishness brother….a selfishness that all Telugu speaking people should be united and should live together in one state’.

Telugu speaking people, a nice point to defend the demand of keeping the state in tact. But, in the same point I had found the word ‘selfishness’. Though I didn’t want to hurt his weird love for language, I had told him that we shouldn’t restrict ourselves to language, caste, creed etc. And I went I on to say that I love all the Indian languages equally, and I try to learn new languages whenever possible without giving a damn to English stating it is foreign language.

Now just because I love the language English, it wouldn’t’ sound right if I demand to merge my place of living with UK or US. And it would equally be foolish if I take the citizenship of some other country just because of my extreme love for the language. Similarly, I don’t dislike a Tamil brother just because he speaks Tamil, which is not the language that I speak. I don’t restrict myself to Telugu without learning Hindi given the fact Hindi is not my language, and even in the marital matters too, language, region, creed, caste etc don’t play big. The region that I took birth in gave me these policies as inheritance.

Today, if we carefully look at people in 10 districts of Telangana region—you would notice that Telangana people speak fluent Hindi/Urdu, English and also Deccani accent Telugu. Telangana people are known for their hospitality. That’s the reason why people from almost all states of the countries have settled in Hyderabad and are getting their bread and butter here. Begam Bazaar area in Hyderabad can be cited as the best example. No one said anything to them as they are part and parcel of Telangana. Not just them, whoever residing in this place and made this place their home, is a part of T region. The fight for separate state of Telangana is not against the settlers, it is a demand for ‘self-administration’. People in Telangana region are feeling like bonded labours in unified Andhra Pradesh. Reason being so simple that Telangana doesn’t reflect anywhere in the unified state, and sadly not even in the name of the state.

Above all, it is not languages that keep people united but the cultures. Unfortunately, Telangana and Andhra cultures never met. Though the names of the festivals are same, the traditions are different. For instance, Ugadi is the Telugu New Year, the same is the new year for Kannadigas. On the day of Ugadi, Telugu speaking people prepare something called ‘Ugadi Pachchadi’—a mixture sweet and sour tastes. While people in Telangana make it in the form of fluid, the people of Andhra make it as thick paste. In Karnataka people call the same as Bevu Bella and prepare it in the form of fluid itself. Here, Telangana culture didn’t meet with Andhra culture but has a similarity to Karnataka’s Bevu Bella.

Another biggest festival in Telangana region is Dasara. It is known that people in Telangana region fought in favour of Pandavas against Kauravas. So, mostly Pandava culture is clearly reflected in this region that is not found in Andhra region. On the day of Dasara, people in Telangana region wear new clothes, worship Lord Rama and perform Shami Puja (a special ritual to the tree on which Pandavas kept their weapons before going for vanavaas/exile). The legend has it that after Pandavas completed their vanvaas, they noticed their weapons safe on the tree. As a gratitude, they performed rituals to the tree and weapons. The same is noticed in Karnataka too, which they call as Banni Puja. Notably, Dasara is a major festival in North India and Telangana, but not in Andhra region. While speaking about cultures, one festival that should be remembered is Sankranti. Cock fights are must in Andhra region, which they call as kodi pandaallu, during Sankranti festivals whereas cockfights are something strange to people in Telangana region.

Secondly, the dishes, the dressing, and at last the marriage rituals in Telangana region are completely different from that of Andhra region. Unfortunately, Andhra people never welcomed the traditions of Telangana region. Besides the discrimination and injustice, people of Telangana region are felt dejected because of non-acceptance of their cultures, traditions, personalities etc. Even on the boards erected outside the hotels run by Andhra people you can see ‘Andhra bhojanam ready’. This is because Andhra people cannot relish the dishes of Telangana region.

Hence, even if special provisions (like setting up of boards as mentioned in Srikrishna Committee) are provided to erase the inequalities in Telangana region, the demand for separate state would still be alive given the fact that the cultures of Telangana and Andhra never met. The cultural difference between the two regions can never be erased. Carving out Telangana State is the only option that could solve the Telangana issue. After hearing these words, my colleague smiled and said bye to me as he had no valid point to back his argument of keeping the state in tact . Further, he realised that Telangana issue is a very sensitive one and language has no role to play in the issues relating to cultures.
“Bhathukamma festival is Telangana culture, Bonalu is Telangana Culture, Jammi Chettu Puja is Telangana Culture, Giving Niwali on Narakachaturdashi is our Culture, Peerla Panduga is our Culture. And we respect our culture a lot, we would like to tell the world about the same in our Telangana State. Preserve and protect our culture. ”

(Note: Issued in the interest of the public)
Courtesy – Azad Telangana Phani, thank you for sharing.

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