Jatishwar - the movie

Seeing Jatiswar for the first time today was one of those 'wow' moments that come rarely in life. It's sad that I saw it so late. But better late than never. And more enriching was the adda with Srijit Mukherji, the director of the movie. We met after more than 5 years.

Srijit Mukherjee

It's no point in writing a review of this film about which so much has been written that there's not much I can add now. But I can't help presenting the excerpts of the enriching adda.

Three (Autograph, Baishe Shrabon & Jatishwar) out of his five films go back and forth in time, delving into and rediscovering something about the past. When told about this, Riju, as I know him, mentioned that's exactly how he is. While working in Calcutta, suddenly something form the past, may be an anecdote from his Bangalore days, may come to his mind and he may keep on drifting between the present and past. And this particular thing manifests so well in Jatishwar, which has parallel narratives from the preset and past, seamlessly woven into a single story.

As the name implies, it's about reincarnation, but that's where its similarity with any other movie of this genre ends. I don't think any other reincarnation movie has handled the cliched theme in the way Riju has done in Jatishwar. He said, most things we do, see, hear, are actually reincarnations of something from the past. A forgotten song may be resurrected hundred years later and presented in a new form. A lost story may surface many years later and touch our hearts. Even genetically, a ancient forefather may reappear on the earth as a totally new person, still with the looks, thoughts and senses of her ancestor. Thoughts seldom die, they just reappear in newer avatars. Everything has reincarnation. Jatishwar presents parallel stories of reincarnation, sometime in the form of a reincarnated song, sometime as a lovelorn Gujrati boy who wants to woo a Bengali girl by composing a Bengali song, sometime as a girl, who in her previous avatar had inspired a Portuguese colonialist who had fallen in love with the Bengali music of the eighteenth century and started composing songs in Bengali.

As is apparent, music plays a very important role in the movie and Suman Chatterjee, who had resurrected Bengali music in the 90s, very aptly created a magic, which fetched him the National Award for best music. The last song, which fetched the National Award for Best Male Playback singer for Rupankar, is indeed a masterpiece, a collage of reincarnated forms of music which may be more than hundred years old. The structure of the song, the melody, the lyrics, remind us of various forms of popular music from the eighteenth and nineteenth century Bengal.

The movie is also an authentic reproduction of a genre of music known as Kabi-gaan (it translates loosely to bard-song), a form of musical duel between two groups represented by their respective lead singers. It was a popular form of entertainment in the nineteenth century. Not much has remained about this form of music and it was a herculean task for Riju to painstakingly do the research and fill in the gap with as much authenticity as possible. In his own words, it was like a detective story, taking insignificant clues from scattered sources and gradually discovering the true essence of the kabi-gaan. It's a great learning experience too for the viewers who otherwise don't have much options to now about this particular form of Bengali music.

Finally a few words about the performance. Prosenjit, in both the incarnations is brilliant. This is perhaps his best performance till date. Others have done a great job too. But the main hero of the movie is perhaps Suman, the music composer, one of whose older songs, also called Jatishwar, was the seed for this movie. The song Jatishwar talks about the love stories which keep on appearing in newer avatars, from time to time across ages, across countries, across cultures. That's also what the multilevel movie is about, at one level.

2014 Elections: Lessons learned

The recently concluded General Elections have created a history in itself with a lot of firsts thrown in, in its way - the decisive mandate after three decades, the high voters turnout, the high percentage of young voters, etc are some of the pleasant things, apart from the mandate itself. Let us see what are the main lessons learned in this election.

Voters are wise

The minds of the Indian public, the jana gana mana, are among the priciest resources of India. Even with the low literacy rates and absence of a good living for many, still, we're a wise nation, argumentative too.

"We can't be fooled, nor taken for a ride by anyone. We know what's right and what's wrong. There's no reason to put thoughts in our minds. Wisdom prevails and we know what is what."

This means that they know what's secular and what's communal, what's development and what's not what's a scam and what's not etc etc. This election has reinforced beyond doubt the importance of the wisdom of Indian voters. They chose wisely.

Campaigning should be in favor of something, not against something

Congress, along with a large number of people who claim to be the torch bearers of secularism, have been extremely vocal about the communal credentials of the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate. Most of their campaigns was not as much about Congress as it was against Modi. They tried to frighten the people with dire consequences if Modi came to power, telling horror stories about riots and communal violence. The election results proved beyond doubt that the Indian electorate gave a damn to all these. They have rubbished all the claims made my Congress and the secular band wagon. So it's time to scrap this entire discussion of secularism.

People want to hear positive things, not negative. If you want them to vote for you, tell them what you've done and what you'll do for them, not what bad someone else have done or will do to them. BJP had lost the 2009 election, perhaps because of its negative campaigning against Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. Then also, the campaign was more negative than positive. Congress did exactly the same mistake this time. Strikingly different was BJP's campaign this time. They talked more about the development than the scams of the Congress. Had it talked only about the scams, I'm sure they won't have got this result. Show positiveness - that's the mantra.

Strong and decisive leadership is the need of the hour

There's no doubt that this has been Modi's election. He has run it like a Presidential election where people actually voted for him, rather than BJP. This is a key lesson. People have realized that a strong and decisive leader can make a lot of difference. The total absence of anyone pitched against Modi made his work simpler.

Questions may be asked, if that's the case, then how did Congress win the last two elections? They won the 2004 elections, because, the mass had failed to see the development BJP was talking about and Congress provided an alternative. Vajpayee's decisiveness and strength were in question. Then in 2009, the people didn't see in Advani any remarkable quality which would make him stand apart for the rest. On top of that, the campaign was very much negative. So in 2009, Congress actually didn't win, they were just not removed from power. But in 2014, they were literally decimated due to the lack of a strong and decisive leader.

Communication, communication and communication

Effective communication is the key to success, both in corporate world and politics. The way BJP had reached out to the people of India is indeed a lesson for the corporates too. "Ab ki baar, Modi Sarkaar", the message was very clear. Promises were made, but the key message was always unambiguous, that they have to elect the strong and decisive Modi as their Prime Minister.

On the other hand the message sent out by Congress was very confusing. People were aware of the scams. So when the Congress promos talked about developments, people were indeed skeptical. Had there been a strong leader, people would have had hopes that perhaps this new leader would do things differently.

Also, the various ways the BJP reached out to its people were just unmatched for. Apart from rallies, there were constant promos in media, electronic, print and television/radio, always with the crystal clear message.

Branding

Somewhat related to communication, but it's also a key thing which played a significant role. The entire campaign was planned in the lines of promoting a consumer product.

Modi was branded as a strong and decisive leader who would deliver wonders. Every communication carried the same message again and again, harping on the brand Modi repeatedly, till it was etched in the minds of the people. Like Thumps Up - Tastes the thunder, ICICI - Khayal Aap ka, LIC - Life ke saath bhi, life ke baad bhi, Kingfisher - King of good times, Kerala - God's own country, Ab ki baar Modi Sarkaar became the tag line of the campaign. Modi's scripted speeches, his mannerisms, the way he talked, the way be dressed - everything was meticulously planned and everything collectively played a role in creating the brand Modi, someone on which people could rely, someone who would deliver what he has promised, someone who could be trusted.

So much was the impact of Ab ki baar Modi sarkaar, that even small kids who know nothing of politics and Modi started chanting the same. I'm sure most kids were happy when he finally won. That's the impact of branding.

There's no alternative for hard work
Any success, at the end, can't come only with branding. People actually saw the hard work Modi has put during the entire campaign. He attended the most rallies, traveled the maximum distance to reach out to as many people as possible. People saw his dedication, his passion. A leader is always expected to be passionate. With all the hard work and passion, Modi fitted well into the image of a leader.

Media Blurbs about The Ekkos Clan

"A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction" - Jug Suraiya 

"An Indian thriller inspired by Dan Brown & Harrison Ford!... fast-paced thriller, replete with murder and miraculous escapes" - The Telegraph 

"If you are a history buff and a thriller aficionado, then [it] might just be the book for you" - The Hindu 

"A tale of the Indian civilization and culture... takes you on a roller coaster ride" - The New Indian Express 

"An interesting read for an afternoon... One feisty woman's partition story" - Bangalore Mirror 

"Should be read for its sheer aspiration and the intelligent handling of historical material" - The Sunday Guardian 

"Is essentially a mystery novel, but is grounded in a substantial base of research and exploration into our past" - newsyaps.com

Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan

The Ekkos Clan is essentially a mystery novel, where there are a lot of riddles in the form of Kubha’s stories, each leading to some prehistoric event or anecdote, all of which together tell a tale of our civilization, our culture. It deals with fanaticism in the garb of an extremist nationalism, something that gave rise to Nazism. It deals with the identity of India and the Indian civilization. It deals with the gradual evolution of hierarchies in a society and many more.

The Ekkos Clan is a work of fiction. Along with all the other elements that create a story – the characters, the turn of events, the mystery, the climax and above all the love and passion – history also plays a very important role in it. The Ekkos Clan tries to bring into life the history of an obscure age, the history that has been very controversial ever since its importance was first realized, the history that has been interpreted and misinterpreted multiple times to fit into a preconceived idea of the scholar, historian, linguist or even a dictator and a number of nationalists.

As this history has barely left behind any discernable mark it’s best left to the imaginations of the future generations, to recreate and reconstruct it in bits and pieces. But a reconstruction always has some degree of creativity in it. It takes the color of the prism through which the creator recreates it. It never looks bare and ruthless as reality. It always looks pleasant and wonderful like a poem, like a piece of art, like music. A detective, or rather someone really very boring, can always uncover the layers of creativity and dig out the bare history and find it silly. The Ekkos Clan may not be for these detectives. It’s for those who can let free their imaginations, go a few thousand years back into antiquity and realize the thrill and amazement of the poet who had composed the first ever poetry of the mankind, feel the excitement of someone who had made the first chariot, understand the inspiration that had driven a group of people to cross thousands of miles just to see new lands, make new friends and learn new things. The history is not about the wars they fought or battles they won. It’s about their culture, their language and the way of their lives that evolved gradually over thousands of years and finally comprised almost half the world. It’s the saga of a group of adventurous and wonderful people who lived on this earth more than five thousand years ago. They believed that “to see is to learn”. For them vision was akin to vidya, knowledge, wisdom. They had just one word, weid, for vision, wisdom and knowledge. Their yearning for seeing and learning severed them from their original homeland, their urheimat, and took them to unknown lands which eventually became their new homes. They never looked back. They kept on travelling for thousands of years. No one knows what finally made them stop their journey. Did they reach their final destination? Did they attain that knowledge, that vidya, for which they had travelled thousands of miles for thousands of years? Or did they get weary of their long trail? Or did they really stop their journey? Can’t it be that they are still travelling but, no one knows of it?

This is where the history opens up for imagination. This is the premise of The Ekkos Clan. This is where we can liberate the string of reasoning and let the kite of imagination fly high, but the latai, to which is wrapped the kite’s string, should be held strong on the ground. The Ekkos Clan is meant to let loose the imaginations but not the history. Like the latai, the history, should be held strong on its ground. Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is an endeavor to provide the historical ground of The Ekkos Clan. The strings of imaginations are left to the readers.

The history we’re talking about is the history of the Indo-Europeans, the history of the Aryans and the history of their trail from their Urheimat to India. It’s the history how the original word weid, which meant “to know” and “to see” evolved into Sanskrit veda and vidya meaning knowledge, Greek oida meaning “to know”, Latin video and viso meaning “to see”, German wissen meaning “to know” and English wise, wisdom and vision.

Kubha’s stories, which form the basis of all the mysteries in The Ekkos Clan, are all about the Aryan Trail and the Rig Veda. Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is meant to provide the historical background behind each of Kubha’s stories, some of which is provided in The Ekkos Clan too in bits and pieces. But, as mentioned in the beginning, the historical background we’re talking about is not meant purely for any academic purpose, but for a leisurely reading rather, trying to bridge the gap between the fiction and the facts on which it’s built.

I’ve relied heavily on the papers written by Michael Witzel of Harvard University, for most of the historical background. I’m indebted to him for the correspondence he exchanged with me and the time he spared to browse through some of the chapters.

As many of the topics are very controversial and still not accepted unanimously by everyone, academician and layman included, one particular line of thought has been presented all throughout, may be often in a partisan manner which fits into the thought process of The Ekkos Clan. I have followed the school of thought espoused by Witzel et al.

Praises for The Ekkos Clan

‘A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction.’ – Jug Suraiya

‘For a debut novel The Ekkos Clan is quite promising, with echoes of Dan Brown in the storytelling. Kratu Sen, an engineer in Stanford, suddenly realises that the stories he and his sister have grown up listening to — about their grandmother Kubha — are not as simple as they sound. Meeting Afsar, a linguist palaeontologist, encourages Kratu to decode the “chhele bholanor golpo” (tales told to pacify children). He discovers that the names of the characters and places have a striking similarity with the Rig Veda and the Aryans. Could the stories preserved for centuries have a greater significance? …The Ekkos Clan is like any fast-paced thriller, replete with murder and miraculous escapes.’ – The Telegraph

‘If you are a history buff and a thriller aficionado, then The Ekkos Clan by Sudipto Das might just be the book for you. Ancient Indian history, linguistic palaeontology, mathematics and interesting insights on music are held together by a gripping mystery in Sudipto’s debut novel.’ – The Hindu

‘Historical fiction, The Ekkos Clan combines the struggle for survival with Kubha's determination to safeguard her lineage in turbulent times… [It] is a folktale packaged for the contemporary reader.’ –Bangalore Mirror

‘A tale of the Indian civilization and culture, The ekkos Clan written by debutant author Sudipto Das takes you on a roller coaster ride, telling the mystery behind the Aryan race as well as delving into the origin of stories behind mankind’s greatest book, the Rig Veda… The author brings out India’s amalgamation of so many cultures, languages, races... Exploring multiple generations of a family, the book follows a pattern where one gets to read about linguistics, history, archaeology, music, engineering and philosophy moving from chapter to chapter.’ – The New Indian Express

‘For a novel whose setting stretches from the Partition-affected villages of Noakhali, Bngladesh to Arkaim in the Southern Urals, The Ekkos Clan is a daring novel. The scope of the narrative is magnanimous and deftly handled... Involving elements of ancient history, mathematics, music, orality and linguistics, author Sudipto Das has weaved a cinematic tale of migration, revenge, and how the everyday preserves history in unique ways, unceremoniously occupying our locale… The Ekkos Clan should be read for its sheer aspiration and the intelligent handling of historical material.’ – The Sunday Guardian

‘Written by debutant author Sudipto Das, The Ekkos Clan is essentially a mystery novel, but is grounded in a substantial base of research and exploration into our past. This journey was not made with the aid of tangible historical remains and proofs, which diminish once you try to step further after going back a few millennia, but instead, a more living, breathing form of residue from our ancient past is combed through: language…[The] Application of linguistic palaeontology amidst a mystery novel marked with glimpses of mythology and historical narrative is unique in an Indian setting, and places both the author and the novel at a space currently occupied by a very few.’ –Newsyaps

The Ekkos Clan - An elaborate review by Atanu Neyogi

Atanu, my friend, has been writing to me over the past few days, as and when he has been reading my book too. Though he has promised to post a consolidated review on my wall, I couldn't resist from publishing all his communication in the form of a blog. I'm sure he will edit out few things when he writes the final review, but whatever he has written is worth a read. It's perhaps the most elaborate discussion on my book.

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Got your novel and started reading. Nice prose, unadorned but precise, letting the strength of narrative carry it along.

This is going to be a bit uncomfortable as the Bangladesh part (evidently based on stories you have heard) resembles too much of what I heard about my own family.

A fallen aristocracy has a sense of poisonous self-pitying perspective of the world which swings between superiority and inferiority complex. I have seen that so much growing up in a clan of displaced, long-suffering but self-entitled Vaidyas over the years I had learnt to treat those childhood stories as an inherited nostalgia for an imagined past. I am guessing your novel is going to make some old scars a bit raw.

Now to read on to Kubha, I am anticipating some deep historical unveiling...

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Instead of writing one big review at the end, I have thought it would be better if I let you know the minor comments as I read along and then have a summary later. You may or may not find them very useful.

We seem to share some common interest: music, linguistics. I grew up listening to a lot of Western classical, a love that remains with me though nowadays most my my classical listening is focused on post-tonal music: Schoenberg, Berg, Ligeti, Saariaho, Stockhausen... However Jazz is what I listen most and I found your description of Kratu's attempt at mastering non-diatonic chords on guitar at the beginning of the Pur-Bhed chapter to be funnily accurate. However these non-diatonic intervals do appear in a lot of tonal classical music...Debussy, Ravel,... and of course in Bach (who foresees so much of the possibilities). Anyway, some critical comments:

a. You need a better Editor. In Chapter 3 at one place talking about the three-node melodies the text says "Do, Re, Pa" instead of "Do, Re, So" . It was a slip of pen (not uncommon to multi-liguists) from your part that should have been caught in editing.

b. If I may, whereas your writing about Kratu's first meeting with Afsar is impressive and masterful, the Tits chapter was maudlin and unsure at the same time. When you are trying to convey a cluster of complex interconnected feelings, which is rendered more unfathomable to outsiders by a very uniquely local form of inter-family dynamics that colors Kratu and Tista's perception of each other, trying to explain them at get-go is not a good strategy. We, your readers, should feel intrigued and mystified and not over-informed. Also, if I may, the whole "Tits" joke is a little juvenile. It may all be very true and yes funny, but a little on the overwrought side of the humor. The sexual humor can be a very potent weapon in a writer's arsenal, so it is best used sparingly.

c. You are at your best when you are writing about Kubha and her stories, and also writing about things that emanate from those stories or are connected to, even in anticipation. For everything else the quality drops a bit, not significantly but noticeably enough. Something you may want to think about for your next novel.

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Sudipto, so finally finished the novel. Thought a little bit about the most efficient way to convey my perspectives that you might find on the right side of originality. I am sure the obvious scopes for improvements have already been elucidated by your myriad fans and well-wishers.

First of all, a very very enjoyable read. Using the narrative thrust of a thriller to engage the readers' intellect on the subtler and more erudite core of the story is a time-worn tactic, but it doesn't always work. Yours did. Excellently done. There are some minor implausibility problems -- not a matter of what can happen in real life, anything can happen in real life, but a matter of being able to convince the readers fully, there is just too many happy coincidences a la Tinitn -- but those do not derail the story. It is an issue of coloration, the bursts of improvisation on an otherwise tightly coiled story didn't always pay off. Again, those are minor flaws that can be overlooked.

Essentially, as is often the case, the strength of the novel is also the source of its weakness. The strength of the novel is its authentic and genuine passion and engagement with a certain historical worldview, and a sense of spatial-temporal unity and continuity of human civilization which is a quintessentially Indian philosophical trait.

However, that authenticity can preclude irony, and doubt, and subterfuges of mind and the treacheries of time. There is a humor in your novel which is very Bengali, and its truly lovable and funny in those moments (though tad bit on the side of the precious, but that maybe simply my harsher predisposition), and there is a great intelligence and erudition of subject matter. But to truly lift this novel out of its genre-specifiicty it needed darker shades of humor and an intelligence that turns on itself. It needed self-doubts, it needed irony, and it needed a sense of displacement from its core to catch the readers on their moments of smug knowingness. Great art leaves one puzzled and invigorated at the same time.

A great example you would find, in a different kind of story about historical continuity, is Eco's masterful "Foucault's Pendulum".

Really looking forward to your next work. And thanks so much for indulging my comments. Hopefully at least some of those you found useful.

BTW, would you be okay if I post a concise review of your work on my timeline? It would be a summarized version of what I had written above, but erring on the side of praise.

Hasee To Phasee: the film that arouses the 'mad' in you

Just saw Hasee to Phasee. A very fresh movie directed by Vinil Mathew and produced by the likes of Karan Johar, Vikramaditya Motwani, Anurag Kashyap and others. 

If the name Vinil Mathew doesn't ring a bell, let me let you all that he's the guy behind some of the most amazing ads in the recent times - the Shubharambh series of ads of Cadbury, the Surf excel ads where kids dirty their clothes. (More of his ads can be seen at this site http://www.earlymanfilm.com/vinil-mathew/).

If you remember the ads, a common theme that emerges out slowly is the madness, the small things that we often overlook, things that appear kiddish, unsophisticated, things that make the difference between being boring versus ridiculous, coming to which I've to quote a line of Marilyn Monroe's - madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. (Sorry Sharmin Ali for plagiarizing this quotation you've used in your book and which I've been quoting almost everywhere since I've read your book)

This movie is not for you, if you don't like madness. Parineeti's character is total mad. She's shown to be a chemical engineer from IIT (perhaps the best ever portrayal of an IITian in Hindi movies) who leaves her home to pursue her dream research for which her father declines to give any money. She gets into drugs, does crazy things in China to fund herself, returns to India to arrange (read steal) 1 million bucks, and she's also romantic, falls in love in a very unusual way, brings some order in the life of a guy who has failed almost everywhere, but who never fails to dream, think big, aspire for more, never loses hope even after his girlfriend of seven years has broken up with him every month, in his own words, like bank EMIs.

This simple movie harps on a very important thing we all overlook. Don't kill the madness in you. And if you are not mad, God save you.

I've always felt that it's madness which fuels creativity, both is arts or business or spirituality or any other sphere. This particular movie may be a over simplified depiction of the madness I'm talking about. I'm not sure what exactly the writer and the director intended to depict or convey, but for me it did resonate with my thought of madness.

Steve Job was a mad, whatever the world may call him or remember by. So was Dhirubhai Ambani, when he thought of having a company of his own like Shell, where he worked in middle east in a lowly job. Having started his entrepreneurial journey with supply crankshafts to local cycle manufacturers in the Punjab, it was just madness when Sunil Mittal thought of creating a company like SingTel and the world knows the rest about Airtel. Though may not be put in the same league, but Swami Vivekananda was no doubt mad when he figured out that not a single person was available to represent Hinduism at the Parliament of Religion in Chicago in 1893 and he himself embarked on a journey alone to the US to address the sisters and brothers of America on behalf of the "most ancient order of monks in the world.... mother of religions.... and  millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects". Mahatma Gandhi would have been mad too when he saw the sufferings of India. Ditto with a young prince of Kapilavastu after seeing people suffering from various problems. He eventually attained enlightenment and became the Buddha. But at the core was a madness, a pagalpan.

Any act of madness evokes suspicion from other people who can't be mad. Madness is not always on the right track. Often madness leads to destruction, but ignoring madness for that would be like throwing the baby along with the bath water. We often fail to attain something big because we can't be mad, because we don't have the guts to be mad. 

I feel it's essential to realize the madness in you, arouse the mad in you.

Go and watch, be mad.

Things to look for: 

• Parineeta and Siddhart's roles, for sure. Both are just fabulous.
• Great dialogues.
• The relation between Parineeti and her father. This was a very subtle aspect of the entire movie and may be ignored totally. "She is so much like me," says her father toward the end of the movie. "I could have stayed back in Surat and runa  small sari shop. But I came to Bombay..." It's very important to see how the movie ends with such a positive note, the father almost accepting all the weird things his daughter did. Perhaps he was the only person in the family who had been mad too.
• The overall positive way the main protagonists look at everything in the world. It's a very matured behavior which we seldom see in Hindi movies.

Roots, Identities and States

I'd posted on my wall yesterday (1 Nov) my comments about Karnataka Rajyotsava Day. I wrote the following:

Happy Birthday of a state? How many of you have heard of such a thing? People outside Karnataka may not be aware that today, 1st of November, is celebrated as the the Kannada Rajyotsava Day, which commemorates the formation of the present Karnataka state in 1956 by merging the erstwhile Mysore province with Kannada speaking parts of Bombay, Madras and Hyderabad. So what the crap does this mean? What happens to the people who speak other languages in the new entity? Extending the logic, why shouldn't the speakers of Coorgi or Tulu or Konkani demand their own Rajyotsava? Latitudes and longitudes and rivers and mountains are enough to divide a country. Using languages for such lowly things is a shame. Even the Britishers didn't divide and rule so much. 

The Vijaynagar empire, which is synonymous to the Carnatic culture and identity extended much beyond the present Karnataka. The Maratha Empire comprised almost the whle of India at some point of time. The Tamil speaking Cholas extended till Bengal. So why restrict Kannadigas or the Marathis or the Tamils (or for that matter anyone else) to such claustrophobic boundaries now?

Immediately one of my FB 'friends' from Bangalore unfriended me with the following post:

A so called 'writer / author' of a book who hails from a different state and earns his bread and butter living in Karnataka writes this post about Kannada Rajyothsava... If they feel celebrating our state's formation is a shame then why the hell are they staying here??

Considering your point of view Mr. Sudipto Das, you must be feeling ashamed of celebrating Independence day also in that case.. Kannada Rajyothsava is nothing less than India's Independence day for all the people of Karnataka.. FYI it's not only celebrated bythe Kannada speaking people but by all the residents of Karnataka. The term 'Kannadiga' is not only coined for the Kannada speaking crowd but we consider every person who is a resident of the state as a Kannadiga irrespective of their language

I argued with another post:

I was expecting some abuse, because I knew my point won't be understood... My point is, why the state for the Kannadigas should be just restricted to the boundaries of the present Karnataka? During the rule of the Vijaynagar kings, the so called state for the Kannadigas was much bigger, comprising almost the entire south India. That's the point... Why create small small states for linguistic or ethnic entities? Have the whole country, and feel the same for every part of India. India doesn't stand for any language or ethnicity. Etymologically too India is just a geographical entity, and dats what it shud be... The entire division of states based on languages has absolutely no meaning. Why can't West Bengal be a State for Kannadigas? Why can't Bombay be for the Biharis? Why can't madras be for the bombites?

Subsequently two of my friends posted the following:

Soumya Desai: i thought india managed that well - unlike europe which is divided into countries and now trying to retrofit common currency and ease immigration and cross-employment; india inspite of large populations with different languages/culture, kept itself as a single country (rather than become a sub-continent)

Atanu Neogi: Sudipto, as you seem to be encouraging discussions on this volatile and controversial issue, how do you think the states should have been divided when India -- the modern geo-political entity -- was created? Should there not have been any states? But that would have been a logistics-governance nightmare, right? Now if we start with the conclusion that the states as a governance construct was mandatory how should those state boundaries have been drawn? The 'geometric' boundaries -- a la post-colonial sub-Saharan African countries -- idea seems appealing, but as that experience has evidently shown tribalism and local allegiances would have come to forefront and create strife anyway.

To continue, Identity is a much subtler and nuanced and yes, sometimes tribal , concept than what we well-meaning modern trans-nationals may want to believe. Language , along with sex, family and creed , is a fundamental component in an individual's identity matrix. Even for a true multi-lingual -- say a Swiss from Geneva -- the fact of that multi-linguality itself is an inherent part of the identity. And the thing about identity components is that they always aspire, in almost a biological sense, to be recognized and respected. A governance construct in a country of the complex diversity of India has to have some basis with an individual's sense of Identity. Sure the politicians have done their bit of shameless chicanery as they are wont to do, but as a concept itself a language based sense of belonging is not that bad a concept. Look at the French for example.

That's when I thought of writing this blog. The same thought that would come to my mind while I was writing my book The Ekkos Clan, came to mind again. There's this constant urge of human beings to organize themselves based on their identities, which I can't but connect to an aspiration to get connected at the roots. When we say that we'll are Bengalis, we implicitly try to bind all of us to a common origin, which in this case is perhaps a proto Bengali language which all our ancestors might have spoken at some time in the history. I say proto Bengali because the Bengali I speak and that the people of Chittagong in Bangladesh speak are as different as Bengali is from Gujarati, but still we don't have any problem in calling both Bengalis. Sometimes the common binding of language may be extended to culture, which again is closely connected to the language. So when we say of a Bengali state, we actually mean a state for the people who have been speaking various forms of dialects all of which have evolved from a proto Bengali language, and whose cultures have some commonality, especially in terms of habits, habitats, traditions, rituals etc. 

Now let's see some fallacies with such an idea of state. As I'd started with Karnataka Rajyotsava, let me take the example of Karnataka. Similar examples are available for all other states. Let us go back a bit, to the origin of the Kannada language and culture, as that's perhaps the common root we're trying to connect to.

More we go back in time, more complicated the history becomes. Let's start with the Chalukyas, which rose to power in the 6th century in South India and were quite powerful till the 8th century. This period is a golden age in the history of Kannada language literature and culture. Following was the extent of the Chalukya Kingdom, whose creations were the World Heritage sites in Pattadakal in present day Karnataka, - it covers major parts of south and central India.

The Chalukyas were succeeded by the Rashtrakutas in the 8th century. Their creations are the World Heritage sites at Elephanta and Ellora caves, both in Maharashtra. The Rashtrakutas also played a major role in the history and culture of Karnataka. The extent of their kingdom was also much beyond the present day Karnataka:

Next let us come to the legendary Vijaynagar kingdom under which the Kannada (Carnatic) culture, literature, art and music reached great heights. The Vijaynagar Kingdom comprised the entire South India. 

So, if three of the most glorious Kannada kingdoms comprised much more than the present day Karnataka, then what's the basis of restricting the present Kannada state to such a small boundary? Well, you can argue that presently the Kannada speakers are restricted mainly to this region. But then you're totally ignoring the cultural heritage and legacy of the Kannada people. So the very urge to bind people with a common root and create a state for them seems meaningless, because when you're anyway ignoring the grand past and the glorious cultural heritage, then what's left of the roots?

So, my point is that, this very pretext of creating a Karnataka state for the Kannadigas was a futile effort, as you've anyway kept major parts of a historical Kannada state out of the boundaries of the present day Karnataka. The same is true for Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and perhaps most of the states. When the Karnataka state was never bounded by the present boundaries for more than 1500 years, what's the point in creating one now? Not all people in the Chalukya or Rashtrakuta or Vijaynagar kingdom spoke Kannada, and I'm not sure if those efficient rulers had provinces demarcated on the basis of languages. They surely had administrative units for governance, but they were not based on languages. If they didn't have any problem in efficiently running their state, why will there be a problem now? The Mauryas, the Guptas, the Mughals, and the Marathas had most parts of modern Indian subcontinent under their rule. No where in our own history, recent or past, have I come across the need or urge to have administrative units carved out based on languages, yet so many rulers ruled such big empires for thousands of years. 

Do I've to believe that the Kannada identity never existed before 1950s, and it's only a recent phenomenon? Do I've to believe that the zenith of the Kannada culture was attained in a period when there was nothing called a Kannada identity? Of course not. So then where did this form of linguistic identities crop up suddenly, unless it's just a political creation?

I believe the linguistic or cultural identity has been always there and has been always the strongest component in the identity of a person. But there was never a geographical restriction to the identity. The Bengali language and culture developed over a wide area, only a part of which is West Bengal and Bangladesh. If the Bengali identity survived for so long despite various kingdoms comprising the Bengali locus over various times, it will survive longer, irrespective of how you define the Bengali 'state' now. 

If the Pala Kings of Bengal believed in a restricted geographical boundary for Bengal, they wouldn't have expanded their kingdoms. Likewise, bounding people with a common linguistic or cultural roots to small regions is a very restrictive thought.

Whatever strategy you take to create administrative units, there will always be issues with majority people sharing some common roots controlling more power. Creating linguistic states too can't solve these problems. Rather it creates more problems, creates more divisions in the country, makes room for more ethnic clashes. 

If dividing India on the basis of religion was not a correct thing, then how come dividing the country on the basis of language be fine? In today's age of multiple identities, the identity of language or religion or ethnicity or nationality are no less or more important than one another. My being a Bengali and also an Indian and also a Hindu and also an Engineer and also a Bangalorean and also an erstwhile Calcuttan and also an East Indian and also a Bengali domiciled in Karnataka, and also a father of a son of Bengali origin born and brought up in Bangalore, and also.... Each of these identities are indisputable, authentic and relevant. Take out of these identities and I no longer remain the same. So why take only of my identities and create a geographical boundary and try to ignore all my other identities?

There's counter points here, suggested by Atanu. 

If I may I think your [argument] suffers from a rather acute historical bias: it is quite a stretch to claim that the Cholas or the Palas or the Marathi kingdoms were really the kind of efficient pro-people dynasty that you are trying to depict. We simply don't have any 'subaltern' historical perspectives from those times -- the little that exist in forms of folklores and proverbs etc. do not at all for instance paint the Marathi kingdom with any humanitarian qualities -- to make those assumptions. For majority of people life was brutal, short and in a perennial struggle with the elements and the human powers that governed them. A Pala king -- Buddhist he might have been and well-intentioned about the well being of his people -- would and could have no control over how the local mighty 'overlord' in the remotest westernmost corner of his stretched kingdom would have behaved towards the landless peasants. Language-identity-governance doesn't even come into the picture where the majority of ordinary lives are essentially a daily struggle. 

 In any case, I have no claim on infallibility -- don't you think fallacy is too a strong word to use in matters as nuanced as identity ?-- of my perspective, and sometimes a revisionist looking back of history is nothing more than an anachronistic fantasy (if only there were no partition or if only the Turks hadn't invaded India etc. etc.), but I think the language-based sense of local belonging has served India well (yes there have been the odd violence stemming from such identity) in the post-independent time when things could have really gone pear-shaped. In our sharp criticism of all ills that plague this very young nation (standing on the layers and layers of ruins of a labyrinth of civilizations) we often forget that most people outside India didn't give the country much a chance of survival, let alone the somewhat wobbly flourishing that we tend to be proud of, and managing this true tower of Babel at the time of Independence was quite an achievement.

Yes, Atanu is indeed correct. There's no reason to say that in the past, when there were no Karnataka or West Bengal, whether things were better than now. My argument is more on an idealistic front. With more and more migration and immigration and emigration, clinging to just one identity, that of language, and creating administrative units, seems to be really illogical to me. And anyway, we need smaller and smaller states. AP is broken, so was UP and Bihar. The people of Telengana and that of the rest of AP spoke the same language but still there were other aspects of their identities which prompted the former to carve out their own state. So the linguistic states are also not proved to have worked out well either.

The Ekkos Clan: Media Clippings

 Bangalore Mirror: 18 Oct, 2013

Deccan Chronicle: Oct 23, 2013

Deccan Chronicle: 28 Oct, 2013

The Hindu: 11 Oct, 2013

The Hindu: 26 Sept, 2013

Hindustan Times: 27 Oct, 2013

The New Indian Express: 15 Oct, 2013

The New Indian Express: 12 Oct, 2013

Sakal Times: 6 Oct, 2013

Sakal Times: 22 Sept, 2013

The Ekkos Clan: Publicity Posters