For years I have been very sympathetic to the Tamizh cause. A strange, intangible cause of fighting subversion. Of not wanting to associate with the the Hindi identity. Of protesting against being amalgamated into a hotch-potch Indian identity to the extent of losing the regional flavour.
And yet, I am beginning to think the cause has hardly any place in present context. The Tamizh population doesn’t care about the cause in Sri Lanka anymore, and the balance of power in Sri Lanka isn’t as imbalanced as it is made out to be. The Tamizh population in Sri Lanka is as persecuted by their own kind, as it was previously by the Sinhala Government.
And within Tamizh Nadu I see a frenzy that has nothing to do with being Tamizh, and is strangely closer to fanaticism. It has nothing to do with fighting subversion, but is subversive itself in its attempt to censor what is culturally unacceptable according to a few political cliques.
Kamal Haasan’s film Mumbai Xpress is something I am looking forward to. And it seems the film is running into trouble for the most inane reasons.
The poster didn’t seem vulgar to me.
Half the places in Tamizh Nadu are named after dead British men.
And what is so English about the word Express anyway? Half the trains in the country, including the ones running in Madras are something express. When causes disintegrate into pointless rambles, they become like Neha’s blog. And the question of Tamizh identity is not that trivial. And it won’t be resolved by the boycott of names on account of them being in English! This just alienates well meaning people to take any issue in Tamizh Nadu seriously.
And for every little thing, we must bow and bare our souls and bums to the mighty Amma.
Pathetic.
