How systems and individuals rot

When I have to speak about British-Indian officials, I need to speak about my mother. She was only 23 years old when she joined as a Sub Registrar in the Madras Public Service. The time was just a few years after the departure of the British. Malabar was a part of the Madras state. All systems were then simply a continuation of the British systems. The officer class spoke English. There was no talk about taking a bribe. In fact, it was seen as equivalent to pick pocketing. The mental spur was in seeing things done fast and very fast. The public were to meet the officer who would immediately hand it over to the clerk to have it done fast. There was no need for the common man to linger around a clerk.

No bribes were expected and none collected. However, among the lower sections like the clerks and peons, who spoke Malayalam, the feudal attitude of pejoratives and expecting of homage was very much there.

There was one marked thing that I remember. When the land registration documents were written, it was customary to address the lower caste man as Nee and the higher caste man as Ningal (both meaning You, with the former, pejorative and the latter ennobling). I remember my mother directing the document writer to remove that discrimination in the addressing in the written document. This was mentioned to me by my mother.

I have had the occasion to meet many of her colleagues in my younger days. There was never a word among them of collecting bribes. In fact, the first time it was mentioned in my house, when I was just around three years old. A clerk from Travancore area had been posted in the interior village Sub Registrar’s office when my mother was the Sub Registrar. The clerk was quite concerned that there was no culture of collecting bribes in this office. And no access to the public also. He went around complaining to the document writers, who mentioned this fact to my mother. This piece of information was discussed in my house, with a mood of discussing some dirty thing. In fact, looking back, the attitude was as if one were discussing a person who was into something quite despicable. I think there was more dignity to a prostitute than to a government official who collected bribes or expected them.

I remember a marked change in demeanour as Malabar-based officers got transferred to Travancore. Here the culture was totally different, with claims for bribes a matter of right. However, it must be admitted that both Travancore as well as Malabar had feudal languages. Yet, the codes were different, and affect the people differently.

When speaking about my mother, I must admit that she was, as a private person, quite cunning, divisive, self-centred, selfish and in many ways a person of grave negativity. Especially her Malayalam-speaking side. However, as a public official, she was above all these qualities. I should claim that this was due to some inherent qualities in her genes and family background. But it would be a false claim. What I understood about her and many of her colleagues, was that they were setup into an English official system, in which they could not behave in any other manner other than be fast, efficient and prompt.

At the same time, I have come across persons, who are basically good and helpful, acting out as quite cantankerous officials as they react to their own official environment and to the public. Indian officialdom is a satanic institution because it is run on satanic codes. The same design codes that design pseudo-divinities like Gandhi set the tone to it. Divinities on top, and the common persons made to sit in dirt.

The falsity of the situation can be mentioned thus:

Three different persons go to an Indian police station. The first is a relative of a senior Indian government officer. The second is a school teacher. The third is an ordinary worker on the street.

Look at the way the policeman would address the three persons.

To the first: Saarinentha parathi? സാറിനെന്താപരാതി?

To the second: Ningalkku yentha parathi? നിങ്ങള്‍കെന്താപരാതി?

To the third: NInakenthada parathi? നിനക്കെന്താപരാതി?

The word in blue is ennobling, respectful and worshipping.

The middle one is neutral.

The word in red is pejorative, insulting, despoiling and also ****ying.

Yet, the effect of these three words is not as one would expect in English. The first makes the man assertive to the policeman. The second makes him arrive at a reasonably good stature. The third makes the worker respectful, worshipping, full of servitudes and praise for the policeman. If this doesn’t work, the man simply reacts differently and can in time, become a terrorist.

Yet, all the sentences simply mean: What is your complaint?

How can a native-English speaker sitting in England understand the real satanic codes in this Indian communication? For all he gets to know is, What is your complaint?

How can he understand the Satan that Gandhi was without understanding the devil in him that speaks Hindi to the lower Indians? Simply seeing a make-belief film on Gandhi that was for all purpose a propaganda film for the ruling party in India, a huge section of people all around the world have been fooled.

SEE this sneering comment that came to attack my comment on HuffingtonPost:

honeybear   July 14, 2012 at 12:40am

Wikipedia is not the beginning and end of my education. I usually cite my facts so that others here may confirm them. You DID notice that I also referred them to the bibliography at the bottom of the article for more reading.

I have studied Gandhi and followed Indira Gandhi's career to her horrible assassination....and Nehru as well. My opinions and perceptions differ greatly from yours.

No matter how much you have read about Gandhi...your mindset seems to be preventing you from perceiving him. If my "feeble" understanding of the "feudal" language...is that the Brits enjoyed kicking the sh*t out of minorities and lower classes...while trying to maintain a superior attitude...while THEY were the most violent people on the face of the earth...well yes...I do not speak fah...fah...fah...fah...fah!

Americans do tend to use colorful language. Sorry if I did not curtsy.

MY COMMENT: One can see the real spirit of Gandhism in the above words. Talking without information and the brutal stance of jeering and sneering as a servicible substitute to logical discussion. All what newly-arrived ‘Americans’ are doing to English language.

I really do wonder how this Gandhi would have mentioned the Englishmen in his native Hindi and Gujarthi. Would he have used ‘respectful’ words about the Englishmen he knew in India and England? Or would he have coyly used the s**tifyng words about and on them? He, who wouldn’t care a damn about s**tifying his own native countrymen, would he have cared to secure the Englishmen from his despoiling words? Did the Englishmen have an answer to his diabolical codes? Well, they never had this weapon; that of s**tifying others. At the same time, when Gandhi dares to use such words about the Englishmen, his followers would see in him greater power. For, it is how the codes work in feudal languages. Without having even a hint of this feature of Gandhi’s innate disposition, how can a person dare to make tall claims about him? For all such evaluations are based on hollow premises.