Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Making friends
Do you think it would be easy for you and write Hindi. Hindi is one of the
to make friends with someone who subjects I study in school."
was very different from you? Read the
following story and think about this. "Subjects?" he asked. How could I
explain what a subject was to someone
I had meant it as a joke. A joke who had never been to school? "Well, it
made up for a small ragged boy who is something…" I began, but the lights
sold newspapers at the Janpat changed, and the honking behind me
crossing at the busy intersection. grew a hundredfold and I let myself be
Every time I cycled past he would run pushed along with the rest of the
after me, holding out the English paper traffic.
Understanding Diversity /5
The next day he was there again, The next day, he did not have his
smiling at me and holding out a Hindi usual smile for me. "There is trouble in
paper. "Bhaiyya," he said, "aap ka Meerut," he said. "Many people are
akhbaar. Ab Bathaaiye yeh subject being killed there in the riots." I looked
kya cheez hai?" the English word at the headlines. Communal Riots, it
sounded strange on his tongue. blazed. "But Samir…" I began. "I'm a
It sounded like its other meaning Muslim Samir," he said in answer.
in English – to be ruled by someone "And all my people are in Meerut." His
else. eyes filled with tears and when I
"Oh, it's just something to study," I touched his shoulder, he would not
said. And then because the red light look up.
had come on, I asked him, "Have you He was not at the crossing the day
ever been to school?" "Never," he after. Neither the day after nor ever
answered. And he added proudly, "I again. And no newspaper, in English or
began working when I was so high." Hindi, can tell me where my Samir Do
He measured himself against my has gone.
cycle-seat. "First my mother used to
(The Lights Changed by Poile Sengupta)
come with me but I can do it all alone."
"Where is your mother now?" I Name three ways in which Samir
asked, but then the lights changed and Ek and Samir Do were different?
I was off. I heard him yell from
Did these differences prevent
somewhere behind me, "She's in
them from becoming friends?
Meerut with…" The rest was drowned
out.
"My name is Samir," he said the While Samir Ek is more familiar
next day. And very shyly he asked, with English, Samir Do speaks Hindi.
"What's yours?" It was incredible. My Although they both are more at home
bicycle wobbled. "My name is Samir in different languages they still
too," I said. "What?" His eyes lit up. communicated with each other. They
"Yes," I grinned at him. "It's another made the effort to do so because this
name for Hanuman's father, you was what was important to them.
know." "So now you are Samir Ek and Samir Ek and Samir Do also come
I'm Samir Do," he said triumphantly. from different religious and cultural
"Something like that," I answered and backgrounds. While Samir Ek is a
then I held out my hand. "Haath milao, Hindu, Samir Do is a Muslim.
Samir Do!" His hand nestled in mine Different religious and cultural
like a little bird. I could still feel its backgrounds such as these are an
warmth as I cycled away. aspect of diversity.
6 / Social and Political Life
earlier. Here, we're talking not of
Make a list of the festivals that difference but of inequality. Inequality
might have been celebrated by comes about when a person does not
the two boys. have the resources and opportunitites
Samir Ek: that are available to other persons.
Samir Do: The caste system is another
Can you think of a situation in example of inequality. According to
which you made friends with this, society was divided into different
someone who was very different groups depending upon the work that
from you? Write a story that people did and they were supposed to
describes this. remain in those groups. So if your
parents were potters you could only
In addition to their become a potter, nothing else. This
diverse religious and system was considered irreversible.
cultural backgrounds, And because you were not supposed
there are other ways to change your profession, it was not
in which Samir Ek considered necessary for you to know
and Samir Do are anything more than what you needed
different from each in your profession. This created a
other. For example, situation of inequality. You will read
while Samir Ek goes to more about this and other inequalities
school, Samir Do sells in the following chapters.
newspapers.
What does diversity add to our
Discuss lives?
Why do you think Samir Do did Just like Samir Ek and Samir Do
not attend school? Do you think became friends, you might have
it would have been easy for him friends who are very different from
to attend school if he wanted to? you. You have probably eaten
In your opinion is it a fair
different kinds of food in their homes,
situation that some children get
celebrated different festivals with
to go to school and others don't?
them, tried out the clothes they wear,
and learnt some of their languages
Samir Do did not have the as well.
opportunity to attend school. Perhaps
Make a list of the food that you
you've noticed that there are several
have eaten from different parts of
people in the area where you live who
India.
are poor and who don't have enough
to eat or wear and sometimes not even Make a list of the languages besides
a place to live. This difference is not your mother tongue that you can
speak at least one or two words of.
the same as the one we have seen
Understanding Diversity /7
far were forced to live in a
place where all people wore
the same two colours red and
white, ate the same food
(maybe potatoes!), took care
of the same two animals,
for example, the deer and
the cat, and to entertain
themselves played snakes
and ladders. What kind of
stories do you think they
would write?
You probably like reading and
hearing stories and adventures about Imagine that you are a writer or
different animals, people and even an artist who lives in the place
ghosts. Perhaps you even enjoy described above. Either write a
making up stories yourself ! Many story or draw a picture of your
life here.
young people feel happy when they
read a good story because it gives Do you think you would enjoy
them lots of ideas to make up more living in a place like this? List five
stories. People who write stories get different things that you would
their ideas from all sorts of different miss the most if you lived here.
places – from books, and real life and
from their imagination. DIVERSITY IN INDIA
Some may have lived in forests India is a country of many diversities.
close to animals and chosen to write We speak different languages, have
of their fights and friendships. Others various types of food, celebrate
read real accounts of kings and different festivals, practise different
queens and wrote stories about love religions. But actually, if you think
and honour. Some dipped into their about it, we do many things that are
own childhood memories of school similar except that we do them in
and friends and wrote stories of different ways.
adventure.
How do we explain Diversity?
Imagine
if all the A little more than two hundred years
storytellers ago or long before the train,
and writers aeroplane, bus or car became a part of
that you our lives, people travelled from one
have heard part of the world to another, in ships,
and read so on horses, on camels or on foot.
8 / Social and Political Life
List at least three different ways in which people in India do the following.
One of the possible answers has been provided for you already.
Different ways in
Through signing a
which people get
register in the court
married
Often, they went in search of new music, religions became a mix of the
lands, or new places to settle in, or for old and the new, and out of this inter-
people to trade with. And because it mixing of cultures, came something
took so long to travel, once they got to new and different.
a place, people stayed there, often for The history of many places shows
a long time. Many others left their us how many different cultural
homes because there were famines influences have helped to shape life
and drought and they could not get and culture there. Thus regions
enough to eat. Some went in search of became very diverse because of their
work while others left because there unique histories.
was a war. Similarly diversity also comes
Sometimes, as they began to make about when people adapt their lives to
their homes in new places, people the geographical area in which they
began to change a little and at other live. For example living near the sea is
times they managed to do things in quite different from living in a
the old ways. So their languages, food, mountainous area.
Understanding Diversity /9
Not only do people have different
Ladakh is a desert in the
clothing and eating habits, but even the
mountains in the eastern part of
kinds of work they do are different. In Jammu and Kashmir. Very little
cities it is often easy to forget how closely agriculture is possible here since
people's lives are tied to their physical this region does not receive any
surroundings. This is because in the city rain and is covered in snow for a
people seldom grow their own vegetables large part of the year. There are
and grain. Instead they depend on the very few trees that can grow in the
market to buy all the food and other region. For drinking water, people
goods that they need. depend on the melting snow
during the summer months.
Let us try to understand what we
People here keep sheep and
mean when we say that historical and
the sheep in this region are
geographical factors influence the special because they produce
diversity of a region. We can do this by pashmina wool. This wool is
reading about life in two different parts of prized and pashmina shawls cost
the country, Kerala and Ladakh. a lot of money. The people in
Ladakh carefully collect the wool
Look at the map of India in an Atlas and of the sheep and sell this to
locate Kerala and Ladakh. Can you list traders from Kashmir. Pashmina
three ways in which the different shawls are chiefly woven in
geographical location of these two Kashmir.
regions would influence the following?
1. The food people eat: The people eat meat and milk
2. The clothes they wear: products like cheese and butter.
3. The work they do: Each family owns some goats,
cows and dzos (yak-cows).
Being a desert did
not mean that
Ladakh did not
attract its share of
traders. It was
considered a good
trade route as it
had many passes
through which
caravans travelled
to what is today
called Tibet. These
caravans carried
textiles and spices,
raw silk and
carpets.
The dry barren landscape of the mountainous
desert of Ladakh.
10 / Social and Political Life
Kerala is a state in the south- 2000 years ago and he is credited with
west corner of India. It is bringing Christianity to India.
surrounded by the sea on one Many Arab traders also came and
side and hills on the other. A settled down here. Ibn Battuta, who
number of spices like pepper, travelled here a little less than seven
cloves and cardamoms are grown on the hundred years ago, wrote a travelogue in
hills. It is spices that made this region which he describes the lives of Muslims
and says that they were a
highly respected community. The
Portuguese discovered the sea
route to India from Europe when
Vasco da Gama landed with his
ship here.
Because of all these various
historical influences, people in
Kerala practise different religions
such as Judaism, Islam, Chris-
tianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
The fishing nets used here look
exactly like the Chinese fishing
Chinese Fishing Nets
nets and are called cheena-vala.
an attractive place for traders. Jewish Even the utensil used for frying is called
and Arab traders were the first to come the cheenachatti, and it is believed that
here. The Apostle of Christ, St. Thomas the word cheen could have come from
is believed to have come here nearly China. The fertile land and climate are
suited to growing rice and a majority of
people here eat rice, fish and
vegetables.
QUESTIONS
2. What do you think living in India with its rich heritage of diversity
adds to your life?
4. Underline the line in the poem sung after the Jallianwala Bagh
massacre, which according to you, reflects India's essential unity.