Hello all, am back again :-)
The month gone by has been very eventful with lots of travel and it brought its
own share of good news :-)
Coming to this post, I’m sure we all would have come across
this question – What’s in a name?
I am asking you the
same – What’s in a name?
Well, so many things. First of all, how are we named? Do we
know the meaning of our names?
There’s more to it than meets the eye.
Gone are the days when the child is named after the
grandparent. Today we have people scouting for unique names for their children.
Their efforts have borne fruit too for today we have kids with very unique
names.
When we look into the names, we only see how it sounds. We
don’t really look into its meaning. Every name has to mean something.
Really?
Oh, yeah!
Until a year ago, I really didn’t know what my name really
meant. I knew that I was named “Ashwin”, ‘cause I was born on the day of “Ashwini”
star according to the Tamil Calendar. So I thought that my name means the
Ashwini star. That was when I chanced upon this book called “The Penguin Book
of Hindu Names” by Maneka Gandhi in an airport. Curiously, I turned the pages
to see if my name was present. It was and that was when I got to know the
actual meaning of my name. It means “a person who rides on the back of a horse” :-) I am pretty sure that
my parents didn’t know that too when they named me :-) Well, it was some sort of a revelation for me.
That’s when I started to look into what names meant. Some names are
straightforward in meaning like Surya, Aditya, Roshni, etc. Whereas some names
have a meaning that could be made out
from the name itself. Eg. “Anamika” means a person with no name :-) Funny :-) There are also names
like Ashwin where the meaning is not apparent in the name but hidden within in
the language of origin (Sanskrit in this case) :-)
Surname:
While there’s no trouble with the names, it’s the surname
that’s a real cause for concern. In our country, it so happens that in 75-80 pc
of the cases, the surname reveals more than what’s necessary or to put it
differently, it gives away the bio-data of a person.
Casteism is a big bane in our country. And in most parts of
the country, it’s the caste name that is taken as a surname. Be it a Patel or a
Sharma or a Menon or a Dutt or a Banerjee, they’re all caste names. So as soon
as you hear the full name of a person, you can make out which part of the
country he/she’s from, which caste he/she belongs to, what were their ancestors
like, whether they’re from the so-called forward community or the oppressed
classes, what their characteristic traits will be like, etc. I am not exaggerating in any way. It’s true
that our country has been divided on these lines to such a great extent that
people can judge you so much just by knowing your caste and their task is made
simpler if your name gives it away.
In that sense, I do feel proud that I belong to a state
where this practice has been done away with. Yes, in Tamilnadu, that system is
non-existent. Gone were the days when you could find a Periasamy Thevar or a
Velu Naicker or a Chinnappa Gounder loitering down the streets. Yes. Even now
they are present but they must all be
over 50 years of age. No youngster in
Tamilnadu these days is given a caste name as his/her surname.
This being the case, I find it peculiar why certain
youngsters especially from the so-called forward castes take pride in attaching
their caste names as their surnames. Please don’t mistake me. I belong to one
such so-called forward castes too and it
really pains me to see when people, that too youngsters, doing this with pride.
Once back when I was in Orissa, I explained to a colleague
with pride that in my state, people don’t attach their caste names to their
names. All it took for him was to scan through my Facebook friends list and
prove me wrong. And believe it or not, all the people he pointed out to prove
me wrong were all people from the so-called forward castes who had attached
their caste names as their surnames. And worse still was the fact that many of
them did not have their caste names attached in their official names but took
pride in doing so very openly for the world to see in Facebook. I really don’t understand
why. Be it a Niranjan Iyengar or a Varshini Iyer or a Mahalakshmi Iyer, I only
found these so-called forward caste people doing this. I could not find a single
Rajesh Gounder or a Sandeep Thevar or a Prakash Chettiar anywhere online or
offline.
Again, don’t mistake me. As I said, I belong to one of those so-called
forward castes and the pain I felt when I realized that it was my own brethren
who were doing this in an otherwise model state in this aspect, is what is
making me say all this even if it’s been more than a year since that day.
So my request to every one of you, irrespective of who you
are, is that please refrain from giving a caste name to your ward’s name. If
you’ve been officially named with your caste name, nothing can be done but you
can limit the use of your surname atleast.
For fellow youngsters who have attached their caste names to
their names, please stop doing so. It’s not a matter of pride to let the world
know of your caste that too through your name. There is absolutely no pride in
showcasing your caste, no matter whichever the so-called high caste you belong
to. No caste is high or low. And let me tell you that broadcasting your caste
to the world is not going to earn you any brownie points but it will only make
everyone look down upon you as a casteist. Casteism is one of the prime ills of
our society and to get rid of it, we youngsters should lead the way. Never mind
what the person next to you is doing. You can be the change. You can show the
way. Let the generations to come atleast refrain from using their caste
identity in their everyday life.
The Naming System:
In Tamilnadu, we follow this practice of giving an initial
to the actual name of the child. The initial is usually the first letter of the
father’s name. Now increasingly the first letter of the mother’s name is also
being used as initial.
But a more pragmatic approach of naming a child would be to
attach the parent’s name to the child’s name. This is the standard approach
that has been followed throughout the globe. If named that way, then there would be no
confusion when the child’s passport is being issued. Thanks to Facebook, more
and more people are starting to follow this practice of naming. And I have to thank my parents who were
intelligent and futuristic enough to think and name me that way. In “Ashwin
Murali”, Ashwin is my name and Murali is my dad’s name. There were quite a few
people in my school who were named this way like Chandrashekar Anand or
Aishvarya Ananth.
When I was in Orissa, people used to ask me if I belong to a
caste called “Murali” and I used to answer in the negative and explain the
naming system in Tamilnadu to them with pride. My pride took a hit on that
particular day. Sigh. Ever since that day, I could not explain with the same
pride knowing that there are people who atleast on the outset, look casteist.
A confusion may arise as to why only the father’s name. No
issues there. It’s perfectly normal to attach the mother’s name too and people
have started doing that.
And staying on the topic of mother, the obvious question
next would be about women taking their husband’s name for a surname. Not at all
necessary, I say. It’s completely a matter of choice and I am definitely
against women changing their official names in the records. Here again I’d cite
the example of my mom who retained her official name in all records. It’s only
in Facebook that she has my dad’s name attached to her name and that again is a
matter of personal choice.
I recently spoke to a
friend (a senior) who got married. I asked him about his wife’s changed name in
Facebook. He told me that he made it clear to her that he doesn’t want her
official name to be changed in anyway. But he had this long-cherished dream of
seeing his name attached to his wife’s name in Facebook and he spoke to her about it and requested
her to do so just for a month if she wishes. LOL. She readily obliged and even
though it’s been more than a month, the name has remained that way and when he
told her that she could revert to her old name, she gave him a stern look and
asked if that wouldn’t look odd to the world around. LOL. True indeed :-) Doing that now would
make people think that they have separated :-)
He realized that and left the matter to her and she’s perfectly happy with her
new name even if it’s only in Facebook. I realized that in this case,
everything was a matter of personal choice except that sheepish request that he
made initially. Cute couple they are :-)
In another case, I remember a friend joking that his brother
would now change his name by attaching his wife’s name to his name now that he
got married :-)
LOL :-D Yes, that could happen a lot in the future too. Infact, I know a person
who has his wife’s name behind his name in Facebook. I even asked him once
about it and he calmly replied “What’s wrong in that? She’s everything for me
and it’s the least I could do to her even if it’s just Facebook.” :-) Made perfect sense. Again a matter of choice :-)
Let me finish with this one incident that I remember. When
the anti-reservation protests were happening in the country against the OBC
quota in higher educational institutions, all the students in IIT Kanpur
changed their surnames to “Bharat” (the country’s name) as they did not wish to
be divided along the lines of caste. Excellent, I felt.
Guess that’s enough for now.
I have refrained from dealing with caste-based naming system
in the rest of the country in this post as I felt that I require a deeper
understanding of the system there before I can talk about/condemn those.
It is for the same reason that I have refrained from talking
about the naming systems in other religions as it would not be appropriate for
me to talk about it unless I have a deeper understanding/affiliation.
Forgive me if you felt offended in any way reading this post
but understand that these are my humble opinions and I wish to talk straight
from the heart, atleast in my written
word.
Cheers :-)
-Ashwin Murali
Disclaimer: The
views expressed in this post are strictly the author’s personal views and are
not intended to offend any particular caste/community/religion in any way. Also
the names used in this post are completely fictional and any resemblance to any
person dead/alive is purely coincidental.
PS: Chandrashekar and Aishvarya are the only real names that
I have used in this post. So Chandru or Aishu, if you read this, please don’t mind that I used your names without
permission. :-)
PPS: My future wife, whoever you are, let me assure you that I leave the naming
issue completely to your choice J
So let this not deter you in any way ;-) ;-) ;-) But please don’t change my
Facebook name, ok? ;-) ;-) :-)
