Colonial Mindset

 Krishna does not become more respectable by becoming “Lord Krishna.”

Ram does not require validation from the vocabulary of the British aristocracy.

Bhagwan is Bhagwan.

THE WORLD LEARNS OUR WORDS. WHY ARE WE RUNNING AWAY FROM THEM?

The English-speaking world happily says:

Yoga.

Guru.

Karma.

Mantra.

Ayurveda.

Nobody demands that sushi be renamed because the conversation is happening in English.

Nobody translates samurai into some approximate English title every time the word is used.

Civilisations with confidence export their vocabulary.

Civilisations suffering from cultural insecurity translate themselves continuously for somebody else's approval.

That is the real issue.

AND THIS MENTAL DIVIDE GOES BEYOND LANGUAGE

The same cultural divide can spill into politics.

You can see a recurring tension in contemporary Bharat: sections of educated, metropolitan society speak about Narendra Modi with intense hostility, while many ordinary and economically modest voters express strong personal identification with him.

But education and income do not mechanically determine political preference, and “the educated oppose Modi while the poor worship him” should not be treated as a literal description of every voter.

The more interesting question is why sections of India's credentialled class can become culturally distant from the vocabulary, instincts and symbols that remain completely natural to millions of ordinary Indians.

That question is bigger than Modi.

It is about what we have come to regard as sophisticated.

English becomes sophisticated.

Bharatiya vocabulary becomes backward.

Western terminology becomes intellectual.

Traditional terminology becomes embarrassing.

And then we wonder why the farmer sometimes understands the cultural pulse of Bharat better than the person holding multiple certificates.

A university degree proves that you completed a course.

It does not automatically prove civilisational understanding.

EDUCATION SHOULD ADD TO YOU, NOT DELETE YOU

Learn English.

Master English.

Write beautiful English.

Read Shakespeare if you want.

Study at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard or anywhere else.

But why must becoming global require becoming linguistically embarrassed about being Bharatiya?

I can write an entire article in English and still say:

Bhagwan Shiv.

Bhagwan Vishnu.

Bhagwan Ram.

Bhagwan Krishna.

Maa Durga.

There is absolutely no contradiction.

Because English is a language I may use.

Sanatan is a civilisation I do not need to translate away.

Remember the distinction:

LORD can be a title carried by a human being.

BHAGWAN, in our invocation of the Supreme, speaks of the eternal Divine.

The two words can overlap in translation.

They are not the same concept.

Perhaps the supposedly “uneducated” villager never needed this lesson.

Perhaps some of us became so educated that we first had to unlearn our own vocabulary before the world would call us sophisticated.

And that may be the greatest irony of our education.

My Bhagwan does not need an English title.

He is Bhagwan.