Let's not be persuaded by stupid 'Bakistanis'

On Thursday Twitterrsquos India head for news politics and government Raheel Khursheed tweeted ldquoTwitterRamzaanSpecial New Ramadan and Eid icons Hashtag the words Ramadan and Eid and see the magicrdquo I found it odd for two reasonsFirst why should the hashtag for a lsquoRamzanrsquo thatrsquos the correct spelling not Ramzaan special treat be Ramadan Second why should a social media platform be offering magical mystery tours for the faithful irrespective of their faith Twitter wishing its users on festivals is one thing Twitter marketing religion is quite anotherA third question that comes to mind Has this social media platform in the past offered its users a TwitterLentSpecial or a TwitterYomKippurSpecial I donrsquot recall a TwitterHoliSpecial or a TwitterDeepavaliSpecial but that could be because NGOs may have petitioned Twitter using changeorg against pagan festivals that threaten the environment I am however open to correctionBut we digress from the issue of substituting lsquoRamzanrsquo as the Muslim month of fasting is known in Urdu with lsquoRamadanrsquo an Arabic word Truth be told I felt offended that Twitter should be slyly pushing for this substitution because its social political and cultural implications cannot be underestimated This isnrsquot just about phonetics as the naiumlve would believeSo I sought a clarification from Khursheed and he explained that the Ramadan hashtag was meant for the Middle East market He added that Twitter was working on including Ramzan as a hashtag for whatever magic it has on offerThe point really is not about Twitter and its marketing tactics It is about transplanting an alien culture and identity on an unsuspecting people who often confuse symbols with religion and symbolism with religiosity This is where Ramadan for Ramzan comes inFor some years now it has been fashionable to refer to what we in India have always called Ramzan as Ramadan which is what the month of fasting is known as in Arab countries more specifically the Persian Gulf countriesThere is no call for this substitution unless the purpose is to don borrowed robes That would be as ridiculous as an Indian preening about in a thoub a sight which sadly is neither unseen nor unheard of in this country This is like the lsquoArab roomalrsquo which is now considered an obligatory marker of faith though the origin and use of the keffiyeh had nothing to do with todayrsquos popular misconceptionTill the stunningly beautiful Leila Khaled popularised the keffiyeh and the Kalashnikov as the twin symbols of Palestinian terror and a rakish Yasser Arafat later adopted the chequered scarf to set his guerrilla costume apart from that of Fidel Castro it was no more than a headdress worn by the Bedouin Chinese factories now massproduce the keffiyeh that Indians and Arabs sport a lsquobondrsquo that the former cravenly hanker for and the latter scornfully repudiateThere are other seeping changes too that are disconcerting In the mistaken belief that Arabisation is the path to salvation some Indian Muslims have begun referring to EidulZuha as EidulAdha In Kerala billboards advertise the lsquoArab Purdahrsquo the burqa now has a religious as well as cultural tag both equally specious if not bogus Then there are those among us educated and upwardly mobile who listen attentively to Zakir Naik as he explains in lurid detail the Arab art of whipping your wife so that she doesnrsquot go astraySome years ago the Los Angeles Times had published an excellent essay lsquoBringing home a new Islamrsquo documenting the influences on Indians working in the Persian Gulf countries and how they were transplanted on Indian shores That list has grown by leaps and bounds since then lsquoKhuda hafizrsquo has become lsquoAllah hafizrsquo and the gracious lsquoadabrsquo is now an alien lsquoSalam aleikumrsquoWe really donrsquot need to tread the path taken by foolish bigots who have taken to calling their country lsquoAl Bakistanrsquo and have banned samosas from iftar repasts as they are of lsquoHindu originrsquo If only the fools knew that the samosa is of Turkish origin some say it came from central Arabia they would have made it the national dish of lsquoAl Bakistanrsquo or at least the provincial dish of lsquoBunjabrsquo Meanwhile herersquos wishing Ramzan Mubarak to Indians who will be fastingThe writer is a senior journalist based in the National Capital Region His Twitter handle is KanchanGupta