MICRO RACISM 2.0: IDLI-DOSA vs PANI-PURI

T'S nice to see a coalition government in Delhi led by PM Narendra Modi's BJP taking power with critical support from the TDP under Nara Chandrababu Naidu.

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This should augur well for south-north relations. I put south before north with deliberate intent. Mathematics teaches us that a permutation is not a combination; the former involves a sequence that has its own meaning. It's time to apply that concept in our social, political and cultural life, just to get a hang of what things were, are and could be. Saying south-north relations instead of the other way should help us understand how equations work in a world where perspectives differ by points of view.

The provocation is a story about actor Shruti Haasan, who shut down a request during a live session on Instagram. It seems she was asked by a follower to say something in a south Indian accent and she called it an act of "micro racism". This is what she said in Insta-slang: "So, this sort of micro racism is not OK. And it's not OK when you look at us and say idli-dosasambar either. And no, you don't imitate us well, so don't try and be funny." Point taken. Let me add that we Indians have a strange way of describing southerners as 'south Indians'. Can we drop that 'Indian' bit? It kind of states the obvious.

Perhaps there is a post-colonial interpretation to this about seeing one's own self from an outsider's POV. That may be an excellent practice spiritually, but perhaps not in a socio-political sense.