Wo Hindi Medium Wala cover
Social/Political Commentary

Wo Hindi Medium Wala

byAmitabh Satyam

Mool Bhartiyon Ka Vidroh Aur Ubharta Raashtravaad

Amitabh Satyam's sharp, satirical case against English-medium supremacy and the cultural self-colonisation of modern India.

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Language
Hindi
Binding / Format
Paperback
ISBN
9798885750516
Pages
—
Published
—
Category
Social/Political Commentary

Overview

In India, the casual phrase 'Hindi medium wala' does a lot of damage quietly. It marks out everyone who speaks Indian languages, eats Indian food, and follows Indian customs as somehow lesser — not quite suited for the better jobs, not quite at ease in the better rooms. Amitabh Satyam argues that this is not a quirk of snobbery but the surviving structure of colonial cultural subordination, so thoroughly absorbed that most of its beneficiaries no longer notice it.

Satyam's method is part sharp social analysis, part personal testimony, and part biting satire. He traces how English was installed as the gate to respectable employment, effectively shutting out hundreds of millions of talented Indians who happen to think in other languages. Drivers, security guards, domestic workers — the book asks how many of them ended up there not from any deficit of intelligence but from the accident of their medium of instruction. The writing is barbed and funny, and it presses the reader toward genuine discomfort about assumptions that usually go unexamined.

A timely read as the debate around Indian languages in public life continues to intensify.

ABOUT THE BOOK: मूल बात पहले। ये पुस्तक इस धारणा को तोड़ती है कि भारत स्वतन्त्र है, और दिखाती है कि हमलोगों ने विदेशी सांस्कृतिक दासता को अपने मानस में आत्मसात् कर लिया है और अब तो उसकी अनुभूति भी हमें नहीं होती। अमिताभ सत्यम् इस मानसिकता और मूल भारतीय संस्कृति के प्रति हेय दृष्टि रखने वाले व्यवहार का विस्तृत विश्लेषण करते हैं। उनकी बात करते हैं जो भारतीय भाषा बोलते हैं, भारतीय भोजन करते हैं, भारतीय परम्पराओं का पालन करते हैं, और इस कारण "वो हिन्दी मीडियम वाला" जैसे अपमानजनक सम्बोधन को सहते हैं। अँगरेज़ी को उच्च स्तरीय नौकरियों की आवश्यकता के रूप में स्थापित करके हम सौ करोड़ भारतीयों की प्रतिभा को नकार देते हैं। अँगरेज़ी नहीं बोलने के कारण करोड़ों प्रतिभावान लोग ड्राइवर, सिक्युरिटी गार्ड और नौकर बन कर रह जाते हैं। मूल भारतीय आज अँगरेज़ी-मीडियमों द्वारा थोपी गई श्रेष्ठता के विरुद्ध विद्रोह कर रहे हैं। ये पुस्तक इन्ही भावनाओं को अभिव्यक्ति प्रदान करती है। पुस्तक पैने व्यंगात्मक परिहास और व्यक्तिगत अनुभवों से परिपूर्ण है। ये मात्र गुदगुदाती ही नहीं, हमारी इस मानसिकता पर गहन विचार करने को प्रेरित भी करती है।

Author

Amitabh Satyam photo
Amitabh Satyam

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amitabh is a researcher with focus on social themes. A graduate of IIT Kanpur with an MBA from the Fisher College of Business, Amitabh is currently the Chairman of Smart Transformations. He started his career on Wall Street at Shearson Lehman Brothers in the USA. He was later the Managing Partner at SAP, Vice President at IBM, Operations Head at Reliance, Vice President at Siemens and MD at MobiApps. He taught in the USA for four years at The Ohio State University and at Rider University, and received the 'Hazel S Brown Teaching Excellence' award. His earlier books are 'The Smart City Transformations', 'The End of Romance', and 'The Games India Plays'. Amitabh grew up in Sheohar in Bihar. He currently lives in Bengaluru.

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