Regionalism in India
How a Fauji found it weired
I started my career at the age of 17 yrs in one of the organisation which had Indian or Bhartiya before its name. Indian Navy....
The year was 1990 and we all around 650 odd young sailors were recruited from all around India from differant states, speaking differant languages and belonging to differant religions and may castes as thankfully there was no reservation to segregate all of us into further categories which all the other jobs do have other than the defence forces...
1990 it was Uttar Pradesh where my village was in. Later in 2000 we became the part of Uttarakhand....
So having recruited from Uttar Pradesh I got this opportunity to undergo my training at Orrissa at Naval Training base, INS Chilka....Again there was no regional identity as we were being trained by the seniors and officers who too were from the differant parts of India. There never arose any question as to which state we came from barring only the funny incidents where we used to fondly called one another with nick names of their states as a friendly gesture. Like Tamdu, Mallu, Tambi, Dada, Jaat, Balli, Ghati, Pahadi etc..But there was still no trace of any feeling of regionalism. Having Indian before the Navy sorted out all these differances and we were to become the part and parcel of this Organisation on completion of our training of 6 months...
After our training we were transferred to undergo further training at differant training establishments located in differant states and mostly being in southern part of the country. I underwent my training at Bombay then which is in Maharashtra. After this training I got my first transfer at Goa where I spent 3 good years and witnessed celebrations of all the possible festivals of our country as we had the people from all the states living together so the celebrations too were a great affair.
My next posting again was to Bombay for 5 years, then Madras for 1 year and then Gujarat for 3 years and finally the Udupi at Karnataka for 2 years...
That was the end of my Navy job and I came out in the civil world and joined my first civil job as a Govt Teacher in an interior village of Garhwal, Uttarakhand. Here lot many other identities were thrown upon me.
My name is Pankaj Kumar, so people even my colleagues wished to further know what my surname could be. This too did not solve their querry they then wished to know my caste, surprisingly this too did not end the matters they were further wanted to know whether I was A Garhwali or Desi....😄😄
So having been identified as an Indian for past 15 yrs did not work for me in my first civil job and so many new identities were imposed on me...And it was a big revealation for me too as to find the outside world totally differant from the organisation where I spent 15 years and I was comfortable with my just one identity of being a sailor of Indian Navy. Nothing further...
.I have completed my 10 years in State Govt job and I am still asked about my identities and many people still wonder if I am keen for a transfer to my home dist at Haridwar. When I tell them NO I AM NOT, they feel surprised....As if I am working in some foreign land. Here I am working for my country another state of this beautiful land and I feel comfortable working anywhere around the state since its the State Govt Job and I can not be transferred out of the state.....But still despite our best efforts there are times when you hear the things that you are an outsider then I really feel surprised....That how deep is the feeling of this regionalism in our minds. And I guess its hard to be erased because there may be the people around who might be fanning these feelings among the general public jus for the sake of their various gains....And there are still the people around who wish to further know as to what keeps me going around and what is my motive to work in the hills of Uttarakhand. For me these are not only the hills of this Uttarakhand state, these are the hills of भारत भूमि and I am working for the people of my भारत भूमि ।
जय हिंद ।
