Nirant Kasliwal
Met 2023-02-19 14:00 at ITC Gardenia, 1 Residency Rd, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru, Bangalore, India.One of the most fascinating educational conversations I’ve ever had. I asked him why the south has such a different culture than the north and he said, “Actually I know the answer. I studied sociology of North and West India”, then told me all about it.
His parents are from Rajasthan. He grew up in a coastal town called Sura, in Gujarat.
Bangalore is the only city in India with any meaningful quantities of new money.
North and West India has a lot of old money. So there’s a lot of emphasis on dressing.
In Jaipur, the famous Golden Triangle, there’s a lot more emphasis on conspicuous display of wealth because most wealth is inherited and it feeds into everything. The opportunities you get to grow professionally and socially are dependent on that display of wealth. Wealth and status are very closely tied.
On the other hand, in western India, where I grew up, the display, the clothing will still be very casual. So you could see somebody dressed in boxers, for instance, getting out of a Mercedes, and that guy would eat from a roadside place, because there the display of wealth is less tied to inherited wealth. It’s tied more to what you have accomplished. So it’s more about what you can do with that wealth. Sponsoring schools.
North India signals strength and wealth - the ability to protect what you love - because until the 1950s India was always under attack from our neighbors. The threat was real. India didn’t have enough money to buy weapons or ammo so they’d send volunteers to collect jewelry and gold to buy ammo to defend our borders. People donated out of free will. Some degree of social pressure.
People often start a school or they donate to a temple, depending on how religious they are and how much money they have, because it’s often cheaper to donate to a temple because legally speaking, schools in India cannot discriminate between students if they are run by a religious institution. So donating to a temple can make a school through the temple which can discriminatingly educate your children.
Jainism’s main prayer starts with, “I bow down to those who have conquered all their senses”.
We both noticed the similarity of the words “war ship” and “worship”.
The hotel I chose (ITC Gardenia) is intimidating.
India in terms of just cultural diversity is probably richer than Europe.
Bangalore had a Ghazal night - my favorite form of music - inspired by Sufi - romantic poetry. Tabla, harmonium, now guitar since the 90s, and they have their own spin on it in Bangalore. Taking tradition forward, and keeping culture alive. A performance of Urdu poetry tonight in Bangalore. None of these existed 5-6 years ago.
As money came into Bangalore, it stayed here, which was not the case through the 90s. So now it’s supported its own litrary arts culture scene.
Urdu poetry gives you some other degree of flexibility. For instance, there’s a word called Ghulam, which has the same origin word as Ghazal. The first sound is very similar to honeysuckle. So in the same root, same Ghulam means slave. And there are very interesting use of this in poetry because most of very famous ghazal traditions, traditions came when India was slave country. So people would write entire poems on how they’re enslaved. And the entire poem would be of great joy that I’m taking joy in slavery. And then the last two lines of that same poem would indicate that actually, they’re enslaved to their lover.
Sufism has an approachable God, to listen to instead of being forced to listen to.