Hyde Park Stories

I like to think that traditionalists are the people most capable of being cosmopolitan in the sense than John Lukacs uses the word, because we have an abiding respect for history and place great store by our own culture, language and literature, so we are that much better able to appreciate someone else’s attachments to his history, customs and traditions. It doesn’t mean that we endorse or approve of everyone else’s customs, but it means that we understand their importance. Now maybe I’m kidding myself, but my impression is that there is no one more provincial and trapped by the horizons of his tradition than the man who thinks he has universal values and that culture and religion are all but irrelevant in the real world. Of course, none of this is necessarily related to my watching Bollywood films. They are things I just happen to enjoy. It is assuredly mass pop entertainment and, as such, is probably not the best example of a cross-cultural connection that would demonstrate genuine acquaintance with the various Indian cultures.

If you know where these young women are, I would be glad if you could point them in my direction.

Razib, fear not. We firenghis can simply look on in awe and admiration, but they are surely beyond our reach.

Yes, it is originally a Persian word used in Hindi. I don’t know Bengali beyond namaskar, so that’s the best I could do when trying to make an amusing reference to non-Indians. Since Persian was a major literary language of India that predates modern Hindi and presumably litters the languages of South Asian Muslim peoples with loan-words (I don’t know this for a fact, but it stands to reason), I should think that firenghi would be among the less objectionable words that I could use in this case. If I used pardesi, then you could really give me a hard time.

If I were speaking to a Frenchman in English, I might very well use any number of words that are not French. So sorry to impose northern Indian cultural imperialism on you.

You’re very likely right, GOM. The Greeks referred to the frangoi, and Sayat Nova speaks of Frangistan when referring to Europe, so as a Byzantinist I will claim the privilege of referring to myself with a word derived from the one the Byzantines would have used to describe me.

Incidentally, this little argument reminds me why I typically say as little as possible about my interest in Bollywood, since apparently no good can ever come of it.

Perhaps I do. If so, I don’t know what it says about my status as a reactionary.

Obviously I had no idea about that history of the language. I was briefly tempted to try to learn Bengali, but the reality that I had no practical use for it whatever cooled my interest. But these are the sorts of problems that one will run into when all the most beautiful actresses in Indian cinema are Bengali, while all of the major films are produced in Hindi. Ill-informed outsiders, such as I am, will wind up saying all manner of inappropriate things.