Do you speak "Hindu"?

Rabindranath Tagore once said about short stories: "They are simple events of life happy or sad, some sad strings from the train of forgetfulness, not fraught with heavy descriptions, not crowded with events, no advice, no philosophy, only the feeling that the story is not yet over, although there is no more to read...". 

Dabba ("The Lunchbox" in Hindi) was released in India on September 20, 2013 and is currently showing in some independent theaters over in Spain. It is an example of a unique short story, with a new beginning at the end. The overcrowded local trains, Harvard certified Mumbai dabbawallas amidst busy working hours, an irritable yet adorable youngster and Auntie, the best friend to a directionless housewife.

Irrfan Khan in The Lunchbox  (2013).

It had been a long time since I had wanted to watch the movie. Even if a mainstream Bollywood movie came out (hundreds come out every day) I would be willing to watch it as long as Irrfan Khan was in it. His acting is impeccable, his image so refreshing. I almost forgot what those small, often half-empty theaters in Barcelona look like. There is only a couple of them left, and I imagine they will end up closing down as well. There's barely anyone willing to watch independent films with subtitles these days.

At this kind of theaters, they usually have these sort of sheets with a summary and plot, full cast and other detailed information on the movie  that one can take for free. It took slightly longer for me to find the one I was looking for, and when I went inside the theater and started reading it I came across something rather unpleasant.

The informative sheet specified that the following languages were spoken in the movie: inglés e indú (literally "English and Hindu" in Spanish). Having lived in India for a long time and having Indian relatives as well, I felt outraged and rather hurt by that word, indú. I rapidly went online to see if the Spanish normative Diccionario de la Real Academia Española included this word in it, yet, as I suspected, it didn't. First of all, Hindu is not a language. It is obvious they were trying to say Hindi, one of the 26 official languages that exist in India. Now, the problem with using "Hindu" is that, although Collins Dictionary defines the word as "a person born or living in India or the Indian subcontinent", it can still be highly offensive for many reasons. First of, if we look closely, we can see that the second meaning is "a follower of Hinduism", which automatically labels Hindus as a dominant religious community that excludes all non-religious inhabitants or followers of let's say, Islam. Let's not forget that India is home to 10% of the world's Muslim population. That of course excluding all followers of Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other religions that although minorities in India, they would make the entire population of some European countries. Again, the word indú has three main problems to it - it's not spelled correctly, it is not talking about religious groups or the inhabitants of a country but a language with a different name (Hindi) and on top of that it is generalizing a religion existing in one of the most diverse countries in the world. 

However, the point is that these people didn't even bother to do their own research on these issues that have literally caused conflicts such as the India - Pakistan partition, which left millions of families apart, or the territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over control of the Kashmir region. That's what really bothered me. Generalizing is (almost) always wrong. It leads to assumptions and stereotypes that are often untrue and they encourage fear to all what is different to our own reality, which mostly leads to opposition and resistance. I don't think it was that hard going to a dictionary and looking up the right word. Generalizing is comfortable and it seems a fair thing to do. Until a talk on something that questions our own identity touches a nerve with us and we feel offended, oppressed and inferior. It ain't that hard, people.