Tharoorosaurus

by Shashi Tharoor

  After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, lynching became associated with ‘showing uppity blacks their place’, and was frequently resorted to by white supremacists against blacks accused of asserting their rights or showing undue familiarity to white women. By the late nineteenth century, a ‘lynching’ thus came to mean ‘extra-legal execution by hanging’ (especially in retaliation for alleged sexual assaults of white women).

  Lynching is now universally understood to refer to the premeditated extrajudicial killing of people by a mob or group of people, usually from a different religious or ethnic community, and involves public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate the group to which the victim belongs. It is usually conducted in public in order to ensure maximum intimidatory effect. It is estimated that nearly 3500 African Americans and 1300 whites were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968.

  Indian lynchings have most often aimed, in recent years, at Muslims and Dalits; well-known examples include the Khairlanji lynching of a Dalit family in 2006, and the lynching of Muslims accused of cow slaughter in UP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and other states in the Hindi belt. In Dimapur, Nagaland, a mob broke into a jail and lynched an accused rapist in 2015 while he was awaiting trial. There were also several ‘WhatsApp lynchings’ in 2017 following the spread of fake news on social media about child abduction and organ harvesting; the victims even included a government official sent to a village in West Bengal to reassure people the rumours were untrue.

  In other countries with high crime rates, notably in Latin America, victims are often criminals who the mobs feel would otherwise escape justice; lynchings here are another form of ‘vigilante justice’ reflecting lack of faith in law enforcement or judicial institutions.

  Some argue that a decline in economic conditions is enough to spur lynch mobs, though others argue that communal hatred is usually enough.

  While lynching is always illegal, perpetrators often escape justice, partly because of public support for their actions and partly because it is difficult to pin criminal responsibility on a mob. Attempts in parliament by MPs, including myself, to initiate private member’s bills to provide for an anti-lynching law have been unable to make headway so far.

  Meanwhile, as Delhi knows too well, mob violence goes on—and, in the process, it is our democracy that is lynched.

  28.

  Muliebrity

  noun

  WOMANHOOD, WOMANLINESS, FEMININITY, THE CONDITION OF BEING A WOMAN OR BEHAVING IN WAYS CONSIDERED TYPICAL OF A WOMAN. THE ANTONYM OF VIRILITY

  USAGE

  His mother embodied all the qualities of gentle nurturing, devotion, uncritical affection and fine cooking that he associated with muliebrity.

  The word ‘muliebrity’ goes back to the late sixteenth century, and is derived from the Latin muliebritas or womanhood, in turn a derivative of mulier or woman. There is an adjective form, muliebral, ‘of or pertaining to a woman’. Neither word is widely used any more, but as a valid word in the language, muliebrity can be applied to all women, and to all men who

  behave like women.

  This is where we start venturing into sexist territory, however. What does ‘behaving like women’ mean?

  The word’s root mulier, ‘a woman’, is traditionally said to derive from mollis, meaning soft or weak. In old legal language, mulier was used as a noun to refer to ‘a woman; a wife’, and as an adjective, to mean ‘born in wedlock’. (A mulier offspring, or just a mulier, was a legitimate child according to ecclesiastical law.) For a while the word muliebrious was used as a synonym for ‘effeminate’—‘that muliebrious fashion designer’, for instance. A paid legion of trolls accuse me daily on social media of mulierosity, without ever using the word (which means an excessive fondness for women, but they don’t know that and so have to rely on cruder vulgarisms to convey the same charge).

  The problem with the word muliebrity is that it brings a lot of baggage with it, consisting mainly of rather sexist ideas about what is womanly. Muliebrity embraces notions of soft, gentle, ‘feminine’ characteristics that many women bridle at—and that may be far from the lived experience of those men who have grown up with, or are married to, strong women. When the word is applied to men, it implies effeminate ways, heavy make-up, outlandish clothing and the like. The very notion of muliebrity is based on old-fashioned concepts of feminine behaviour that the world has largely outgrown, outside a few khap panchayats in our Bimaru states.

  But that may be precisely why the word muliebrity might have a longer run in Indian English than in the West, since we, as a society, are slower to let go of the gender stereotypes and expectations of womanhood that come with it. Bollywood films are still full of muliebrious or over-feminine women, though exceptions have broken through in recent years. And the Sati-Savitri ideal of womanhood is the classic epitome of muliebrity, reinforced in countless cultural tropes over the years.

  A friend I tried the word out on—‘what do you think muliebrity means?’—understandably thought it meant stubbornness, because of the association of that quality with mules. He would no doubt have been surprised to learn that Vanderbilt University in the US offers the Muliebrity Prize to honour students who ‘demonstrate leadership in activities that contribute to the achievements, interests and goals of women and girls, or that promote equity’. Muliebrity, of course, has nothing to do with mules. But certainly some stubbornness would come in handy when women fight for their rights in a patriarchal system. I remain of the view that the Women’s Reservation Bill would guarantee the entry of the irresistible muliebral force that has been largely missing from our male-dominated parliament.

  Interestingly, there is a specifically Indian example of the

  use of the word.

  ‘Muliebrity’ is the title of a poem by Sujata Bhatt that describes the sight of a young girl in our country who spends her days picking up cow dung, and the inherent ‘glistening’ power she has as a female. The poem expands our ideas of what it means to be a woman. Ultimately, of course, your muliebrity is best expressed not by dressing in a certain manner, walking in a feminine way or making your speech and conduct conform to the expectations of men, but by being your own true self as a woman and as a human being.

  29.

  Namaste

  noun

  GESTURE OF GREETING OR SALUTATION MADE BY BRINGING THE PALMS TOGETHER AND BOWING, COMMONLY PRACTISED IN INDIA

  USAGE

  As I offered my guru a respectful namaste, I was conscious that my gesture was telling him, ‘the sacred in me recognizes the sacred in you’.

  As health authorities around the world advise people to avoid shaking hands (and even to eschew Prime Minister Modi’s preferred bear hug) to minimize the risk of being infected by the highly contagious coronavirus, the Indian namaskaram, more commonly known as namaste, offers the preferred alternative.

  This common desi salutation is now quite being considered the safest and most ‘virus-proof’ way to greet people. While various other gestures—from using shod feet instead of bare hands to touch the other person, to elbow bumps and knuckle thumps—have also been tried, many world leaders have shown a distinct preference for India’s traditional folded-hands greeting.

  ‘Namaste goes global’, understandably chuffed Indian headlines

  screamed as world leaders including US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Prince Charles adopted it on widely televised occasions during the coronavirus pandemic. With palms pressed together and a little bow, Macron received Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the Elysee Palace in Paris even as his ambassador to New Delhi, Emmanuel Lenain, tweeted, ‘President Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with a namaste, a graceful gesture that he has retained from his India visit in 2018.’

  When Trump greeted Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the White House recently, it was with a namaste. While that should have been easy for the half-Indian Irish PM
, Varadkar said, ‘It almost feels impersonal. It feels like you’re being rude.’

  This is no small matter, since the customary handshake is what provides world leaders the usual photo opportunity that is publicized around the world to mark their meetings. Trump admitted that it was ‘sort of a weird feeling’ to forego the handshake. Britain’s Prince Charles, son and heir of the Queen, nearly forgot during a recent meeting with the lord lieutenant of Greater London, offering a handshake before quickly remembering to switch to a namaste. ‘It’s just so hard to remember not to [shake hands],’ he reportedly muttered.

  But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no hesitation in recommending the Indian namaste to his fellow citizens with a televisual demonstration at a press conference. He said it was one of the simplest ways to prevent the virus from spreading.

  India is hardly alone in having devised a greeting that does not involve the vigorous pumping of hands. The Japanese have the custom of ojigi—bowing to each other, with the depth of the bowing conveying the degree of respect in a hierarchical society. Tibetans stick out their tongues in greeting, while Eskimos rub noses. In Oman, Qatar and Yemen people touch their noses in a salaam to others. Some Arabs hug each other, the greeter’s head crossing one shoulder after another. The Europeans, of course, famously kiss each other on the cheeks, though usually they are kissing air alongside the other’s cheek. But if you want to greet someone while avoiding close contact or even proximity with the other in order to prevent coronavirus, nothing beats the namaste.

  The ancient Indian greeting conveys respect while maintaining a distance. As I pointed out in a tweet, behind every major ancient Indian tradition, there is science. I should have added spirituality, since ‘namaste’ is not just a gesture of greeting. It is one of the six forms of pranama in Hinduism and conveys that the person one is greeting, even a stranger, shares a common Atman with you, so that ‘the divine in me bows [in greeting and recognition] to the divine in you’.

  The term ‘namaste’ (Namas+te) is derived from Sanskrit and is a combination of the word namas and the second person dative pronoun, te, in what linguists call its enclitic form. Nama? means ‘bow’ or ‘obeisance’ and te means ‘to you’. It is a specific way of bowing to the other, thus showing respect, and at the same time (unlike, say, prostrating yourself and touching the other’s feet), conveys that one is equal to the other as shards of the same soul. In saying namaste, we signal that the divinity within oneself is the ‘same’ in the other, since it is all-pervasive. The namaste sees and adores the divine in every person, and is therefore an act of both humility and spiritual bonding.

  What could be more appropriate today than this message of universal brotherhood, from the very culture that proclaimed ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ (the whole world is a family)? As COVID-19 assails us all, we’re all in this together. No one’s passport makes him exempt from the risk of contagion. We share the same divinity, the same soul, and the same vulnerability. Namaste to you, dear reader—wherever you are.

  30.

  Nerd

  noun

  A WONK OR GEEK, OBSESSIVELY IMMERSED IN AND KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT A NARROW SUBJECT, BUT LACKING SOCIAL SKILLS

  USAGE

  That nerd is not someone I enjoy talking to, but he knows more about computers than you or I do, so I need him.

  The word ‘nerd’ became a fixture of US student slang in the 1960s. The Oxford English Dictionary says ‘Origin uncertain and disputed’. But American sources are pretty sure: they date it to 1951, when it first showed up in US student slang, perhaps changing an earlier slang word ‘nert’, which itself altered the expression ‘nut’ to refer to a stupid or crazy person.

  Where did kids dream up the word ‘nerd’? It seems to have come from Nerd, a fictional animal in the children’s story If I Ran the Zoo (1950) by the madly popular children’s writer Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). It occurs in his verse: ‘And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Katroo, And bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, A Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker too!’

  Dr Seuss, who did his own illustrations, depicts the Nerd as a tiny, unkempt, vaguely human-looking creature with a large head and a strange expression. The word promptly started to be applied on American college campuses. A year later, Newsweek reported on the word’s popularity on campus: ‘. . . someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd.’ Some suggest that collegians actually spelt ‘drunk’ backwards to describe such an over-sober character who studiously didn’t drink or socialize (‘knurd’). Whichever version is accurate, ‘nerds’ are now here to stay.

  The primary characteristics of nerds are that they know a lot about some subject, usually a highly technical one that’s little known and often non-mainstream, prefer studying over partying, and are worthless company, though highly useful when you need their expertise. They have no social graces, can be introverted, boring and dress unattractively.

  But there’s a difference between a geek and a nerd, though both are knowledgeable and intelligent. A geek can talk to people, sometimes brilliantly, and rise in the world (Time magazine ran a headline in 1995 declaring ‘The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth’). A nerd, on the other hand, obsesses about one thing but is hopeless at everything else. Geeks are always techies, but knowledge of technology is not essential to be a nerd; a nerd is just extremely focused on his area of expertise, brainy but socially inept. Nerds are geeks without social skills. But you can be a ‘movie geek’ or a ‘music geek’, which makes you desirable company on the social scene for those interested in movies or music. (I’m a bit of a ‘cricket geek’ myself.)

  But the word ‘nerd’ is still more complimentary than two other examples of American slang with negative connotations, ‘dork’ and ‘dweeb’. No one would call themselves a ‘computer dork’, but a ‘computer nerd’ is not such a bad thing to be. In fact, experts on usage say that ‘nerd’ is popularly used to describe academic expertise in a subject, as in ‘language nerd’, or ‘chemistry nerd’, and being a nerd can be a badge of pride. It’s a word that implies that you possess a depth of knowledge in the particular area you’re obsessed about. And in the era of Artificial Intelligence, it’s not uncool to possess the real thing.

  Still, labelling a kid a nerd at school, merely because they show their intellect, can be harmful. Some bright kids deliberately suppress their intellectual leanings for fear of being branded as nerds. Aside from seeking social acceptability, it’s a measure of self-protection; in many schools, ‘nerds’ are the target of bullying because of their social ineptitude and lack of popularity (and a certain amount of envy on the part of the popular jocks, whom the nerds outshine in class). Nerds, often, are too narrowly fixated on their subject of interest to have the time for the activities required to be popular.

  It doesn’t help that nerds are also assumed to have an unattractive physical appearance, caricatured as being physically unfit, skinny or fat from lack of exercise, having buck teeth and acne, and wearing very large glasses, braces and pants pulled up high at the waist. The Unicode emoticon for a ‘Nerd Face’ released in 2015 reflects some of those stereotypes:

  In the United States, racism has crept into popular understandings of nerdiness: a 2010 study published in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication says that Asian Americans are perceived as most likely to be nerds. Those Indians who have watched Kunal Nayyar spouting nerdiness on Big Bang Theory will know exactly what they mean.

  31.

  Opsimath

  noun

  A PERSON WHO BEGINS, OR CONTINUES, TO STUDY OR LEARN LATE IN LIFE; ALSO AN OLD STUDENT, A LATE LEARNER

  USAGE

  When it came to reading, she was definitely an opsimath, as she had never cracked open the cover of a book until she was well past the age of forty.

  The word is derived from the Greek words opsé, meaning ‘late’, and mantháno, meaning ‘learn’. It sounds like a term of approval, but it was not always; for
some centuries it carried a connotation of laziness, for an opsimath was one who had waited too long to proceed on the essential path of the acquisition of knowledge. Today there is much more respect for opsimaths, like the remarkable ninety-eight-year-old lady in Kerala who passed her school-leaving examinations last year, having been denied an education by her conservative parents nine decades ago. In the West, ‘opsimath clubs’ have emerged, hailing such role models as the former American slave Grandma Moses, or for the more classically inclined, Cato the Elder, who learned Greek only at the age of eighty. It is said that the great nineteenth-century French writer Emile Zola was an opsimath who had read the immortal works of Stendhal, Flaubert, Balzac, the Goncourts and Taine, whom French intellectuals of his generation swore by, only late in life, much after his contemporaries.

  I have always believed it is never too late to learn; I pride myself on my conviction that I learn something new every day, whether it is a word, a fact, an insight or even a piece of trivia. But to take up an entirely new subject and study it seriously in late adulthood does not come easily. Those who make the effort are well-rewarded. It is said that opsimathy practised by retired people can help ward off dementia and senility, by rejuvenating the synapses in our brains as we learn new things, particularly (but not only) new languages.

  In India, adult literacy classes are used to reach out to those, especially women, who were pulled out of school early by misguided (and often unlettered) parents who wanted them to stay at home and help in domestic chores. Such people, who often had no choice in the matter, are happy for the opportunity to resume their studies and acquire such basic skills as being able to read the destination on a bus or the name of a street. You don’t have to be mastering Ancient Greek or plasma physics at sixty-five in order to be an opsimath!