Speaking in many tongues

The reason given by the executive was that the customer did not speak Hindi, which is the national language and she allegedly went on to berate the customer. 

The company in question issued an apology to the customer and announced plans to set up a regional contact centre in TN that would cater to subscribers from the state.

Linguistic differences have always been a bone of contention between the north and the south. However, of late, we in India seem to be on a roll when it comes to staking a claim in cultural artefacts of all kinds, whether tangible or intangible.

Just a few weeks preceding Deepavali, a retailer of handwoven garments found itself amid a culture clash when some members of the culture police got riled up over a tagline that went alongside the creative for the retailer’s latest Deepavali collection - Jashn-e-Riwaaz. 

This inspired the likes of BJP MP from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya to symbolically ‘call out’ the advertisement for the Abrahamisation of Hindu festivals and for depicting models in non-traditional Hindu attires. 

The ad campaign was subsequently pulled out, but not before many questioned why Urdu was not an acceptable language to describe an Indian festival.

This incident was closely reminiscent of the backlash heaped upon a jewellery major last year when it decided to sensitively depict an inter-faith marriage, that was subsequently maligned by right-wing nationalists as an attempt to promote love jihad. 

The implication of such instances of intolerance was amplified in a state like Tamil Nadu, which has been home to rationalists like Periyar and Bharathidasan, who have perpetuated ideas opposing rigidity in rituals and propagated the notions of communal harmony instead. 

If one had to consider the case of the aforementioned customer care executive, how hard would it have been to transfer the call or request to another executive who might have been fluent either in English or Tamil? When running a pan-India multi-billion dollar brand, the least one could do is employ a range of workers who might be able to cater to queries coming from any corner of the country.

Then, of course, there is the question of diluting the religious nature of festivals with so-called secularism. Those harbouring extreme points of view just need to take a look at Tamil Nadu’s bustling economy to gain a sense of how interconnected the notion of faith is, with economic prosperity. 

It is during Deepavali that thousands of biryani vendors make a handsome profit by the bucket, thanks to it being a public holiday, and the number of people who choose to order the anytime meal, on a festive occasion. 

Also, we’ve never felt the need to verify the religious identity of those running firecracker markets where we take our children to bag their annual indulgence of sparklers and flower pots.

It seems counter-intuitive that in a nation that prides itself on its multiculturalism, something as trivial as an advertisement or even the failure to grasp a language can lay bare the deep schism of bigotry and intolerance that we are all capable of, but seldom acknowledge.