Nationalism in all

…When Dr Ganguli was Pro-Vice-chancellor, I wrote to him requesting conversion of the ground-floor toilet in our bungalow into a western-style toilet from the existing Indian style. We were expecting elderly guests and hence the request. Dr Ganguli routinely referred the request to Mr Makhijani, and the latter wrote: ‘Only foreigners, Anglo-Indians and Christians may be sanctioned Western-style lavatories, and not Hindus’.  Dr Ganguli called me and showed me the engineer’s noting. I said: ‘Mr Makhijani should be appointed professor of sociology at once, and I should be sacked’.  Dr Ganguli laughed and passed orders sanctioning my toilet.—M. N. Srinivas, Collected Essays, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, (2002) Paperbacks 2004. P. 628

Toilets have national identity.  Even now in India not by any other name we not yet invented a proper Indian name for that.

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