Opinion Sardarji jokes: Laughing matter
Let’s not seek to erase Sardarji jokes. Let’s make more jokes about everyone else
The Supreme Court of India.
The internet has accelerated many things — it is quicker and easier to book tickets, file taxes, buy shoes and fight with strangers. Digital and social media have also lent speed to Sardarji jokes. Through the winter, the Supreme Court has been hearing a PIL that seeks to scrub the internet off these jokes. Finally, it has asked the plaintiffs to reconsider because its orders on the matter would not be enforceable. It has, however, observed that Sikhs do bear more than their fair share of ethnic humour, and that the public should be sensitised about the problem. But then it has segued into a discourse about the worth of the Sikh community and its undeniable contribution to independence and nation-building. Which is besides the point. We joke about caricatures of reality, not about reality itself.
Sikhs have indeed been caricatured relentlessly for decades, even by their own, but there are two ways to even the score. The first is to erase Sikh jokes altogether, a process that would place curbs on speech, which is already the most trammelled of human capabilities in India. The other option would be to unleash the glory of humour at the expense of the Bengali, Malayalee, Oriya, Gujarati and other ethnic communities. These genres exist, but they languish in the luxurious, pan-Indian shadow of humour at the expense of Sikhs.
Each of India’s communities finds the others hilarious, and this willingness to discover humour everywhere offers hope, when this is becoming a wholly mirthless nation. If Sikhs are tired of being relentlessly lampooned, giving other ethnicities their prescribed dose of ribbing could help restore balance, and the national temper.
Share
