What's In A Name? It's All In The Surname!

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

This immortal statement was written by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet and thence has been an outright hit all through. From time to time, it has been quoted in various contexts all across the world in a variety of occasions. I’ve also taken the utmost liberty in using the same for this piece.

In the play, Juliet Capulet said this when she wanted to emphasize that she loved Romeo the person and not Romeo Montague the name. Even though Montague was a rich and influential family, she didn’t bother about them. She was just happy to be in love with Romeo, the person, and would have loved him even if he was from any other class or section of the society.

But how wrong she was! The society doesn’t adhere to the rules laid down by the free-spirits. It does believe in the institution of surnames (family name and title are the other synonyms). You can be anything but your surname will decide the consequences of your actions. You can be a dark haired, fair skinned, nicely built handsome man. But your surname will divulge your secret and you will be categorized as a Mexican or an Italian or a Pathan. And the categorization will not stop here. Next stop will be your religion, your faith, your community, your caste, your creed and what else! People will decipher your secrets faster than Sherlock Holmes. He at least observed some traits to make his deduction. They will do it with just the surname! (I myself am not different. I also deduce the same way!)

 I remember a debate in my college where a girl said that until the day she filled her class Xth exam form, she was unaware of the surnames and hence was oblivious to the caste and religion of most of her classmates. She knew them by their names only. But that her world changed. Now she knew who was a Hindu and who was a Muslim, who was a SC and who was an OBC. And all the prejudices that are associated with each and every caste, creed and religion come forthright face to face. The individual recedes into the background and he is judged by the action of the fellow brethren from his community (कौम), caste (जात) or religion (धर्म). It has happened so many times with us when we have labeled a Muslim to be a terrorist, a Marwari to be a miser and a Tamil to be Self-Centered. Just because of a few of them, the whole clan is abused.

And this is just not the story of me, my parents, my relatives and my friends. It is the story of all the organisms on this planet who consider them to be humans and hence superior to everyone around them. It is so ingrained into our system that we cannot free ourselves from this mindset at all. In our country everything from winning an election to getting a BPL card has come down to the surnames. Our politics has descended to caste vote bank politics instead of the idealistic pro-governance and pro-people or even the more practiced populist party level politics. People will ask your surnames first and depending on the likeability of your surname they will proceed to your name. But your acceptability will solely depend on your prestigious surname. It will only decide the further course of actions.

But think of a world without surnames! (No. I’m not asking to leave them. Just don’t bias others and centre yourself on them.) Sahir Ludhianvi wrote:

अच्छा  है अभी तक तेरा कुछ नाम नहीं है |

तुझको  किसी  मज़हब से कोई काम नहीं है |

People will love and hate (I believe hate has to be a part of life) each other on their virtues and vices and not on the basis of their respective communion. There would be more person to person interaction instead of the now practiced group to group interaction. At least one dose would be given to the bias ridden sick society of ours. I don’t believe we will be able to include our elders in this but at least the youth can participate and give a fair society to the next generation. Even if you can’t practice at least please think over it!