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Rajesh Kochhar

Author of The Vedic People ( Orient BlackSwan), English Education in India, 1715-1835 (Routledge), (jointly with Jayant Narlikar) of Astronomy in India (INSA), and Sanskrit & British Empire ( Routledge, forthcoming)

Why is bastard such a serious abuse in India unlike in England where it is a term of endearment?

Rajesh Kochhar 15/08/2012 No Comments

In English-speaking cultures, bastard can be interpreted as a person whose parents out of laziness or otherwise could not get married in time.

In Hindi/ Urdu, the word for bastard is haraam-zaadah, born out of illegitimacy. In India, respectable boys and girls did not interact at all before marriage. The only woman a man could come to intimately know outside of his marriage would be a woman of easy virtue. Therefore being born a bastard was not so much a comment on the marital status of one’s parents at the time of conception, but a slur on the mother’s  moral character.

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