Discrimination in Santha Rama Rau's By Any Other Name
Discrimination – A Bad Behavior of Human
“By Any Other Name”, by Santha Rama Rau, is about two sisters, Santha and Premila, who were forced to fit British culture in the time period when British ruled India. They have never been sent to school until their mother, who always taught them at home, got sick. Therefore, they had to attend a British school where there was too British. On the first day of school, the headmistress forced them to change their Indian names to English names. In class, they and all other Indian children were seated in the back of the classroom. At the lunch time, Santha and Premila ate homemade Indian food while other British children ate the sandwiches. On the test day, the teacher’s Premila told her sit in the back of the room, with a desk between every Indian student. When Premila asked the teacher reason why, the teacher told her that “Indians cheat”. Premila was so furious, so she came to Santha’s classroom right away, and brought her home without saying particular reason. According the story, two sisters were discriminated by forcing changing their names and were treated as second-class citizens because of ethnic background.
The first thing Santha and Premila had to face on the first day of school was they were forced to change their names. The headmistress of their new school felt that their Indian names weren’t “pretty” enough, were hard to pronoun, and she could not remember them. Therefore, she decided to change their original names, Santha and Premila into Cynthia and Pamela without caring about their feelings. In addition, both of them had to receive the same discriminated treatment by the teacher in class. They were treated like second-class citizens. For example, they were seated in the back of classroom with other Indians student while the rest of British were seated near to the teacher. Moreover, the discrimination also was showed clearly on the test day of Premila. On that test day, when she got into the classroom, she
“By Any Other Name”, by Santha Rama Rau, is about two sisters, Santha and Premila, who were forced to fit British culture in the time period when British ruled India. They have never been sent to school until their mother, who always taught them at home, got sick. Therefore, they had to attend a British school where there was too British. On the first day of school, the headmistress forced them to change their Indian names to English names. In class, they and all other Indian children were seated in the back of the classroom. At the lunch time, Santha and Premila ate homemade Indian food while other British children ate the sandwiches. On the test day, the teacher’s Premila told her sit in the back of the room, with a desk between every Indian student. When Premila asked the teacher reason why, the teacher told her that “Indians cheat”. Premila was so furious, so she came to Santha’s classroom right away, and brought her home without saying particular reason. According the story, two sisters were discriminated by forcing changing their names and were treated as second-class citizens because of ethnic background.
The first thing Santha and Premila had to face on the first day of school was they were forced to change their names. The headmistress of their new school felt that their Indian names weren’t “pretty” enough, were hard to pronoun, and she could not remember them. Therefore, she decided to change their original names, Santha and Premila into Cynthia and Pamela without caring about their feelings. In addition, both of them had to receive the same discriminated treatment by the teacher in class. They were treated like second-class citizens. For example, they were seated in the back of classroom with other Indians student while the rest of British were seated near to the teacher. Moreover, the discrimination also was showed clearly on the test day of Premila. On that test day, when she got into the classroom, she