Spitting is our culture

This is about spitting habit of many Indians. Some agencies want to ban spitting in public places and on that we discussed many aspects of this habit of many Indians.

After crazy ban on slaughter of bovine our government is thinking of banning spitting. This reminds me of foolish attempts of American Senates in the nineteenth century of puritanists. In our country spitting is a part of our culture, people spit to indicate their disgust or displeasure for some body or something. Spitting is used to show disregards, contempt; spitting is used to insult people without showing insult. Particularly when a servant wants to show his disregard towards his employer spiting is the way. Some observers suggest that spitting habit became more common in India ever since Muslims came in India. It is a silent gesture to show that the thing is not acceptable. During Muslim rule spitting was widely used by servants of nobles to indicate their disapproval. To make spitting appear a normal behavior people began to chew betal leaves with tobacco. As swallowing tobacco juice is not good for health therefore, spitting that became a common practice. On that the owners could not object to such spitting as they knew spiting is essential when one chews betal leaves with tobacco. Later on this was found convenient by many servants and other types of subordinate employers and spitting tobacco saliva became a very common thing amongst betal leaves chewers. Betal leaves without tobacco is not spat because, that is not objectionable for health. As a part of culture spitting has many styles. One observation shows that position of spitting shows how the spitter wants to show disregard. Spiting in front is very bold insult. Spitting on side is indication that it is disregard for the person's position or amounts to say, "I do not care for you", some times we observe that spitting is done at spatters own foot. Some times one spits on back side of his/her to show that it was not for showing any disregards but he/she spat because it was necessary. Spitting on side is very common among spatters. There are many stylized ways of spitting one is to spit by holding two fingers on lips and throw the spat to some distance. This spiting is used by owners to show their disregards for their subordinates. Long spat is indication of their superiority. Thus we see that spitting is a part of our culture in fact it is a way to express strong reactions to others. Some say spitting came in India from Turks who have this habit to show insult to superiors. Spitting is not done to show disregard or insult to fellow people. Some disagree and say it is an original Indian habit existing much earlier among Sudra to show disregards for dominant Brahmans. Spitting is a type of coded language, used by superior to condemn inferiors.

Apart from this cultural aspect to spitting there are other reasons why people spit. To clean one's throat some prefer to spit out cough. During cold illness many spit out cough to cleanse their throat before they want to talk. People suffering from some diseases such as Asthma, TB need to spit out cough regularly. I observe that generally spitting of ordinary saliva or cough is not very objectionable as it is not very evident but spitting of tobacco with red Kattha is objectionable because it colors the place where spitting is done. That red stain is the cause of objection. These red stains make the place look ugly. Particularly we see these spatters spit on staircase corners making that portion look very indecent. I feel if people eat paan (betal leaves) without Kattha in it, that spatters will not be visible and so not so much objectionable but the paan chewers cannot accept that paan. So this observation shows that spiting is not really objectionable if it is not evident.

When I discussed this issue with some medical people they told me spiting unnecessarily is bad because the saliva is an important digestive fluid in our body and the more it goes in our stomach the batter it is. From that point of view spitting is not recommended. Spiting we learn from our childhood as we observe our elders do it frequently. This habit becomes part of our daily life. Particularly the cultural part is something we cannot remove easily. I have observed that those people who do not spit, their children also do not spit. That shows that our spitting habit is hereditary. If seniors stop spitting juniors will not develop that habit.

To mention habits of our Muslim brothers we see they spit out saliva during their Ramadan fasting month. They told me that during fast they cannot even swallow their saliva and so they have to spit it out frequently. However, some authorities told me since saliva is not any food during fast one need not spit saliva. Fast is only for outside food and not against one's own body fluids. That means the notion that they should spit during Ramadan month is not necessary. Women rarely spit in city culture even though some women who have developed habit of chewing tobacco spit.

I have observed that this habit is so much common in all Indian people that if they try to ban it; that will not be successful.

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