Forever ‘left’ out

Sumit Paul

BORN a southpaw, I often feel like an odd man in the world of right-handed people. A left-handed person faces bias, though it may not be blatantly obvious. Having been born and brought up in predominantly Muslim countries, I was often at the receiving end of sarcastic comments for using the left hand, even while eating. The whole Muslim world looks down upon those who eat with their left hands, despite the fact that many revered characters in Islam have been left-handers. Hazrat Ali was a left-hander. So, was Hussain, who wielded the sword with his left hand. 

Arabs use the term ibn-ul-Iblees (son of Satan) for a left-hander, particularly for one who eats with his/her left hand. It’s believed in all three Semitic faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — that Satan is a southpaw. Bush and Toynbee wrote in ‘The Early History of Christianity’ that till the 4th century, left-handers used to be persecuted by the church and early Christians saw them as ‘ominous freaks’. 

In Iran, where I studied till the age of 15, being a left-hander was tantamount to being left out. My friends called me aqzeel (archaic Persian word for a robber). Many Christians still believe that Martin Luther Sr, who founded the Protestant sect, dared challenge the authority of the Catholic church because being a left-hander, he’d extra power of Satan!

All European and Semitic languages, as well as oriental tongues, have negative words for left-handers. The word ‘sinister’ is associated with a southpaw and the Satan. It comes from a Latin word meaning ‘on the left side, inauspicious and unlucky’.  

Even the word ‘adroit’ has this bias. It came from the French word ‘a droit’ (‘to the right’). Greek and Portuguese words frenos and blonges, respectively, for a left-handed person also have the same prejudice. Even Sanskrit word vaamhast for a left-hander doesn’t have a complimentary connotation. ‘Vaam’ (left) is seen as something furtive and sinister. Hinduism still doesn’t allow a priest to conduct puja with his left hand. There’s a Hindi word in North India for a left-hander — khabboo. It comes from khabees, meaning ‘an eccentric person or even abnormal’. 

Though I kept eating with my left hand in Iran, in spite of the taunts, I had to give up when I went to Malaysia to teach Arabic and Hadis at Kuala Lumpur University for nearly a year. The predominantly Muslim people of Malaysia consider eating with a left hand as an insult to the host. Knowing my left-hand preference, I was hardly invited by people. I began to eat with my right, with great difficulty initially. Today, I am ambidextrous. I still prefer to eat with my left hand and when I write languages like Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu, which are written from right to left and erroneously called ulti bhaashaein.