Taco-Bell opened in Bangalore. There is a this cool Italian restaurant and this awesome Chinese restaurant in Gopalan mall. Check out this rock music band. People need personal space, parents should not live with children. Of-course, booze is cool. Lets have a live-in relation. Casual sex. One should try weed before he/she graduates.
These are some of the new buzz phrases or in twitter language; the trending topics of the new age India or the "modern" India. We are no longer shut out from the Western world. We are no longer slaves to our tradition and our rotten culture. We are no longer THAT India described by Mark Twain : "India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."
In Economics, analysts often mistake that if two events A and B occur simultaneously, they are related. We see the same mistake propagating in Indian society today. There is this growing illusion and confusion amongst educated and new generation youth that westernization IS modernization since western world; for past 200 years or more has been the cradle of modernization [and funnily, our old generation thinks that west doesn't have a culture; which is other end of the spectrum].
We seem to have created a web of inferiority complex around anything that is Indian. Anyone who is proud of Indian culture is considered as either radical or fundamentalist; or in the very least; an uncivilized moron. We lack self-confidence and pride. If someone is abroad, he is considered modern; he is considered well-off. Lots of marriage proposals come with a condition that the guy should not relocate to India. On the other hand, if someone can't speak English, he is uneducated; he is uncivilized; in Indian society. Almost every-time I spoke and ordered in Kannada in posh restaurants in Bangalore; I was stared at by concerned hotel employees; not because they didn't understand the language but because I was probably not civilized enough for the restaurant [which motivated me to not speak in English more !!]. Should I be really surprised that we were indeed ruled for 10 centuries by foreigners ?
Yes, There are lots of good things about western culture and I would love to see it being imbibed in our culture [check one my old blogs : http://guftugu-e-hayaat.blogspot.com/2009/09/culture-in-dream-land.html]. But what pains me to no end is the blind worshiping of western culture. When I see my grade 9 cousin tells me that he spends his 'play-time' in front of facebook and/or tv, I know that its not the India I grew up in. Its not the India, I want it to become.
I am often told that I am not modern since I don't try western cuisines often by my other vegetarian friends. Lets see. Most often, what-ever cuisine I eat, ends up being a catastrophe(Yes, there are exceptions and I do eat them often) and they hardly have veggie options. And anything good we eat; we end up comparing them to Indian food - Veggie Burrito to rice-rajma, Veggie Gumbo to rice-rasam. Citing a personal example; one of my friends said a few days back : "Lets go to Ethiopian restaurant. What they serve is very similar to Dosa[South Indian food]". Why not try Dosa itself instead then ? Oh wait; its Indian. It ought to be bad; probably not modern enough; not cool enough [For the record, I did enjoy Ethiopian food for it was indeed very similar to Dosa]. I am not averse to Italian or Mexican food. I am averse to the fact that most Indians want to eat non-Indian food because it makes them sound cool; look modern. Well, look Western.
I was listening to a commentary by a western economist about China just about couple of hours ago. He says that one of the main reasons for china's growth is its "cultural integrity" and how they are proud about their culture. Why is it that we Indians are not proud of our culture ? Why are we eternally ready to drop our identity and become sycophants of other cultures ? And no, chinese culture is not superior to our Indian culture. In words of Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA: "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border."
It has equally become a fashion to dismiss anyone and everyone who stands for our culture as a radical and/or moron. It is similar to almost being a staunch Hinduism follower in India these days in the views of some politicians - you are a non-secular. It is a classic case of everyone is entitled for an opinion; until it is agreeable to the opinion the media holds or promotes. Beauty, they say, lies in the eyes of the beholder. How-ever, the beauty of India, lies in its tradition and its culture. And It looked equally beautiful to the eyes of Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Max Mueller, Will Durant and to many other scholars from various countries. Now, we are on the verge of destroying it. Completely. All in the name of modernization; or illusion of modernization.
"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous." - Albert Einstein
"India - The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas." - Wheeler Wilcox
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4 comments:
Excellent write up, something which i believe and stand up for, and i dont care if people call me chauvinist . I also do the same thing you do in posh restaurants :D.
"cultural integrity" in China is much more easy to understand. In India, with its 'diversity' and the post independence caste based politics, cultural integrity is a mirage. It never existed and the gap will only continue to widen with the increasing divide between urban & rural demographics and differences in per=capita income.
cultural integrity in china, does it really exist there. Our culture is based on God and then our history. In china, with communism there is no God, so its easy for them to be just for them to be attached to their history.
Of course even with history related culture we only get divided in India
somehow indians just fall for non-indian things, especially american, and it is misleading for sure ... i always think that the desi dant-manjan, i had back in india was much much better than the colgate whiteness here ... but for one reason or another, tons of indian people think that living like western style is being modern .. compared to america, american do try different cultural thing but at the end of the day, they stay as americans, like and prefer american life style .. because they see value in their culture .. when thinking of that, if we want to copy west, then we should probably copy that end factor too. .. that trying out different things from different culture but giving value to ours and not forget that indian culture is really rich ...
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