It is shocking to realize that I have all along been totally oblivious of what is happening around me. Worse still, I have been living in a fool's paradise assuming things to be exactly the opposite of how they really are. It is such a shameful thing that I have been so ignorant about what is happening with such an important thing as my own culture.
That is the problem with taking things for granted. You see, when I was young, my culture was assumed to be so strong. It had lasted a few millenniums and emerged relatively unscathed from long years of colonial rule. True, we had changed the way we dress and had taken to considering speaking in English as somehow more sophisticated than speaking in our own lingo, but those were but cosmetic changes compared to how little had been affected in all the rest.
I stop paying attention to it, assuming that what had been strong enough to last all the cataclysms of the ages would be strong enough for my lifetime, and find that suddenly it has become so weak, so fragile that it gets threatened by some ill-informed book, some pieces of art, the depictions of some fictional characters and even, horror of horrors, cartoons! How incredibly naive I was, how uncaring of my roots that I thought that, even if they did defame my culture, they could hardly make a dent on the strength of my ethos, and the best thing to do was to laugh them away. AND, in case there was any truth in the negatives stated, my culture had the resilience to change and become stronger - as it has in the past, when it stopped animal sacrifices and sati.
This convenient assumption - that, if the portrayal is wrong, it is ridiculous to give it any importance and, if it is right, it is ridiculous to muzzle it - is, I now realize, quite likely to bring on the end of my culture. It has now become so fragile that even the mild breeze, that these things are likely to be, is enough to blow it away and needs safeguarding with utmost vigilance.
I need to make up for my past lapses. How then do I ensure that I work in such a manner as to strengthen my culture? Do I take up the cudgels against the people who urinate all around my temples and scratch immortal love stories like "Rocky luvs Pinky" on centuries old sculptures? Nope - no-one considers that as threatening to our culture. Do I work towards the cause of rejuvenating Classical Music and dance? I do not think so. I have heard bhajans set to the tune of 'Ek, do, teen....' (And, who knows, "Chikni Chameli.." or whatever, now), so it looks like giving up Indian classical music/dance is not a big deal.
Do I proselytize about the strong family system here - that the intrusiveness may be a by-product but the support in times of need is reliable? Yeah Right - just as everyone and his uncle is ensuring that about the only thing that remains of the family system is the intrusiveness. Do I speak of the 'Athithi satkar' and the need to sustain the openhearted and open-minded way in which we treat guests and accept their different way of life? But that, too, is not necessary to strengthen our culture. What is important is to make the other guys accept ours. Just as the more important thing to strengthen my culture is for me to ensure that the women in my vicinity are completely covered, and the not too important and, maybe, even irrelevant thing is to avoid molesting women myself.
Do I propagate the Indian philosophical thought of a life of detachment from the material world? Nonsense - not when a sizable proportion of even the spiritual gurus are queuing up for their BMWs. Do I try to spread the idea of "God is in Everyone"? Don't be ridiculous - we all know that he cannot be in those guys praying to a different God OR these women who dress in a manner quite against our culture (There is this problem for me. With this sprawling country with so many different dress codes, exactly WHAT fits our culture and what does not?) Anyway, all this thing about 'Advaita' is a relatively modern construct and, if we had been around in those days, we would have eliminated all such threats to our culture right then.
I am all atwitter to do something to safeguard my culture but, unfortunately, cannot think of anything right away. And, meanwhile, my inaction is probably causing my culture to be blown away by these vagrant breezes.
Wait! Where is my cudgel? I can go around bashing young couples in my neighborhood on Valentine's day.
Oh! Shucks! Valentine's day is already gone. I will have to wait for a year before I can do something to safeguard my culture.
I sure hope and pray that it can survive till then!
I wish everyone gets that you cannot force anyone to follow or obey or believe,it has to be from the heart,no point in bullying people into doing things your way,it only creates more rebels,what good your believes if they can't survive a li'l temptation,if they can lure you into doing the so considered 'wrong',Sir,i like your style,hope the self appointed guardians of faith/culture read your post.
ReplyDeleteWhat I wish is that the 'guardians of culture' direct their energies towards more constructive endeavors like safeguarding the icons of our culture
DeleteI think culture today has become a pretext on the basis of which the so called 'guardians of all things Indian' validate their nonsense...! Such a pity really!
ReplyDeleteYes - and, if they are serious, I wish they will use their energies constructively in safeguarding the temples, encouraging Indian classical music and dance etc.
DeleteSpot on! Yes, if it comes to improving our own civic sense and promoting our Arts and Crafts, it does not generate TRPs and hence is not important enough. However, making provocative statements and infringing upon people's rights in the name of safeguarding culture certainly does. Hence every few months, we see the government do lip service to the cause of local language and culture by belittling the immigrants. Such skewed notions.
ReplyDeleteIt is easier to destroy than create or preserve, Rachna! And, yes, the former gains more publicity as well
DeletePrecisely,i agree with Rachna.These people want fame at any cost.
DeleteQuite
DeleteLoved how you used your trademark style to convey what is quite possibly the most important message that the so called moral policemen/women and culture cops of our country need to hear.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jairam! Always found it risible that we puny humans think that God or our culture needs our protection :)
DeleteExcellent point really. There is one more aspect, every time someone goes bashing others in name of culture. Somewhere, the culture dies
ReplyDeleteYes, Siddhesh, the culture dies thanks to such actions
DeleteI knew it was all because of you that our culture is going down the drain! Do something! You're the man!!!
ReplyDeleteSomeone has stolen my cudgel :)
Delete"culture'' today has become synonymous with moral policing.... :-(
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteThe strongest point of our culture is it's tolerance and acceptance of different views and different view points .... Lord Krishna can elope with Rukmini ... But if neighbor ing couples get into romance it's against culture? Who is giving anyone the right ? Political motives purely !
ReplyDeleteYou name the thing that is being opposed, there is something in the Puranas that says it was acceptable in the past - Satyavati had a child - Ved Vyas - in 'Gandharv Vivah' with Sage Parashar and still married Santanu AND it was known that Vyas was her child. Even Subhadra eloped with Arjuna against the wished of Balaram and so on and so on.
DeleteOh, gosh ...I too will wait to see whether the great Indian culture survives till the next Valentine's day ....
ReplyDeleteHeart in the mouth feeling :)
DeleteRachna's comment and your reply say it all for me. Wish there were more sane voices.
ReplyDeleteThere are more sane people, Alka, than the others but they do not get vociferous.
DeleteWish I had written this post Suresh ! The 'fragility' of our culture was very inviting indeed for a good humour post :) Your post rocked ! As far as the topic goes, you said it all. Indeed, sad are our times, when everything 'fanatical' goes under the garb of culture and then there's actually no culture to protect.
ReplyDeleteTHAT is high praise, Ash! Thanks
DeleteAgree with your points, Sureshji.
ReplyDeleteReally sad that we have no qualms when our ancient heritage - monuments, arts, crafts etc are insulted...
Indian culture is a potpourri & will flourish.
I wish that those who are serious about upholding our culture address their energies to preserving these monuments, arts and crafts.
DeleteQuite so.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteAah....how could I miss this excellent post?! Anyway, better late than never. The wit, sarcasam and humor of your post is fantastic, and totally on the point. But I have a serious point to make :) Yes, our culture is not weak that it can be so easily shaken by those ill-informed books, non-sensical portrayals in films etc. And I am totally with you on the positives that we should be working on (like not defacing our monuments, protecthing and preserving our heritage temples, encouraging and promoting classical art forms etc.). But I still feel that there is a need for a strong, well-informed, well-articulated defense. I say this because in present times the global discourse on global cultures is still very asymmetric. And culture as a soft power is commonly used for the purposes of international and foreign policy purposes. I am not saying this, many serious thinkers have been documenting this for quite a while now. Of course you would know that I am not speaking of the sort of misinformed and misapplied aggression that protestors of valentines day and those advocating covering up women etc. Every time a book that speaks of Shiv-lingam as phallus (and only that, and nothing else) is used as a textbook in a classroom in the US or anywhere else in the world, a seed for the misperception of Hinduism is planted in young minds right there ! And this is just one small example, there are many such things that happen on regular basis. It is such things that need to be challenged and challenged strongly.
ReplyDeleteBeloo! I differentiate between the 'preserving' means of upholding culture and the 'destruction' means. A true response to an ill-informed book about our culture IS a well-informed one that gets written and widely circulated and NOT burning copies and filing cases to ban the book. What the latter does is ensure that THAT book gets more publicity and higher circulation than before, if not within this country outside the country.
DeleteIn other words, I would rather that we ignore these things, by way of not even referring to them, and concentrated on building a better understanding of our own culture among both our people as well as others. In that, what I mean is that we do tackle the arguments posited by these people but NOT in direct reference so as to be seen to be making a defense. To me, the idea of defending my culture against ill-informed people is to give too much stature to ill-informed nuts :)
Totally with you on this point about not giving too much or any publicity to the ill-informed nuts. And also on the point about doing well informed critiques of controversial books. But my concern still remains that the nuts who oppose a certain book or film and demand their ban and pulping get more publicity in our asymmetric discourse than the well-researched critique. This makes the problem even worse. Ultimately I agree the best defense is to strengthen our own bonds with our cultural roots and encourage others to do the same through meaningful education. But unfortunately there is a lot of apathy, ignorance and indifference among the so-called educated Indians about their own roots.
DeleteTrue that - and a sorry state of affairs. In fact, on my infrequent angst-ridden posts, I have mentioned something rather strongly about this apathy. If I remember right, it was in 'Heritage under threat'
DeleteI just love love love this post and I can't stress this enough. Torchbearers of so called Indian Culture are only doing one thing and that is making Indians who have a mind of their own getting to believe that our culture is far regressive and sick that it really is.
ReplyDeleteAND I wish that they would bear their torches in preserving than destroying.
DeleteAs humorous and thoughtful as ever, CS. These so-called and self appointed protectors of our culture/s simply use the word to get what they want - power over the rest of us. Who would dare argue with them or question them? They use the threat of violence to get what they want and often, unleash that violence to cow us. There's this chap, Kumar Vishwas, a poet. Hindi is his base. He is human (faults and foibles included) but comes across as honest and humorous. He does more to promote the language than these jungle kings. Even I, born into a family that speaks English and Gujarati at home, feel keen to decipher (read 'struggle with' or 'ask the hubby') his words. Quietly showcasing the best in any culture is the only promotion possible.
ReplyDeleteI have always felt that a Culture can be destroyed by neglect than by criticism
Delete