Magazine - Year 2008 - Version 1
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Language: ENGLISH
Who killed Indian Culture?
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[Ever since Dr. Pranavji Pandya, Chief of All World Gayatri Pariwar and Chief Editor of this magazine, started conducting ‘Youth Camps’ in India as well as abroad, the hues of transformation in the thought process of young generation have been quite visible. The participants of these camps have started contemplating about how they can contribute towards making visibly manifest Poojya Gurudev’s vision of ushering in of a golden era. It is a good sign. In order to encourage the youth to express their views, their plans and achievements in the Mission’s activities, we have introduced a new feature titled ‘Letter(s) to the Editor’. The letter we are publishing in this issue is from a first year undergraduate student studying at John Hopkins University, USA. The contents speak for themselves. It is an admonishment of Indians in general and the Indian Youth in particular. It challenges us to sit up and reflect how we can redeem, by ourselves living its essence, the Vedic Dharma and Culture, so that it again becomes an ideal model for others to emulate. We will heartily welcome such constructively critical communications from our readers. The entries for this feature should be concise and focused and should conform to our Mission’s aims and objectives. They may be mailed directly to <abroadcell@awgp.org> with subject ‘Letter to Editor – English Akhand Jyoti.
– Editor]
Who Killed Indian Culture?
There is no doubt about it: the West has picked up a terrible reputation. For many Indians living in India, the West is synonymous with the decline of culture, the rise of immorality, and disillusioned NRI's. Small wonder that many of those back in India see these NRI's as ambassadors of corruption. "They are not real Indians!" they proclaim. "They have lost their culture!" But have they truly lost it, or has it been taken away from them? Or, as some believe—is it outright dead? And if so, who killed it?
To answer this question, it is vital to understand what we mean when we deride NRI's for losing their culture. What is culture? Gurudev defined it as the sum of the accomplishments of a civilization—not simply in the material realm, but its traditions of art, literature, scholarship, spirituality, and philosophy. A culturally attuned individual, therefore, was one who understood the unique contributions his or her cultural group had made to humanity, and followed a lifestyle that was in accordance with what these contributions represented.
In the West, some NRI's are acknowledged as 'cultured' individuals. Visit almost any major city in the world and you can observe them in hordes at cultural shows or Sunday School events, representing what Indians feel are the best, the most essentially Indian, in the midst of the youth of the West. These young people may not be familiar with the contents of the Vedas, but they can recite an untold number of shlokas from memory (and often do so as a conversation piece at dinner parties). They may not be able to defend Indian holistic health when it is derided by its critics, but they're all studying 'proper Indian subjects' like medicine or engineering. They may not be able to articulate the importance of the sangeet tradition, but they know the lineup of all the latest Bollywood songs. They participate in elaborate, devotionally empty pujas, at which they appear dressed in skimpy lehnga blouses that are always the latest fashion in India, and recite memorized mantras with little consideration for the meaning, form, or application of what they're saying. Despite their parents' proud objections to 'Western indecency,' they stage completely scandalous dance shows which are less about the beauty and power of Indian dance and more about Bollywood-fueled flirting. And these are the ones that Indian elders proudly hold up as vessels of the great Vedic civilization. If we fully accept Gurudev's view of culture as true, then these individuals are not cultured at all. They simply possess the superficial appearance of being truly Indian, in the way that a woman dressed in a red sari may, from far away, possess the appearance of a bride.
And yet, this phenomenon is not present simply in the West. Many young people living in India now consider spirituality to be a matter of the distant past—a hobby of the old. Philosophy and the study of the nation's history are matters to be swallowed and spit out for board exams, and then forgotten in the blind urge to accumulate as much wealth as possible through thankless, mechanical jobs. Those who do not succumb to this culture of ostentation are mocked at and ridiculed. Indians living in India claim that the West is the source of all bad habits, and yet it is often the Indian students abroad, not the Western ones, who harass female classmates, drink themselves into a stupor, and skip their classes. But they claim that they are highly cultured, meeting any criticism with retorts like "Well, can you recite Hanuman Chalisa? I can!"
We are quick to blame the West and NRI's—but if we look back home with the same judging eyes, we cannot help but be ashamed of ourselves. Is this the India Gurudev had described in his books as a paragon of civilization, a place of mental peace, intrepid learning, and inherent spirituality? This India does not exist anymore, and outsiders laugh at us when we say it does!
There is an enemy here, and it is not in the collection of miscellaneous sins we tend to lump together and incorrectly label "the West." The enemy is within us, in kurtas and saris, with sindoor in its hair. The enemy is every Indian who has ever mocked at an NRI for his lack of culture while himself pandering to the superficiality of the Indian elite; every NRI who has claimed to be Indian while espousing the very habits Indian culture despises; every Indian who has laughed at the West's supposed immorality while eagerly lapping up the depravity and decadence of the latest Bollywood release. Both abroad and at home—the enemy, and the one who has killed Indian culture, is no one but the Indian himself.
Gurudev held up the example of the mythological divine swan as a role model for discerning judgment. The swan could separate milk from water and would only take the milk, even when the two were blended together. Gurudev wanted us to be like the swan in separating the good from the bad, in a world which has always been and will always continue to be a blend of the two confounding ways. If the swan fails to extract the milk from the blend, is it fair to blame the blend? Not at all—the fault is with the swan. And if we Indians, examining the West from both abroad and from within it, only choose to adopt the decadence and consumerism we see instead of its service-minded work culture, its freedom of speech, and the stunning honesty of its average citizens—then is it fair to blame the West?
The West has not forced on us negative qualities. We have snatched them from it. In our own conduct, we have been nothing like the discerning swan of our own mythology! The West was full of what we did not have—but instead of building its libraries, we built nightclubs. Instead of adopting its tradition of community service, we adopted the tradition of divorce. Instead of adopting its egalitarian respect for women, we adopted miniskirts and bikini tops. With what right do we blame the West? It is not the Western ways that have ruined our culture — we have ruined it, and that ruined, twisted version of it is what we have let loose upon our own nation.
Indians of all types—both in India and abroad—must come together to resurrect Indian culture—not this mishmash of accumulated habit, blind tradition, and unwritten law that seems to pass as culture in our time. Gurudev's works can serve as a guideline for this, always encouraging us to surmount the superficial and come into contact with our nation's greatest heritage—the idealism of the Vedic lifestyle, and all it implies.
In this endeavor, we cannot continue to remain so divided. Indians at home must stop blaming the West—and NRI's—for all kinds of problems. In its stead we must accept our own inability to adopt its positive qualities. NRI's must realize that what India is right now is not Indian culture, and that we must strive to form our own definitions of it by researching what it used to be. It will take a great deal of collaboration to usher India into another golden age and make it an admirable nation once again—and not, as it is now, merely a parody of its former, greater self.
- Shivi Chandra, First year undergraduate student
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore USA
– Editor]
Who Killed Indian Culture?
There is no doubt about it: the West has picked up a terrible reputation. For many Indians living in India, the West is synonymous with the decline of culture, the rise of immorality, and disillusioned NRI's. Small wonder that many of those back in India see these NRI's as ambassadors of corruption. "They are not real Indians!" they proclaim. "They have lost their culture!" But have they truly lost it, or has it been taken away from them? Or, as some believe—is it outright dead? And if so, who killed it?
To answer this question, it is vital to understand what we mean when we deride NRI's for losing their culture. What is culture? Gurudev defined it as the sum of the accomplishments of a civilization—not simply in the material realm, but its traditions of art, literature, scholarship, spirituality, and philosophy. A culturally attuned individual, therefore, was one who understood the unique contributions his or her cultural group had made to humanity, and followed a lifestyle that was in accordance with what these contributions represented.
In the West, some NRI's are acknowledged as 'cultured' individuals. Visit almost any major city in the world and you can observe them in hordes at cultural shows or Sunday School events, representing what Indians feel are the best, the most essentially Indian, in the midst of the youth of the West. These young people may not be familiar with the contents of the Vedas, but they can recite an untold number of shlokas from memory (and often do so as a conversation piece at dinner parties). They may not be able to defend Indian holistic health when it is derided by its critics, but they're all studying 'proper Indian subjects' like medicine or engineering. They may not be able to articulate the importance of the sangeet tradition, but they know the lineup of all the latest Bollywood songs. They participate in elaborate, devotionally empty pujas, at which they appear dressed in skimpy lehnga blouses that are always the latest fashion in India, and recite memorized mantras with little consideration for the meaning, form, or application of what they're saying. Despite their parents' proud objections to 'Western indecency,' they stage completely scandalous dance shows which are less about the beauty and power of Indian dance and more about Bollywood-fueled flirting. And these are the ones that Indian elders proudly hold up as vessels of the great Vedic civilization. If we fully accept Gurudev's view of culture as true, then these individuals are not cultured at all. They simply possess the superficial appearance of being truly Indian, in the way that a woman dressed in a red sari may, from far away, possess the appearance of a bride.
And yet, this phenomenon is not present simply in the West. Many young people living in India now consider spirituality to be a matter of the distant past—a hobby of the old. Philosophy and the study of the nation's history are matters to be swallowed and spit out for board exams, and then forgotten in the blind urge to accumulate as much wealth as possible through thankless, mechanical jobs. Those who do not succumb to this culture of ostentation are mocked at and ridiculed. Indians living in India claim that the West is the source of all bad habits, and yet it is often the Indian students abroad, not the Western ones, who harass female classmates, drink themselves into a stupor, and skip their classes. But they claim that they are highly cultured, meeting any criticism with retorts like "Well, can you recite Hanuman Chalisa? I can!"
We are quick to blame the West and NRI's—but if we look back home with the same judging eyes, we cannot help but be ashamed of ourselves. Is this the India Gurudev had described in his books as a paragon of civilization, a place of mental peace, intrepid learning, and inherent spirituality? This India does not exist anymore, and outsiders laugh at us when we say it does!
There is an enemy here, and it is not in the collection of miscellaneous sins we tend to lump together and incorrectly label "the West." The enemy is within us, in kurtas and saris, with sindoor in its hair. The enemy is every Indian who has ever mocked at an NRI for his lack of culture while himself pandering to the superficiality of the Indian elite; every NRI who has claimed to be Indian while espousing the very habits Indian culture despises; every Indian who has laughed at the West's supposed immorality while eagerly lapping up the depravity and decadence of the latest Bollywood release. Both abroad and at home—the enemy, and the one who has killed Indian culture, is no one but the Indian himself.
Gurudev held up the example of the mythological divine swan as a role model for discerning judgment. The swan could separate milk from water and would only take the milk, even when the two were blended together. Gurudev wanted us to be like the swan in separating the good from the bad, in a world which has always been and will always continue to be a blend of the two confounding ways. If the swan fails to extract the milk from the blend, is it fair to blame the blend? Not at all—the fault is with the swan. And if we Indians, examining the West from both abroad and from within it, only choose to adopt the decadence and consumerism we see instead of its service-minded work culture, its freedom of speech, and the stunning honesty of its average citizens—then is it fair to blame the West?
The West has not forced on us negative qualities. We have snatched them from it. In our own conduct, we have been nothing like the discerning swan of our own mythology! The West was full of what we did not have—but instead of building its libraries, we built nightclubs. Instead of adopting its tradition of community service, we adopted the tradition of divorce. Instead of adopting its egalitarian respect for women, we adopted miniskirts and bikini tops. With what right do we blame the West? It is not the Western ways that have ruined our culture — we have ruined it, and that ruined, twisted version of it is what we have let loose upon our own nation.
Indians of all types—both in India and abroad—must come together to resurrect Indian culture—not this mishmash of accumulated habit, blind tradition, and unwritten law that seems to pass as culture in our time. Gurudev's works can serve as a guideline for this, always encouraging us to surmount the superficial and come into contact with our nation's greatest heritage—the idealism of the Vedic lifestyle, and all it implies.
In this endeavor, we cannot continue to remain so divided. Indians at home must stop blaming the West—and NRI's—for all kinds of problems. In its stead we must accept our own inability to adopt its positive qualities. NRI's must realize that what India is right now is not Indian culture, and that we must strive to form our own definitions of it by researching what it used to be. It will take a great deal of collaboration to usher India into another golden age and make it an admirable nation once again—and not, as it is now, merely a parody of its former, greater self.
- Shivi Chandra, First year undergraduate student
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore USA
