I hear people singing praise of our nation and declaring that it is the best in the world. I cannot but stop and wonder like a few before me, "is it?"
Here is my view.
India has an undignified superiority complex. It mistakes history for culture. Yes, we have great ancestors, we have great architecture and we have all together too many traditions to speak of among other things, but does this really give us a cultural identity in this world ? What edge do these unique properties give us over other nations other than the ability to hold our noses to the sky and blindly proclaim that "We are the Best, forget the Rest !"
Truth be told, most of the people who make such proclamations have never taken the time to study or visit foreign lands to get a feel of their practices. Most people complain that India is becoming too "westernized" and we are forgetting where we came from. We hear that "megacities" are evil and India is losing its culture to their rapid growth. Might I remind everyone that India was one the first to show the world what a megacity truly is. Lets talk history. The Indus valley civilization may have been built after Babylon, but it was far greater by virtue of its meticulous planning and design and trust me, Mohen-jo-daro was most definitely a mega city.
Modern day cultural pandits fling vitriol at the adoption of foreign practices as our own while it is the oldest tradition of India to accept all foreign practices and make them part of a larger whole. I cannot for the world figure out how the same people can declare India 'The Melting Pot of the World' and in the same breath despise international cultural homogenization. The exchange of traditions and customs across borders and time is as old as the human civilization is.
The Taj Mahal, a national icon that shouts its Mughal beauty over every square centimetre of its marble clad being, is probably considered the world over as 'Indian' as it gets, but this form of architecture was once completely foreign to India.
Too often when the common man is asked to give an example of Indian culture, they will answer with some tale of some ancient deed. It is high time that we stopped being impressed by events long gone in favour of building a better future. We as Indians should not even take credit for those things we had no hand in doing. Harrold Hill once said that "You pile up enough tomorrow, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays".
Yes, our ancestors invented the number zero, get over it ! The Chinese used to come to Nalanda to learn, now they have more Ph.D scholars every year than India. All the best Indian students are looking overseas. We've already lost the race as no one has even cared to realize when the race began. India is stagnating and quickly becoming a spoilt child of generations now laid to rest. I'm not saying that significant progress has not been made at all, I'm saying that enough of it has not been made, at least not to the potential that we possess.
It's high time we got our heads out of the dirt, shook the sand from our ears and took a good look at the world around us. There is still hope, if only people read less history and actually understand the little that they do read.
Here is my view.
India has an undignified superiority complex. It mistakes history for culture. Yes, we have great ancestors, we have great architecture and we have all together too many traditions to speak of among other things, but does this really give us a cultural identity in this world ? What edge do these unique properties give us over other nations other than the ability to hold our noses to the sky and blindly proclaim that "We are the Best, forget the Rest !"
Truth be told, most of the people who make such proclamations have never taken the time to study or visit foreign lands to get a feel of their practices. Most people complain that India is becoming too "westernized" and we are forgetting where we came from. We hear that "megacities" are evil and India is losing its culture to their rapid growth. Might I remind everyone that India was one the first to show the world what a megacity truly is. Lets talk history. The Indus valley civilization may have been built after Babylon, but it was far greater by virtue of its meticulous planning and design and trust me, Mohen-jo-daro was most definitely a mega city.
Modern day cultural pandits fling vitriol at the adoption of foreign practices as our own while it is the oldest tradition of India to accept all foreign practices and make them part of a larger whole. I cannot for the world figure out how the same people can declare India 'The Melting Pot of the World' and in the same breath despise international cultural homogenization. The exchange of traditions and customs across borders and time is as old as the human civilization is.
The Taj Mahal, a national icon that shouts its Mughal beauty over every square centimetre of its marble clad being, is probably considered the world over as 'Indian' as it gets, but this form of architecture was once completely foreign to India.
Too often when the common man is asked to give an example of Indian culture, they will answer with some tale of some ancient deed. It is high time that we stopped being impressed by events long gone in favour of building a better future. We as Indians should not even take credit for those things we had no hand in doing. Harrold Hill once said that "You pile up enough tomorrow, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays".
Yes, our ancestors invented the number zero, get over it ! The Chinese used to come to Nalanda to learn, now they have more Ph.D scholars every year than India. All the best Indian students are looking overseas. We've already lost the race as no one has even cared to realize when the race began. India is stagnating and quickly becoming a spoilt child of generations now laid to rest. I'm not saying that significant progress has not been made at all, I'm saying that enough of it has not been made, at least not to the potential that we possess.
It's high time we got our heads out of the dirt, shook the sand from our ears and took a good look at the world around us. There is still hope, if only people read less history and actually understand the little that they do read.
Posts
