As we all know ‘Culture’ is a heritage which is a
merge of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, traditional custom, social norms,
ethical values and habits of a particular society. And each culture has one’s
own beliefs and traditions. Thus that makes each nation or society unique for
their particular culture and gives a distinctive identity among the others in
the world.
The Indian culture, which is one of the oldest and
the richest culture in the world, is somehow at the point of vanishing. The
peculiar feature of its culture is one of the reasons for which India is well
renowned among the other countries, then why today it possesses a threat from
its own people? Why Indians neglecting their own culture and trying to become
like the western? Why the Indian culture which represented as an identity for
its nation is now becoming an imitation of the western culture? Why these
people unable to understand that their negligence may cause their country to
lose something very valuable: ‘its identity’.
The impact of western culture on Indian culture can be witnessed in the fields of life style, dressing style, food, moral values, habits, relationships and especially on Indian cinemas. Somehow people are getting carried away by the charm of western culture and without even bothering about its concussion on Indian culture, they are simply replicating themselves. If the influence of western culture continues to affect the Indian society, soon a time will come when India will lose its uniqueness and particularity and will turn its identification into ‘a carbon copy of the western.’
When the reasons for the rapid alteration
in the Indian culture was scrutinized among the Indians: some
of them simply termed it as a step to ‘Modernization’, while the other half believes
that the changes in the Indian culture is because of the impact of the western
culture and some says that the alien culture is highly influencing the Indian
culture and unknowingly people are becoming fonder of western culture and
blindly following it.
According to my study report: The root cause of the
diversity
lies in the lack of knowledge about the term ‘Modernization’ and ‘Westernization’,
there is a big difference these two terms: people wearing jeans, t-shirt, short
skirts, having food like burger, pizza etc. makes them feels that they are
modern; this is pure ‘Westernization’, copying what people are doing in the
western countries. While ‘Modernization’ takes place in the mind rather than in
clothes, food etc. Modernization is to change our mentality, attitude towards
certain things; it’s a change from narrow to broad minded people.
‘Culture’ is not a law, ‘revolution’ is a law of
nature and there is no harm or disservice in taking something
positive from others like their broad mentality, frankness, cultural diversity,
etc. Western culture has various practices which can help to make India a
better society. But every culture has its own moral failings, when one
considers India: the caste system, gender discrimination, religious
superstitions, women harassment etc. while the Western also have their own
moral flaws like the western rarely care for the old one’s there.
Even in the book: ‘Basis of Swami Vivekananda’s
Nationalism’ by P.R
Bhuyan, stated that India should learn from the West what
is good in it and absorb it within the folds of her culture. Blind imitation of
the West and forgetfulness of what is our own will bring ruin to the nation. As
Jawaharlal Nehru has observed, “If our race forgets the Buddha, the Upanishad’s
and the great epics, what then will it be like! It would be uprooted and would
lose the basic characteristics which have clung to it and given it distinction
throughout these long ages. India would cease to be India.”
As far as my opinion is concerned I will propose that
merely,
copying western culture won’t be fruitful. We should find out the pitfalls of
our culture and try to remove them. Understanding their culture and then
adopting them is the correct idea, rather than to blindly ensue them. World is
made of different culture, we should share, learn and accept the pleasing
things around us without losing our own culture and identity.
Good one..
ReplyDeleteVery usefull information..
Thank you for sharing.. :-)
thank you so much for you appreciation sharon
ReplyDeleteWorthful information.You said it,adopt good things without loosing our identity..
ReplyDeletethank you jayasankar
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletei'm happy to know that my article helped you to sort out your confusion:))
DeleteGood attempt Anushree,
ReplyDeleteWe have only one world but many cultures. And this world is demographically becoming smaller. So there is no point in preventing mix of cultures.
By western culture, you might have meant American culture primarily. There is no genuine American culture as that country is a strange mix of many nationalities. Transformation in that culture is still continuing. It is good to see how various ethnicity keep their identity in U.S and at the same time how they develop a stand-alone U.S culture. If U.S had developed this culture over a few decades great embodiments of cilivlisations like India, China and Greece framed their cultures over centuries. A pluralist society , like a sponge, can assimilate any kind of culture. But a unitary society will not bear this. But in a shrinking world, growing to be a global village with the aid of technology, no nation can be conservative enough to protect its culture, religion or ethos. Such an attempt would literally create friction within that society and this would like a volcano would erupt at any point of time. This we have seen in many countries and societies in the recent past. Many nationalities have accepted that cultural invasion is now more easy with soft power than military power as we have seen in the case of the growing Indian influence in SE Asia, Middle East, Afghanistan and even in the African countries. If it was Hollywood earlier it is the turn of Bollywood now.
Reportedly there was a famous exchange between the prominent playwright George Bernard Shaw and the glamorous dancer Isadora Duncan on the topic of producing a child together. Duncan stated that Shaw had a magnificent brain and she had a glorious beauty; the combination would yield a remarkable child. Shaw replied with regret that he feared the result would also turn otherwise and embody his beauty and her brains.
There is another saying: “Heaven” in Europe is when the Germans are the Engineers, the British are the Police, the French are the Cooks, the Swiss are the Administrators and the Italians are the Lovers. Subsequently another one developed:“Hell” in Europe is when the British are the Cooks, the Germans are the Police, the French are the Engineers, the Swiss are the Lovers, and the Italians are the Administrators.
As you mentioned rightly in the last paragraph of your post, we should find out the pitfalls of our culture and try to remove them. Understanding their culture and then adopting them is the correct idea, rather than to blindly ensue them.
And you have mentioned.. as far as my opinion is concerned I will propose that merely, copying western culture won’t be fruitful. World is made of different culture, we should share, learn and accept the pleasing things around us without losing our own culture and identity.
We also need to be conscious of efforts to impose our culture in other countries and within our country. India has a diverse cultural and religious scenario. There should be checks and balances within the country during these impositions before we cry out against the western invasions.
Keep up your good effort,
Wishing you all the best,
Radhakrishnan