Indian culture
Indian culture-a myth or a reality?
-Rukmi Sarmah
India’s one billion people have descended from a variety of races.
The oldest ones are the Negroid aboriginals called the Adivasis. Then came the Dravidians, the Aryans, the Mongols, the Semites and innumerable inter-mixtures of one with the other. A blend of migration and movement across ancient boundaries, travel and colonialism gave India the culture it is said to have today.
According to Amartya Sen, the India born Nobel Laureate in Economics, the culture of modern India is a complex blend of its historical traditions, influences from the effects of colonialism over centuries and current Western culture - both collaterally and dialectically. India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism, from where they propagated to different parts of the globe. India cherishes the celebration of its gamut of festivals like Holi, Diwali, Eid, and Christmas. The ancient texts The Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Bhagavad-Gita teach the Indians that survival can only be in terms of quality of life. They provides a framework of values that have since generations made the Indian citizen morally sound to walk through all phases of life. Indian cuisine and clothing, language and literature, dance and music have had a profound impact on countries and people across the world.
Now the big question arises. Is the “rich cultural heritage” we claim of a myth or a reality?
Westernization since the British era has rendered our culture in such a dismal state that it is impossible to take a u-turn now. Right from the jeans we were to the burgers we eat, westernization has been wrongly mixed with modernization. Sadly in a recent report, there are only 5000 Sanskrit speakers today in the country, the “devbhasha” which was used to write our ancient epics. “English”, a gift from the British to our once enslaved country has become an inevitable part of our curriculum. Hindi will be an optional subject at high
-Rukmi Sarmah
India’s one billion people have descended from a variety of races.
The oldest ones are the Negroid aboriginals called the Adivasis. Then came the Dravidians, the Aryans, the Mongols, the Semites and innumerable inter-mixtures of one with the other. A blend of migration and movement across ancient boundaries, travel and colonialism gave India the culture it is said to have today.
According to Amartya Sen, the India born Nobel Laureate in Economics, the culture of modern India is a complex blend of its historical traditions, influences from the effects of colonialism over centuries and current Western culture - both collaterally and dialectically. India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism, from where they propagated to different parts of the globe. India cherishes the celebration of its gamut of festivals like Holi, Diwali, Eid, and Christmas. The ancient texts The Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Bhagavad-Gita teach the Indians that survival can only be in terms of quality of life. They provides a framework of values that have since generations made the Indian citizen morally sound to walk through all phases of life. Indian cuisine and clothing, language and literature, dance and music have had a profound impact on countries and people across the world.
Now the big question arises. Is the “rich cultural heritage” we claim of a myth or a reality?
Westernization since the British era has rendered our culture in such a dismal state that it is impossible to take a u-turn now. Right from the jeans we were to the burgers we eat, westernization has been wrongly mixed with modernization. Sadly in a recent report, there are only 5000 Sanskrit speakers today in the country, the “devbhasha” which was used to write our ancient epics. “English”, a gift from the British to our once enslaved country has become an inevitable part of our curriculum. Hindi will be an optional subject at high