Will Indians & Pakistanis lose their culture?
M D Nalapat
It used to be said that Indians were different, and that — unlike in the
Gulf countries or in East Asia - most middle and even upper class
Indians stayed aloof from the craze for premium European brands.
Whatever their income level, Bollywood was preferred to Hollywood,
tandoori chicken to the European continent’s baked variety. In
motorcars, the music heard was seldom that of Michael Jackson, the
preference being for Indian singers,including the greats of times
past,Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi. And of course,Pierce Bosnan or
Madonna would have very little danger of getting mobbed in a shopping
mall,unlike the wildly popular Shahrukh Khan or the earthy Tabu (Tabassum).
While it is true that there are far more people in the Arabian Gulf
countries or in China who buy up Gucci handbags or Cartier watches,or
feel deprived without a Bentley or a BMW, yet the number of those with
what Vidia Naipaul described as the Indian “craze for foreign” seems on
the rise. This columnist (who is vegetarian) loves his “dal-chawal” and
his “alu subzi and roti”. He would walk several miles to tuck into a
pile of succulent “idlies” (the rice cakes popular in the south of
India) mixed with chutney. Which is why he dreads dinner invitations
from his fancy friends these days.For,instead of the usual fare,what
gets placed on his plate is a succession of indigestible French
dishes,or - horror of horrors - pasty made gooey with some sauce
“imported specially from Milano”.Unless he feigns delight,the hostess
and the host will consider him an ignorant country bumpkin (which,born
as he was in a village,he is). Steadily, tastes and attitudes in India
are losing their moorings and floating towards the fate of being
cultural clones of natives of France or Italy. Many of those with the
money take time off to spend “heritage time” in various scenic locations
in Europe, practising their foreign accents or tasting wines and
cheeses. This always creates a (hidden) laugh in uncultured minds like
that of your columnist, for the reason that most of those from our part
of the world who pretend to be more French than those born in Nancy or
Rouen are in their hearts yearning to return to “masala chaat”. The
foundation for national resilience is culture. While this can adopt
other strands - and indeed should - yet such adaptation ought not to be
so significant as to affect the basic qualities of a civilisation. Let
us take the case of India,Pakistan and Bangla Desh,where the basic
culture of the people is to be warm and hospitable. To be polite and
respectful. However, in each of the three countries more and more people
are adopting a culture of hatred and intolerance that is completely at
variance with their own. They are adopting the same attuitude of
intolerance and hatred towards those who reject their views as the
multiple nationalities in Europe did against each other in the first
half of the previous century.
It is in the context of growing fanaticism that the difference between
those who absorb the good elements in other cultures and integrate them
in their own and those who uncritically attempt to copycat foreign ways
becomes important. For,fanatics can be fought only by those with an
inborn confidence in their own culture (albeit woven out of multiple
strands) rather than by those who feel like aliens in their own country.
Sadly,our schools teach us to be contemptous of our own traditions and
history,and regard as central the events that took place within
countries that once ruled over us. Even today,more attention is paid to
the history of Europe than to the history of Asia. The past is still
taught the way it was a century ago, when what was local was derided and
only that which came from afar was judged to be worthy of attention.
Unless such outdated curricula get replaced by others that mix
traditional values with modern knowledge, the fanatics will continue to
spread. One of the problems being faced within the region is the fact
that too many young people are made to study in exclusively religious
schools. The teaching of Religion is like a spoonful of sugar that needs
to be put into a glass of “water” ( in other words,conventional
education), so as to make the “water” sweet. It should not be seen as a
substitute for conventional scholing,the way it is in so many parts of
South Asia. Schools that teach the young the expertise needed for a
productive life in a modern economy need to be emphasized,as also the
teaching of an international language suich as Eglish.In this
connection,the experience of India is instructive. In South India, the
teaching of English was encouraged,except in the Communist-ruled state
of Kerala.
In contrast,northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar restricted
the teaching of English to very few,with the result that today,it is
majorly the people of the South that are grabbing most of the best jobs
in the Knowledge Industry. Incidentally,the only southern state lagging
behind the rest in thois field is Kerala,which for ideological reasons
downplayed the teaching of English in past decades. Learning English is
not the same thing as slavishly following an alien culture,for language
is less a medium of culture than it is an instrument for
self-advancement. A person speaking Chinese or Russian cannot be said to
be adopting the culture of China or Russia,but those who deny the poor
the right to learn English say that knowledge of the international link
language “dilutes culture”. In fact,they are behaving the way upper
castes behaved in ancient India,when they denied education to the lower
castes,thus seeking to keep them in permament servitude. To deny access
to modern schooling and knowledge of English to the poor is to
perpetuate the ancient Indian caste system, no matter if this take place
in Pakistan, India or Bangla Desh. The modern casteists of Pakistan
ensure by their neglect of conventional education that this gets denied
to the poor,while their Indian counterparts shut the door on the
teaching of English in the name of “preserving local culture”.
In fact,what such disastrous policies are encouraging is the spread of
fanaticism, the common enemy of all the countries of South Asia. What
needs to be done is to avoid being a clone of Europeans, clutching
premium bags, wearing super-expensive branded shoes, clothes and watches
and refusing to stir out without “Made in Europe” all over them.All that
such a profusion of premium brands reveals is their deep sense of
inferiority and their contempt towards their own cultural and natural
genes,a state of being that makes them unable to mount a serious
challenge to the fanatics. Next,to oppose those who have revived (only
this time in Asia) the visceral hatreds of the Europe of the 1930s.The
people of that continent paid a heavy price in blood for their
intolerance of each other.This sad history must not get repeated in
Asia,esecially in our region. India and Pakistan need once again to be
proud of who they are,what they represent, so that the people of the
region can unitedly beat back the waves of hatred generated by a few.
Indeed,such a process seems to be taking place in Pakistan,where the
population is seeing the effects of the actions of un-Islamic militias
such as the Taliban. Were FATA and the Swat valley well-endowed with
modern schools, it would not have been possible for the Taliban to gain
in support in these regions. The culture of India and Pakistan is both
moderate and modern. Both need to be encouraged,so that the two
countries will continue to be showcases of a vibrant cultural tradition.
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