Hamari Sanskriti, Hamara culture ??????

After reading a blog through Times of India I started thinking about "our INDIAN culture" & "our values". Arent we Indians these days using these catchphrases too often in the recent times??? What could be the reason for this shielding phrases?? Are we trying to hide something that is not so holy by using these kind of phrases?

Well to go into the depth of the matter, lets take our great "RAM SENE" and their wonderful ideology. It seems Sene is shouting at the top of its voice and telling us to go back in time to 1950's and 1960's because somehow we have lost "OUR INDIAN VALUES" and have become western!!!! Who are these "RAM SENE" people? They are a bunch of narrow minded, 'Ajeeb log' who wear Pant & Shirt and use Cellphones for communicating with their group workers, beat up girls and prove their masculinity to whom I dont know!!!! I really dont know who told these kind of hypocrites that Indian Culture is to live in the last century??? Some people say that it is because of democracy that "inke par nikal aaye hai"!! Well I totally disagree to these bunch of so called sensible people as well. Blaming democracy for all the wrong happenings is like being in a mode of denial! We sometimes think that "Indian Culture" is like pickles that can be stored and preserved in tight bottles with preservatives like Ram Sene in it. 

We are very much aware of the movie by Madhur Bhandarkar, Page 3. All that happened in the movie, all the realtionships are somehow called ajeeb rishte. Is it actually correct? Well yes and no. Yes that most of the happenings on Page 3 are "Ajeeb" but the news that we see as headlines on the front page is also quite Ajeeb as far as the so called "Indian Culture" is concerned. A 45 yr old father raped his 4 yr daughter, One tantric trying to woo people by his tactics... All this cannot be influence of the west, can it be??? But whom to blame?? These fathers and tantrics might not be pubbing or doing stuff that many think is influence from the west and is not "Indian", but whatever they are doing, is it right and "Indian" ? 

When I think about the "Traditional Indian values", I think from where does this "tradition" come from? If you think about our epics, The Mahabharata and The Ramayana could they be 2 of the most important sources reflecting our traditions?? Let me breif you up with The Mahabharata.TheMahabharata’s fundamental premise is about brothers killing brothers, about putting what is truly right above what the tag of a relationship is. On the other hand, Draupadi is “shared” between almost half a dozen brothers and it is her brother in law who attempts to strip her in public – after her husband(s) gamble her away, no less! Karna, a character who had more – well, I’ll just say guts – than most characters in the epic, is “illegitimate”, so he needs to be generally disowned for the family’s good name, and can only tell his mother that she would have five sons standing at the end of the day, anyways. He is the outcast. What role the “legitimate” Nakul and Sahdeva had in the whole tale still mystifies me, but they were allowed to hang around everywhere since they were above board, I guess. What genuine family bonding! My intention was not to point fingers at such a great epic, but I want to point out to those narrow minded bunch of people, that Tradition and Values tell you to do things in the right way. Brothers faught brothers because the second set of brothers were wrong in their doings. Is that wrong? Draupadi is shared by half a dozen brothers because of a promise by Yudhisthira and she simply supports her husband as she is his better half! Is that wrong? Karna was illegitimate but was truthful to his heart and a true warrior. All this might not sound wrong but just in the literal sense it sounds absurd!

The Ramayana is not very family-friendly either, is it? The entire backdrop for the exile came from within the extended ruling family of Ayodhya. And while Bharat (and Shatrughan, who, like Nakul and Sahdev, seems to be talked about primarily for being related to those who mattered) thought that he should worship his brother’s footwear, Ram himself was not particularly fastidious when it came to equations between other pairs of brothers – Bali had to be killed by Ram for Sugriva to get his crown, and when it came to Lanka, the popular saying Ghar ka bhedi Lanka dhaaye serves to give Vibhishana a permanent recall value, even if by means of a quite a left handed compliment. At the end of it all, what was the entire Lanka episode about, if a washerman’s perspective – not his own – was enough for Ram, the King, to ask Sita to now bring certifiable qualities? All it proves is that our obsessiveness with people thinking socially well of us, no matter what we may individually stand for, goes back a long, long way.

I think we handle our ‘social’ values somewhat in the same way we handle the power hierarchy. In visual terms, I sometimes find the red beacon on the vehicle and the redbindi on the forehead to be statements in a fairly similar tone – symbolising (a) respectability and legitimacy and (b) ‘keep off’ status!

We are, after all, obsessed with ‘status’ messages, socially and personally, and the ‘tag’ of a legitimate relationship is so socially aspirational, the way the safe government job is in the cow belt interior – even more so in recession time! Kitne Ajeeb…

This article was based on one of the articles I read and some of my views... But sometime I really feel that its not the Traditions and Values that should be a concern for us.... There is something more important than them!! What do u think???

- Karan.