Are We Aping the West? By Neha Gupta, Delhi, India
Following is a very common joke:
Lord Hanuman (to Lord Ram): Sire! Don’t you feel that the world around us has undergone a drastic change?
Lord Ram: What changes are you talking about, Hanuman? Please specify.
Lord Hanuman: My lord, earlier I used to see the girls draped in saris offering sweets to me saying, “Hanumanji! Please accept our offerings.” But now I find them dressed in body-hugging clothes, offering chocolates to me saying, “Hi Hanu! How are you? Wanna have some chocs?”
Lord Ram: What changes are you talking about, Hanuman? Please specify.
Lord Hanuman: My lord, earlier I used to see the girls draped in saris offering sweets to me saying, “Hanumanji! Please accept our offerings.” But now I find them dressed in body-hugging clothes, offering chocolates to me saying, “Hi Hanu! How are you? Wanna have some chocs?”
But the question is, do the body hugging clothes alter the feelings inside? If a girl wearing a western outfit visits a temple with reverence in her heart, will the God refuse to accept her offerings? In many of the temples, girls are not allowed to enter unless dressed in traditional clothes. The so-called torchbearers of Indian culture forget while formulating such rules that Shri Krishna rushed to help Draupadi when she was being disrobed. These people accuse the young generation of aping the west. They believe that the growing western influence has contaminated the mentality of youngsters. But what do they really mean by ‘western’?
‘Western’ and ‘Indian’ are actually morally confused terms. Before bestowing these titles upon anything, one needs to clearly define them. For most of the people ‘western’ means wearing revealing clothes, thinking about oneself, yearning for material comforts and being scared of committing to a relationship. These claims are no doubt partially correct. Rather than dressing demurely, the Gen Now believes in flaunting good trendy clothes. It also runs after material comforts. The youngsters today have sky-high ambitions and often dream of a big house with a fleet of cars. Also, while committing to a relationship, they believe in first confirming that the person is appropriate for them before arriving at a conclusion. But, does that mean that they ape the west? If we go through the pages of history, we will find that these factors existed a number of centuries back also.
Today, whenever we see a model or an actress in revealing clothes, we attach the tag of ‘obscene’ with her. Any kind of body exposure is at once equated with immorality. But one must never forget that obscenity, like beauty, lies in the eyes of beholder. It is the personal opinion of a person, which makes a thing obscene. If something is created and perceived with pure thoughts, then howsoever ‘bold’ it may be, it will not look obscene.
Here, I would like to say that I am not supporting pornography. There is a hairline difference between art and porn, which we need to understand. The temples in Khajuraho consist of erotic sculptures but they are still considered to be the upholders of the greatness of Indian art. The reason is that perhaps the sculptor did not have any polluted thoughts while creating these sculptures, he just wanted to portray an important aspect of life. Similarly, if in a jewellery show, models are shown in minimal clothes and loads of jewellery, I feel there should not be really issue in that. Such shows are meant to reveal how a particular piece of jewellery would look on you body. We should admire the creativity of the designer, rather than criticizing the model for wearing such clothes.
The world has progressed so much but in some respects we still stick to the age-old traditions. Relationships outside the sphere of marriage are still not acceptable in Indian society. Ironically enough, this was not the case in the pre-Christian era. In Mahabharata, when Satyawati finds her ‘legitimate’ sons unable to provide the kingdom with an heir, she commissions this job to Ved Vyasa, whom she gave birth to before getting married to Shantanu. Ved Vyasa, later becomes the father of Dhritrashtra, Pandu and Vidura. But still we never cast an evil eye on the character of Satyawati, because whatever she did was for the future of her family. Draupadi, who had five husbands, was like a sister to Shri Krishna. She is still considered to be a woman of character.
Sometimes it appears that these people were much more advanced than us. Till date, women in India are not allowed to go on warfront. But in Ramayana, Dashratha was said to have promised two boons to Kaikayee when she came to his rescue during a battle. Now, can we call these people ‘western’? Of course, not! They were not western, but modern. They were much more progressive than us. The issues that appear ‘obscene’ to us were perceived by them with pure thoughts. They did never sensationalise these issues like we do. They accepted these factors as naturally as they are.
So if the young generation today is feeling free to discuss these issues, is it justified to say that they are aping the west? Certainly not! They are just attempting to break through the barriers of double standards that the society has created for us. They are not being ‘western’ but just modern and open-minded like our forefathers were.
I fully agree with the sentiments that Neha has expressed in this blog.
The fact is that Indian tradition and Indian culture has failed to keep pace with the advances in the world. So the younger generation has no alternative except aping the West.
In any case, people everywhere in the world have the right to be free to choose their own "way of life". India's younger generation have every right to opt for the lifestyle that may bring greatest amount of happiness and satisfaction to them.
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Neha,
Basically what we should look at is a difference between the modern and the progressive...the meanings carry such significance then and now alike.
Well said..
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thanx a lot, suneetha, for ur appreciation! i was a bit apprehensive regarding the submission of this blog. just wondered, how people would take it. u truly made my day!
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Hey Neha, yr blog was good! In fact, don't know how I missed reading it, many issues you covered are close to my heart.
But then Indian women in ancient times had so much grace, and a haelthy spirit that is so much lacking today.
Just look at how you portrayed the issue, so beautifully; and yet, again then there are those who put across their "open-minded" thoughts so uncouthly.
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Have you ever noticed that no other nationals other than Indians, discard their own culture and imitate the culture and tradition of other countries? Is'nt it a shame that we, Indians seem to be ashamed of our rich and varied culture? Your blog is well written.
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Thank u so much, Wilma! It's really bad that we discard our culture and ape the West. What is even worse is that, the reason that we give is that it's too conservative. However, if we look at the olden times, we would find that those people were very much advanced than us and any other culture that we follow today. So, why don't we follow our own ancient culture? We sgould be proud of it. Thank u once again for your feedback...
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Dear neha,
One reason, is we lack awareness about our own roots, whether religion or culture. That's becoz, all texts were written in Sanskrit, and most of us unfortunately do not know it, and rely upon individual translations and interpretations, or what the yuppie gen media writes.
Second, our country does not do much for its own Sanskrit, other countries have more grants than India does, for researching Sanskrit and Vedic literature in Sanskrit, than we do. Reason, they want to draw wealth of information from our ancient Vedas.
Third, something wrong with the parenting here, that encourages a) learning foreign languages, but NOT Sanskrit / Hindi /regional language
b)the daughters to be progressive, for instance in clothes, but does not teach the sons to cope with the same.
The West is much interested in Hinduism & its influence on today's culture & world economy. Let us take a leaf frm their bk, and learn to pick up the good of other cultures, not blindly "ape"!
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"So, why don't we follow our own ancient culture?"
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Yeah, Right! We should follow our own ancient culture. But that could lead to a situation where we have to allow child marriages, Sati, and if a husband suspects infidelity from his wife he could order her to perform "Agni-pariksha". (Ram ordered Sita to perform Agni-pariksha).
Some people obviously don’t understand what culture is all about. There is no point in following blindly our ancient culture or their modern culture. Each individual must be free to decide what kind of culture one should join.
If there is a woman who prefers to live as a “domesticated rat” as women in ancient India did, then she has every right to live the way she wants to. But if a woman wants to live a full and free life of a liberated human being then she should not be stopped.
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dear sangeeta,
thanks a lot for ur feedback. it's truly a pity that we are not understanding the worth of our ancient culture and language. we write them off as ‘conservative’ and blindly ape the West, which i feel draws heavily from our very ancient culture.
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The trick is to follow one's heart, respect one's traditions and also have an open mind. I have often observed that the sari reveals quite a bit of flesh as well... the line between sensuality and grossness needs to be walked carefully.
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That's so true, Irene! But the irony is that this very line between sensuality and grossness is what we often fail to identify. Our culture is really very rich and progressive. We should respect it! Anyways, thanks a lot for your comments.
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"the line between sensuality and grossness needs to be walked carefully."
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But the point is who is going to define what is sensual and what is gross.
What is sensual to one person might be gross to someone else. So whose views should prevail.
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