Diversity is the law of nature. It is manifested in dietary habits, languages, religions, festivals, naming convention, dances, music etc. Mother nature manifests herself in diverse beings and perhaps this makes mother nature beautiful and resilient. But a dominant Civilization destroys this diversity in the guise of Universalism. Since its inception the Western Civilization has eaten up major diverse civilizations of the world. The Aztecs, Incas, Canaan, Roman etc do not exist any more; their cities are now World heritage sites and their art forms decorate museums and houses. As V S Naipaul has eloquently written "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it", people who do not consider themselves worthy enough soon find themselves turning into worthless or worthy pages of some books.
'Being Different - An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism' is a wonderfully written book by Rajiv Malhotra in defense of Indian civilization. Every civilization is different from the other and this very difference needs to be celebrated rather being used to declare superiority or inferiority of one over the other. Indian civilization has been facing a planned onslaught of modern western civilization. We are turning ourselves into a copy of western civilization in almost every field of modern culture. We wear western clothes (jeans, t-shirts etc), watch western movies (Hollywood), watch western serials (Game of thrones), read western books (fifty shades of grey etc), play western games (Cricket, football), eat western foods (Pizza, burger etc) efc. We are losing our identity at a rapid pace. Agreed that identity is always fluid but we should not blindly follow anything be it religion or a way of life.
The most intellectuals who are considered authority on Indian civilization and religions come from west eg Wendy Doniger. Western universities study foreign culture, religion and language but our universities don't do it. We do not have
world class intellectuals or world class universities studying Indian
religion and culture. Its a matter of shame.
In order to understand and study our civilization we use constructs (like Marxist interpretation of history) defined by Western intellectuals. One civilization should never be studied through the lens of another civilization. But such is life. Hollywood blockbusters like '300' shows Asians (Achaemenids) as barbarians while Spartans as the force of democracy and freedom. They conveniently forget that the Achaemenid empire was the first multicultural, multi lingual and multi-religious empire of the world. The Jewish temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the civilized Romans in first century AD, was built with the help of Achaemenid Emperor in 6th century BC.The Spartans who are shown as the torch bearers of Democracy had enslaved a large number of people in their own country without any rights whatsoever.
The West always divides the world in two zones - Civilized Western world and the other world of barbarians from the times of Aristotle (who called Persians, the Barbarians) to George Bush junior (who coined the term 'Axis of Evil'). Taking cue from Bible, the western intellectuals (like William Jones and others) called Indians the descendants of Ham (the condemned son of Noah). This Hamitic myth played a major role in justifying colonialism and slavery. Indian civilization is said to be void of history and this was view was endorsed by Hegel, Karl Marx and others. Indians are called worshipers of "false" Gods and they need to be saved urgently. Whenever any tragedy occurs in India - it is "justified" as a curse on "devil" worshiping Indians (we are also called pagans). We do not defend or put forward our point of view intellectually and ferociously. Rajiv Malhotra is not apologetic about his religion, culture or his civilization. By using the ancient Indian technique of 'Purva Paksha' he puts focus on western civilization through Indian lens and exposes the utter hypocrisy and self righteousness of western intellectuals. We are taught to show tolerance to other religions but tolerant lacks full respect to other religions. It should be replaced by Mutual Respect in current dialogue among different civilizations. Without respecting other religions and culture we can not bridge the gaps that exists across this world.
I do not support the conversions by missionaries (or by anyone) by unethical means. I do not support the imperialism of one culture over others, one language over others and one set of people by others. Hindi (an example) should be given as much respect as Santhali (an example) language is given and vice-versa and one language/culture should not expand by use of force or unethical means.
I request my friends to please give some time to study our religion and culture. Please try to learn Sanskrit and read our books in original instead of reading colored translations. It is upto us to decide whether we want to locate our golden age in mythical past or to build it in future, whether we want to remain relevant as members of Indian civilization or to change our civilization as a copy cat of the West.
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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