INDIA LOSING ITS IDENTITY - Hanuman Bishnoi

India has survived a long past, has seen many ups and downs including numerous invasions from different rulers having different cultures and background. The Shakas, Huns, Parthians, Greeks, Muslims and Christians all brought their art and culture with them to India which contributed to modern India’s diversity. Being the oldest civilization and once a hub of science and technology, most of the today’s youth feel ashamed of its tradition and culture and often relate them with merely a blind faith.

The britishers played well with our minds. They were successful in implementing the view deep in the minds of the Indians that only English comes in the category of modern and so to be in this category you will need to accept English as the first priority whether its English language or its tradition. And for this purpose, they bought out vulnerabilities of our religion and depicted that Indians were only lost in the afterworld and how backward are they from the modern world.

As a result of this we are the second largest user of this language because if you don’t know this than you are not treated as an educated and a modern being. Another reason for this is that we Indians take proud in copying others not realizing the importance of our own identity. China is often accused of copying everything which is available in the market but it never let its people copy the west and thus never compromised with its culture and tradition. Its people speak Chinese proudly. Most of the officers or military commanders or any other high profession know no English there and I have not seen if this is affecting their daily lives or not.

Whereas in India English is indirectly compulsory. People can’t follow high professions without English here. And this is the field where china should be respected because it is successful in conserving its thousands of year-old culture and tradition.

Also, government and various institutions follow certain western traditions at special occasions. For example, in Indian courts judges are still honored by saying My Lord/Lordship and moreover English is a compulsory language in many High Courts and Supreme Court. The Bar Council of India in 2006 had passed a resolution prohibiting the usage of such terms which are “a relic of the colonial past”[1]. And Rajasthan High Court very well held to this decision in 2019 that judges should not be honored by My Lord/Lordship. In universities students have to wear the black gowns known as academic dress for taking the degree of graduation. Why can’t we follow our own traditional dress code, a little more Indian for the ceremony? There was a feeling of change when IIT Bombay chose khadi over colonial gowns as the official attire for their convocation ceremony in 2018.[2]

If we want our future generation to conserve our rich culture than we have to start from a very initial stage. If we don’t put this in children’s minds from starting than they would only feel their culture and tradition inferior to others. What we see more impacts us allot. And this principle is very well used by the advertising companies to affect our minds by showing their products again and again to wherever we go, so that we only know about their product and feel proud and classic and more enlightened when using the same. Similarly, if we are keep on promoting and hosting the important ceremonies of our institutions, office and home, etc. on the line of western model, their culture and tradition than it will do the same impact as done by advertising companies on our minds and our youths will choose what they see more i.e., western tradition to look cooler.

Until and unless we don’t see west adopting a certain thing, we don’t realize its importance. For example, take Namaste, in India this traditional greeting method was replaced by the western method of handshake in the name of modernization by the modern generation. And almost everyone uses this method now. But it is only when the west opted our method of namaste to greet the people during pandemic we switched back to it and taking proud using the same thus, realizing its importance. So, you can imagine our condition, we are copying our own tradition from west.

Conclusion

Newer generation is a modern generation. Literacy rate is very high compared to earlier times. So, it is very hard to make this new generation blindly follow what our ancestors were following. This modern world is completely taken by the science. So, it is very important that instead of asking our children to follow certain tradition without any proper explanation, we should teach them the importance of our culture. We should be able to teach them the scientific reasons and explanations behind various practices which are being followed through years in our culture. Until and unless we don’t tell them the reasons, we cannot gain their trust for their culture. For example, the reason behind applying a Tilak is: the spot between the eyebrows on a forehead is considered a major nerve point in the human body. A tilak is believed to prevent the loss of energy, and retain this to control various levels of concentration. Moreover, the act of applying this ensures that the points on the mid-brow region and Adnya-chakra are pressed, facilitating blood supply to the facial muscles. Until and unless they don’t know this, they would feel hesitated in doing so. So, making them aware of their culture and tradition and also importance of it in their lives. This is important to make them feel proud on their culture and traditions. Thus, slowly conserving our culture and tradition.

[1] https://www.livemint.com/news/india/rajasthan-hc-asks-lawyers-to-not-use-my-lord-while-addressing-judges-1563186109683.html. [2] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/iit-bombay-chooses-khadi-as-convocation-robe-to-evoke-nationalism-in-students/story-TqXa6HYiFS2Q9JpunI5bBL.html#:~:text=.(File%20photo)-,The%20Indian%20Institute%20of%20Technology%2DBombay%20has%20chosen%20khadi%20angavastrams,Bombay%20director%20Devang%20Khakhar%20said.