Disaster Of Aping Western Culture

Culture is the most underrated concept in India. This term especially has lost its relevance over the last three decades since globalisation. 'Indian culture' has become a misnomer in its reference and application. Very few seem to understand the severe consequences of this trend on individuals, families, society and the nation. I wish to highlight three key factors influencing this harmful practice of undermining unique Indian culture and the consequences.

WHY PROTECT IT?

India's culture is not ephemeral. It has evolved for over 7000 years. Our culture took birth from the ancient knowledge civilization. There is simply no reason for an Indian to feel inferior to any other culture, as our culture is deeply rooted in superior knowledge and evolved best practices. Indian culture is not skin-deep like many others. Our self-reliant way of life, family structure, traditions, social construct, food habits, and sustainable spirit to protect biodiversity is unparalleled worldwide.

Denouncing a culture this grand and superior amounts to losing one's soul. Choosing a manufactured foreign culture for the reason that it allows instant gratification of menial emotional needs is irresponsible and ridiculous. Those actively pursuing this cultural shift are doing quantifiable damage to Indian society. The negative consequences of this erratic cultural shift are already being felt in individual, family, and social domains. Civilizational Culture is the fundamental identity of a nation and its people. If a nation is robbed of that identity, especially proactively led by its own people, there's something seriously wrong with the self-worth in that nation's society.

APING THE WEST

Emulation is not entirely wrong. If adapting to a new culture is for the larger good of society, it is justified. However, there is substantial data available to establish that the newly acquired western culture is destroying the family structure, mutual respect, integrity of spousal relationships, honesty, mental congruence, health, peace and happiness.

The menace of drug addiction in pre-teenage, drinking, smoking, unnatural eating and sleeping habits are wrecking young people's lives, even before they experience their true human potential. The new pressure on young people to 'belong to the cool club' in their schools and colleges is assassinating their uniqueness and individualism. Running towards a bottomless pit, most are choosing to be perfect clones of the west without even having to travel out of their own villages and cities.

The push to accomplish western culture is so severe that girls and boys from districts and cities have a funny acquired American English accent, which I heard is being promoted by a few schools and colleges as a best practice. What one wears is a personal choice. If the copycats understand what free culture is all about, they would know that they don't need to wear stereotyped outfits to look like a factory output from an assembly line. There is visible homogeneity in how young people dress to be validated by their local western influencers.

Unhealthy food habits have thoroughly aged the young and severely corrupted the health of the largest middle-class population of the world. The fancy for foreign culture is killing people in hordes with greed-induced stress, nutrient deficit food, erratic physical and mental routines and above all complete lack of emotional fulfilment. The disease is all-pervasive, and untimely death through lifestyle disease is almost normalized across the spectrum.

CONSEQUENCES

The western culture being copied by adults and young people alike in some mad rush has discounted chiefly severe consequences. Parents are wondering why there is a respect and trust deficit at their home. Respect for parents by their young is no more a natural practice. Teachers are surprised by the lack of attention and indifference they experience in their classrooms. Young people have a serious issue with elders instructing or guiding them. Police are stunned by the unnatural and unprecedented crime. Private hospitals have never had this good time with their profits. Elders and grandparents wonder how much transformation occurred in just two to three decades. Lawyers are running to banks as they are super busy fighting property disputes between siblings, and many are ensuring spousal separation through thousands of successful divorces. The entire Indian social system has turned upside down in just three decades.

The direct consequence of our mindless saga of dumping our rich, superior, tried and tested civilizational culture for the juvenile fancy of the West. After experiencing all this mayhem, a vast majority are extremely convinced that this is what a developed India would be like.

CONCLUSION

I don't find western culture faulty. No culture is faulty. Western culture suits their societies the best, as it's drawn from their civilizations. They have not thrust their culture on us. It's the height of our ignorance and intellectual bankruptcy that we have chosen to fancy a foreign culture, demolishing our own. There is simply no one else to blame.

(Author is a Harvard Business School certified Organizational Strategist and Global Expert in Emotional Intelligence)