Indian Culture and Values Eroding
During my school days in India one of the routine rituals that we did as students was to stand up as the teacher entered the class room, say the appropriate salutations in unison and then sit down and get ready for the lecture. This is a small way to show our respect for the teacher. You rarely see this in the West. Once I started school in the United States one of the most difficult things for me to do initially was to address my teacher by his/her first name.
The Indian society has very strict rules on how an individual can or cannot address another individual. We rarely call someone by their name unless they are younger than us or are our close friends. Even when we meet total strangers who are older than us, we tend to use terms like “uncle” or “aunty” (or similar terms) to address them. We always stand up when someone who is older than us walks into the room and we make sure that we do not cross our legs when we sit in front of them. This is our culture.
This show of respect is not limited to individual interactions alone. It is very common to use words like Sri, Srimati or Thiru before the actual name of the person when the person is introduced in front of a group. The members of the media also for the most part follow these “unwritten” rules when it comes to addressing leaders of the community or when writing about them.
These aspects of our culture are what make India different than many other countries. There are great rivalries and disagreements like between Gandhi and Nehru, MGR and Karunanidhi, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar but they never got very personal and neither were they played out in the media. But unfortunately this is changing.
It is very common in India today to hear Indian citizens and our leaders make comments and criticisms against those who they disagree with without the respect due to a fellow human being or regard for their position or status in society.
Recently Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi criticized the Prime Minister of India about the current status of the Common Wealth Games in New Delhi. Narendra Modi (who himself is facing serious criminal charges) said “I don’t know what is happening in the Commonwealth Games. Even if the PM (Manmohan Singh) starts wiping the floor, the venues won’t be ready for the game”. Most neutral observers would agree that these comments are totally uncalled for and very disrespectful.
By not responding to this type of trash talk Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has proved to the public as to why he is different from the other so-called leaders. I am not a fan of the BJP or the Congress Party but I want my leaders not to just represent the party but also the Indian public and our customs and traditions. On a different note. Real leaders do not point fingers or assign blame. If Narendra Modi cares about India (not just the Hindus or the BJP party) then he should do everything he can to make sure that the Common Wealth Games are successful.
Many non resident Indians are typically accused for being under the influence of Western culture when we express our views openly (particularly if these views happen to be liberal in nature. There is a tendency among certain Indians to equate liberalism with Western culture). But if you take a high level overview of what is going on in India in terms of political and social debate and the fight against terrorism and so on, you will notice that Indians have adopted many tactics that are commonly used in the West than they are in India (in some forums Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is sometimes referred to as Mohammedan Singh just like President Obama is referred to as Osama by some right wing nuts in the United States).
Is it possible for India to develop and at the same time maintain our identity, culture and traditions or are we going to end up as a nation of “bitter” people?
“A culture is made or destroyed by its articulate voices” – Ayn Rand
Related posts:
- Sonia Gandhi Destroying Indian Religion, Culture and Traditions
- Indian Culture Includes Western Culture
- Can an Aam Admi Become India’s Prime Minister?
- We Have Met the Enemy and it is Our Culture
- Narendra Modi a Role Model for India?
Category: Culture & Religion
I can’t agree more with you. I have nothing against BJP in particular but the way Nitin Gadkari and Narendra Modi talk about respected political leaders like PM Singh is just unacceptable.
There is a way of protesting or criticizing the other party’s actions. Whatever happened to civility and politeness?
In Indian politics and among Indians in general it is all about scoring points. Civility and politeness has been thrown out of the window.
Very Nice
Our prime minister can be a silent spectator watching crores of rupees being looted by congresses, food grains being rotten, in spite of spending 40 thousand crores on commonwealth game, we are cutting a sorry figure in front of international community. But our prime minister can not be criticized because he is a learned fellow supported by foreign funded media. On other hand Modi & Gadkari can be abused, all false propaganda can be launch against them.(As the article states Modi himself facing serious charges. Can I know which charges in which court?).Congress has corrupted all institutes which are pillars of Indian democracy wheather it is judicarry, CBI or Media. Isn’t it the responsibility of prime minister to remove corrupt Suresh Kalamadi? Who is stopping him from doing so. Actually CBI should investigate that why a so powerful prime minister of India is not able to remove a single corrupt Guy from the management of common wealth Games. Why he has a blessing of Sonia Gandhi? But no corrupt media will put this question to our PM but rather criticize those who asks such questions.
Welcome.
The people of India will decide come election time on how our Prime Minster and his government are performing. They spoke loudly and clearly about a year ago. The next election is years away. However, I am noticing some bitterness from supporters of the parties that ended up on the losing side two elections in a row.
The criticism of the CWG games is mostly within India. CWG was awarded to New Delhi in 2002 when BJP was in power. Most of the initial planning was done by the NDA government. But I agree that the UPA has bunged this project. But this is the story of India. You exaggerate when you say that India’s image is being hit. India’s image has never been this high in the eyes of the rest of the world since our independence.
Your strategy of blaming the Congress Party for the state of democratic institutions, corruption, status of food grains and asking for a CBI investigation of the Prime Minister will not work. The record of the BJP led governments at the national level and at the state level are not any better. Most Indians like me who are not attached to any particular ideology knows that all this will happen irrespective of the government in power at the center or state level.
I am not surprised that you are unaware of any charges against Narendra Modi!! Please Google “Zakia Jaffri’s charges against Modi” to see the list of charges. These charges are being probed by a Special Investigations Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court of India. NOTE: I am not saying that Narendra Modi is guilty of anything. That is up to our judicial system to decide.
I am all for criticism. But let us maintain decorum and be true to our traditions.
I’m not convinced that the practice of showing regard to someone because of their age is a good thing. This is the reason why India has the oldest cabinet in the world despite having the youngest population.
The old are no less prone to exploit us than the young. And it’s very dubious whether or not age brings wisdom. For our politicians, age seems to have brought cynicism instead.
Showing extra respect to an older person is a fallacy. I think it makes more sense to treat everyone equally irrespective of age in all things.
Bhagwad,
In general I do not see a downside to respecting someone because of their age. Respect does not necessarily have to mean that you agree with them or you follow their orders or that the older person necessarily cares for the younger persons best interests. It is simply an acknowledgment. You can respect somebody and at the same time treat everybody as equal.
Well thought post.We used to respect any guest at home with ‘Namaskar’ but today’s youth just ignore, forget about ‘Namaskar’ so is the case with politicians of today. They are no different.
Thank you Ayyangar. Politicians in India today are aiming for the lowest common denominator.
I think shutting up and acting well-behaved is not going to solve problem but add fuel to the great indian hypocrisy. I absolutely admire the cultural points you made about respecting each other, elders, ideas and views.
But when you take the taxpayer’s money and mismanage it so vulgarly, keeping one’s mouth shut for decency’s sake is disappointing behavior. I know a lot of people will say, “oh … the whole system is corrupt. It’s not his fault”. He is responsible. He sort of asked for it to be blamed because of his ambitions to be a PM. The PM rightfully has no point to remark against such an attack from Modi.
Welcome Sashi Kanth.
The argument here is not to keep ones mouth shut. Just the opposite. Indians have every right to hold the UPA government and its leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh accountable for their actions. As you said corruption in the past is not a valid excuse for corruption now.
But we have to remember a couple of things. Democracy is a two way street. The politicians we criticize are themselves elected by us repeatedly and represent millions of us and our interests. In addition the languages that we speak in India are sophisticated and complex and have all the necessary mechanism to express our anguish, anger and frustration in a clear, precise and professional manner. There is no need to use language that is in any way personal or hurtful.
How can someone garner support of others when he/she is willing to use such language to point out that someone else is incompetent?
I like to tell my view on Narendra Modi, Gujarat is part of India, but the Indian media and the congress always treating Modi as an enemy, Sometime back there was a huge cry when Amitabh bachan was made as an Ambassodar to Gujarat.
Jaya,
The media in India are “for profit” organizations. They say and print things that their audience wants to hear or read. If Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India then you will see Congress Party supporters make similar complaints.
In addition the English media is “national” in nature and they try to appeal to educated middle class Indians from all sorts of backgrounds. It would not make sense for them business wise to talk about a polarizing figure like Narendra Modi.
You will see a very different view of Narendra Modi if you follow the local media particularly the Hindi language media in the North.
I completely agree with you. I too was extremely disgusted with Modi’s comment and expected him to get a strong flak for such deriding words.
But I was extremely surprised that no one even raised a voice of protest against such harsh words.
Maybe it reflects the fact that people are becoming too accommodating – which gives further boost to morale of such people. This is setting a really bad precedent.
Welcome Vyankatest.
It is complicated. Everybody in India nowadays complains about the political inaction, nepotism, corruption in politics and so on. But when it is our party or political leader who is doing it then we do not express any outrage. This is nothing but partisan politics.