Madhav Desai

Well this is a post where I want to pour out some of the philosophy that has been bubbling in my heart and mind over the years.

Many people, including myself are always out there trying to find what is right and what is wrong, and I feel, by method of “Learning by example” – I have managed to convince myself that the concept of Culture and Religion in East today is very flawed, imported and unoriginal.

Faith

Over the years, India has been ruled by Islamic and Christian Empires that also brought many of its traditions, culture and hint of religion with them. But let me clarify to you today that Culture and Traditions have nothing to do with Religion and are products of Geography at large.

I would like to start with an example, of Pakistan, most of the people in Pakistan are Muslims and followers of Islam. Now I was watching on television the other day, that Grooms in Pakistan ride a horse and has concept of “Baraat”. The bride wears red clothes, with lots of jewellery and the Groom often sports a  ”Sehra“. Watch Benazir Bhutto’s wedding ceremony in YouTube and you will find lots of Ancient Indian / Dharmic traditions being followed in this Islamic Wedding.

Now similarly, Indians are influenced greatly by the “Islamic + Western Culture”. No I do not mean the way Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the BJP, Bajaran Dal and Shiv Sena identifies. The Indian culture if you see as Bird’s-Eye-View, has always been very broad and accommodating. If you see the sculptures in Ajanta-Ellora caves, where the women are wearing beautiful make-ups and are have nails like modern women have. Also if you see, many Indian families oppose the concept of Love Marriage, but they often forget that Krishna himself asked Arjun to take Subhadra away with him, and agreed to their Love Marriage.

So lets get to defining what exactly Religion, Culture and Traditions are:

Religion:              Religion is a belief and teachings of some avatar or prophet or a scholar which people follow for different reasons. Hindus , Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists follow it for Moksha, Muslims, Jews, Christians follow it for Heaven.

Culture:                Culture is what mass wants. It is similar for group of people closely associated with each other.

Traditions:          Tradition is a way of conducting certain part of life, that imitates past cultures.

I have been travelling around the world, for quite some time and I feel, the British culture to be slightly better than Indian culture (Please go by my definitions). The British society has mannerism and civilised attitude which others population in East really lacks. A very small example is, I saw 2 people giving their seats to an Elderly lady in a British Train (London Underground)- and we all know the Kamaljit Singh who wasn’t thrown away from Mumbai Local Train, by people who decided that he should not be seating in the First Class Comparatment (or upgraded class).

People always think that Saris, Mehndi, Garba, Bhangra is part our culture, but it actually is part of our tradition. Culture changes according to prevailing fashion. That is why all Major Corporations talk about their Corporate Culture.  According to Oxford Dictionary Culture is: the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. Once we start following a culture (or fashion) for more than certain period, it becomes our tradition. If a man always drinks that is his culture, if his whole family drinks liquor its his family’s culture and if the whole society likes to drink – than that is the Culture of the whole society. We all know what culture our Indian Society is emitting these days full of corruption, lack of respect for women and children, cheating and lawlessness.

Somehow, the Indian society has forgotten what is right and wrong, and we have been increasingly coloured in Foreign Cultures – although the Religion and Traditions we follow stay much same. We tend to forget that all types of music was part of Indian lifestyle from very beginning and tolerance to new ideas and concepts were very well accepted.

My post is to all Hindus around the world with following “Aurangzeb’s way of life” – not accepting foreign music and clothes, are not part of Indian Culture, Maharaj Chandragupt Maurya was very close to Roman Kings and they used to share Music, Animals, Folk Dances, etc. Also do  note that , Lord Krishna was the only Man who stood up to protect the Draupadi after Pandavs lost her gambling and the same Lord Krishna has many girlfriends. Indian women were allowed to wear the clothes they were happy with and were trendy in accordance with latest fashion back then. There were no Parishads and Parties fighting to stop music, friendship, love and fashion instead there were laws against abusing and keeping women behind doors. How else Mata Parvati took avatar of 9 Matas and fought a war against the soldiers of her own Husband.

Coming to Religion 99.9%  Hindus believe that Dharma means Religion, but no Sir / Madam, Dharma actually means Duty in Indian Tradition. Whoever is learned and passes on education is Brahman (regardless of who his/her mother or father is), whoever is a trader is Vyasya, whoever is a soldier and protector is Kshatriya and whoever is a worker is Shudra… It is one’s duty that you have to be faithful and loyal too and that is one’s religion. If you are Brahman it is  your duty to do Research and pass on your knowledge, and it is Kshatriya’s duty to protect their Brahmans in doing this. It is Vyasya’s duty to trade fairly and provide exact quantity of goods against monies. It is Shudra’s duty to work hard and do their daily job whereever they are working. I was born to Vyasya parents but when I was working for someone I was a Shudra and when I am doing my own business it automatically makes me Vyasya. There is no difference of Upper cast or Lower cast – all 4 Varnas are part of building a society that actually works.

Zakir Naik in one of his speeches said that Shudra’s were considered to the Legs, Brahmans the Head, Vyasya’s the Stomach and Kshatriyas the Chest of Society, and hence concluded that Shudras were at the bottom of society. But I would like to read it in a different way, if a person does not have Legs, then he/she cannot walk and in similar way if there are no Shudra’s the society will not be able to walk, run or function perfectly, they actually had a very important place all along and they were actually credited for running the whole society.

I thus totally defy the way majority of Indian families live and condut themselves. We have created too many complications in our society and life. The Indian Middle-Class has so many prejudice that they are unable to “live” their lives freely and happily.

Let me share an incident with you, I was in my 11th grade in my Indian school, and there were bunch of boys playing volley-ball with girl students in the year 2000. The teacher came in quickly and stopped the play and said “Its really not acceptable in our society” – how low was that? We killed all that our great Religion, Culture and Traditions were all about.

When Shiv Sena opposes Valentine’s day – I feel cheated. How can they be guardians of Hindu and Indian culture when they dont know that we were the one’s to introduce the world with Kamasutra. Which other civilization was capable to come out with such texts 5000 years back? Actually Shiv Sena should read how Shiv Ji met Parvati and how they got married, what relationship Krishna and Radha had and how pious was it… We were at forefront of civilization and these people are dragging us back.

We are the people who deeply respect everything around us, we do not put our feet on our work tables, we do not throw books as they are form of Maa Saraswati, we respect currency and never disregard it, but we are the same people who fanatically destroyed Babri Masjid, which was a place of worship (even though only few people used it).

Too confusing, too influenced, our society needs a Reboot, before Naxals takeover and bring Mao’s culture / tradition in our society and mess everything up for hell. But till then I am doing what I love to do, enjoy observing the greatest creation on earth “Human Being” (may be I will keep on doing it even after good/bad results).