Are We Going Somewhere?

Our country is changing and evolving at a rather fast pace, and I am not talking about the economic or infrastructural evolution but about the behavioral evolution. We are fast becoming a country of intolerable herds. The cultural evolution is obnoxious, and we are going to the dogs. The so called westernization is not the problem, at least in my view. Apart from a miniscule few, the people embracing a modern or western lifestyle are not lacking morality or values. They are as moral and value upholding as any. The problem is with the other percentage. Those who are trying to rebound to the ‘Indian Culture’, they seem to be the problem.

What is ‘Indian Culture’? How do these preachers of ‘Indian Culture’ define it? If we look at history, the culture that we see is something that has constantly evolved. The only constant in culture was change. Change in food habits, change in dressing (remember the ChannarLahala), change in relationships (you know the polygamy, monogamy, and shit like that), change in social structure, and more. For us, as in people who lived in the land which is now called India, freedom was an alien concept. If you really look into history, not the version from the history books that are taught in schools, but the original unabridged history of the land, you will come to the realization that it wasn’t all rainbows and laughter even before the British came. We were oppressed by multiple kings, royal families and others in power then, as we were during the British reign. The British, unwittingly, gave us access to their education and with that we got the idea of freedom. Freedom is a western concept. So everything western isn’t bad after all!

Anyway, coming back to what I was saying, i.e. ‘Indian Culture’. Let’s forget about the history for a while and look at India as we have it now, do you see much similarity in Culture? If you do, you haven’t really looked at it very well. The Culture is different from state to state. What is acceptable in Kerala might not be in Tamil Nadu, that which is acceptable in both these places can be unthinkable in Uttar Pradesh. Likewise, it changes from state to state. Even in the same state it has a lot of variation. Say Kerala, my state, the Cultural aspects of the South is very different from that of the North. Even the language is drastically different. Similarly in every state, there are different Cultures. So if you are a preacher of ‘Indian Culture’ what would you propose? Which of these ‘Indian Cultures’ should become ‘The Indian Culture’?

Then there are the increasingly religious governments that are bringing in changes which will in no way have a positive result for the country or to the world in the long run. Recently the government of Haryana has made plans to introduce Bhagavad Gita in schools. Nothing can destroy a country faster than the introduction of religion into the education system. There are plenty of examples for this globally. If you want to pinpoint an example we can just look at our neighbor, Pakistan. A country which was, during the 60s, growing to be a phenomenon by all accounts, Karachi was evolving as a cultural center and a haven for artists, all this changed during the 70s. Several reasons could be pointed out but a major one among those reasons is the Islamization of their education system. Look where they are now? Introduction of religion to the education system or to the judiciary, any religion for that matter, is not good for any country, let alone one that aspires to be a global power and prides itself as a secular nation.

As we grow, we move forward, one would expect us to be less parochial but this is not what’s happening in India. We are not becoming more open to anything, we are becoming narrow minded. In the U.S. many states legalized Marijuana and there are prominent personalities debating that the same should be done with drugs like cocaine, etc.  Their logic being, any reasonable citizen of the country has the ability to decide whether they want to do drugs or not. Legalizing marijuana didn’t all of sudden change every one into weed smokers. People who used to smoke still smokes others still don’t, similarly legalizing drugs won’t turn every person into a drug addict. It’s a choice whether or not to do drugs. I love this sort of attitude from the government because they are respecting the intelligence of the people who elected them and not trying to nanny them. But not in our nation! Forget about marijuana and drugs, Kerala government wouldn’t let you wear a t-shirt with Bob Marley’s image on it!

Governments in India wants to restrict and control not only our inclinations towards drugs but also our dressing, our entertainment options, our alcohol consumption, our sexuality or rather sexual orientation (well, don’t even think about it, don’t you know Indians can’t be gay?), and even what meat you can eat (if anything at all). As I said before, freedom is an alien concept to us and may be these political parties are trying to go back to what we were or as close they can get to it. A totalitarian government, a government that interferes and dictates our lives in more ways that we can imagine! Anyone with half a brain should understand prohibition and restriction is not the way to regulate something. What is the reason behind governments banning alcohol? Is it to save its citizens from alcoholism? Of all the people who drink in this country, I can (with all conviction) say that no more than a miniscule percent are alcoholics. Most people drink socially and are responsible drinkers. Is it to stop domestic violence or abuse? That would be the most absurd idea. If a person gets drunk and abuses his wife and children, you can’t blame alcohol for it. If it is alcohol induced then that should be the case with everyone. My father is a social drinker and I have never, not even once, seen him misbehaving with me or my brother or my mother or with anyone else, regardless of whether he had a drink or not. I know a lot many people who are the same. One needs to understand that if a person is abusive that is his nature. Banning alcohol won’t change him, he will find alternative and he will keep going. But, who cares about reasons and rational thinking, the government has the power to do it so they do it.

What about the ban on beef? Beef is one meat millions of Indians (including me) are accustomed to and love to eat. If someone doesn’t approve of it, it’s their problem not ours. We shouldn’t have to stop eating it because someone else doesn’t approve of it. What I should eat and shouldn’t eat should be my personal choice (as long as I am not a cannibal or eating a protected species). Not in India! Here the governments will decide if I can eat meat or not. The worst part of these narrow minded authoritative people is that they are not open for difference in views or opinions. I recently read an article on the beef ban in Maharashtra and I checked the comments, one reader said ‘if you want to eat beef then leave India’ another said ‘will they allow you to eat pork in Saudi’ (not a country I would personally prefer as a role model)? This is the attitude that is prevalent, they don’t understand that people have the right to have different opinions and no one can insist that all have to agree with them. But in our country, a majority of the people considers their views to be sacrosanct, and won’t bear with anyone who doesn’t share them. 'How dare they question our views?' Do you doubt this to be the case? Forget about all the 66A victims and just take a look at how some MP wants to move a breach of privilege notice against Shobhaa De for her tweets on mandatory showing of Marathi movies in Mumbai multiplexes during prime time. Obviously, the dude doesn’t agree with her, and that’s fine, he doesn’t have to. But apparently this dude also believes that his and his party’s views are sacramental and hence are above and beyond criticism. So what about her freedom of speech and expression? Or is it that, Indian citizens have freedom of speech as long as we are in rhythm with the government views? Is that the freedom that we have?

I, for one, have issues with several of the views expressed by the politicians. Quite often some of these idiot politicians (regardless of gender) goes on a stage and blames the victims of rape, they trash people based on religion, caste and creed. What am I supposed to do about them? I do not have the power to move a breach of privilege notice against them (or do I? I don’t think so). Of course I can go to the court and then what? There are plenty of cases pending against them and this will be one more to that list. It will take a long time (not talking about years here, of course that happens, but even if it’s just a few months, this is time I do not have) and I have to work to live. If real time justice was a possibility, well at least close to that it could have been different. Say, I went to the court, I filed a case and I won. Still what is the worst that can happen to the politicians? They will get warned, they might apologize or not, three days of news, and we are back to same old, same old. What will happen to me? The morons who work for the politician’s party would be waiting for me and will take pleasure in fucking me up the first chance they get. So for a normal person it is a no-win situation!

How many times have you heard the proposers of ‘Indian Culture’ calling rape as an offspring of westernization? Is this the truth? Was our country a safe haven for women before we started moving towards westernization or modernization? Or is it that today we are getting to know these atrocities as media has come a long way forward and are now capable and readily reporting these? I believe, if we can call anything definitely a part of ‘Indian Culture’ that would be violence against women and objectification of women. Remember Sati? Remember putting Draupadi as a stake in the game of dice and what she had to endure? Her husbands (again wasn’t her choice to have more than one) valued their word more than her! Remember what happed to Sita? Remember Devadasis? These views and attitudes are so deeply embedded in our culture; the violence against women is not a new phenomenon but an identity of our existence. Remember what Mukesh Singh, the convicted rapist from the 2012 Delhi gang rape, said in the India’s Daughter documentary? We all contempt it and the government even banned it (may be because we, the citizens, of this fine country are not intelligent enough to grasp it), but did we listen? What he said is a reflection of what our society thinks and nothing else. Even in the psyche of a number of the modern Indians’ the culture is still alive and thriving! Remember how Twitteratis started blaming Anushka for Virat’s World Cup Semifinal performance? The new phenomenon is that a percentage of our population no longer believes that this is right. A percentage of our population wants to change this.

Another real aspect of Indian Culture is caste system. No matter what we try to think, no matter how we try to forget it or belittle its grip on the society, the caste system still remains and is as strong as it has ever been. Do we go a month without reading news or hearing about a brutal honor killing? Apparently, we are so honorable a lot that everything including caste and creed are more valuable than people themselves. But we don’t like to talk about caste as an issue. Our politicians won’t dare talk about caste as an issue. It’s bad for vote bank, right? Is this the ‘Indian Culture’ that we want to uphold? Another thing that we are intolerant towards is sexual orientation. Apparently being a homosexual in India is as bad as being a murderer or a thief, well not really – it’s worse. Once you land in a jail you will get respect for your crimes - if you are thief good, if you are a murderer even better, but if you are gay then you are fucked. Religions are dead set against homosexuality; then again that is not just an Indian phenomenon but a global thing. Apparently no religion has ever seen anything worse than homosexuality! The law that makes homosexuality illegal in our country should‘ve been struck down years ago but till this date no politician or political party seems to be interested it that.

Sensitivity or insecurity to most things is something that we seem to be suffering from. You can’t kiss, hug or display affection in public, spectators will be outraged and will cane you real bad. There are places in our country where you can’t walk or go to movies with a girl, people won’t tolerate that! We are sensitive to stuff like that. We cannot accept any form of affection in public. We can peep, put cameras in bathrooms, record other’s private moments with a hidden cam. If you are to stab someone to death, it can be done in the public you won’t see any outraged, concerned citizen coming to cane you or even stop you. We can pee in public or defecate in public, which would just be fine. But we cannot let anyone kiss or hug in public. As Indians, we are not supposed to criticize religion, religious leaders or politicians. The followers of none of these things will forgive that. They will lynch you at the nearest auspicious date. A book or film, no matter how well researched and written it is or how much of a fantasy it is, if it is critical of religion then it has to be banned. The religions in India, even with 100s of millions of believers are still so insecure that they will burn the street down to get their way. Generally it won’t come to that as politicians are more than happy banning anything and everything for anyone who has an issue with them. Freedom itself has little value to us, and are we talking about creative freedom? What a joke right? We are so damn patriotic that we would beat the living soul out of anyone who dares to sit during our national anthem played in theaters before the beginning of a movie. But we are ok when the world media, based on studies, report that of all the public defecation in the world, about 60 percent happen in India alone. Indians (obviously not all of us, just about 99 percent or so) are insensitive, intolerant, insecure and, above all else, highly hypocritical.

With all these on our shoulders, with ever increasing communal and religious tensions, with political parties that are dead set against most secular ideas and free thinking, are we moving forward? With an ever increasing parochial mindset and intolerance, are we becoming better? I don’t think so. We are not moving forward, we are not becoming better, nor are we embracing change, at least not the vast majority of us. We are standing back and watching as these idiots destroy the freedom that we hold so dear. If this is evolution then we need to stop and think again, what would our country be 25 years down the line?