After 800 years of Islamic Rule and 200 years of British rule, India lost its own heritage under this siege. After 15th Aug 1947, though we got independence from foreign rule but there was a disorientation with respect to Civilizational values, Culture, knowledge etc. It was never a moment of joy from the India's identity point of view. Our mind was filled with British thought process, our core development values were twisted, misleaded and lacked clarity. Nevertheless, British bequeathed India with
GLOBALIZATION VIEWPOINT
Today we are very deep rooted in our minds with western thoughts, the western model of development and there is hardly any Indian thought that is left except the (food, family values, festivity. etc) which i think will get digested in the long run for the next generations to come.The need for today is to understand between Modernization vs Westernization and to value ourselves with IDENTITY on the global platform.
Why do we need an Identity in this Globalization era?
What is a relevance of identity, does it have any benefits today?
Instead of fighting on the differences, why cant we agree on equality?
Who cares if its a western thought or eastern or Modern as long as it works.
The above are the typical questions most of us debate today. Before ignoring the fact of identity lets understand few things here. As we all know the world power is in the hands of America and Europe, they are the one who decides the concept of Universalism. I would call this as "Western-Universalism" . They super-impose in such a way that rest of the communities feel inferior and tend to follow the very same culture which the super nations project. So lets study these cultures and then we can decide whats good for us.
America's Identity History
American is a land of Identities, early people were called Pilgrims ,they called themselves ENGLISH MEN as they came from England and others were Native Americans(INDIANS). After a while few other people immigrated to the country - Germans, Irish, Italians etc. they no longer called themselves Englishmen because of various other language groups, so their identity became CHRISTIAN, later Native Americans got converted, they changed their Christian identity to WHITE (in 1630 - 1640). There were White laws, White Privilege, White marriage etc. and others were Non-White.
The Irish, Italian and Catholics were excluded, they had fights and violence for their privileges, the American religion shifted from Protestants to Christianity as the Catholics were included. Then, the Irish became White(Read the book "How Irish became White") and later Jews became White (read the book "How Jews became White").
Until 1930s Jews didn't think of becoming White because their ancestors never thought they were white and neither the whites thought.
This is the trajectory of Identities in America. All those people got assimilated to the White race of America.
Blacks didn't enjoy the same privileges because they couldn't assimilate. So Black kept their identity for themselves
Hispanics were Christian but didn't assimilate in to White because of the Spanish language. They wanted their Spanish language to live, so they kept their identity seperate
Currently, there is an identity fight going on for Muslims, Chinese, Asians etc. So, its not us who made America the land of identities, its just the character of America. America expect me to define my Identity. I can deny it in which case they will define my identity.
The choice in America is not an identity-less society because rest of America is not Identity-less. As a realistic person i accept what it is and positively project, define and live with it.
In the same way, America uses the same Identity lens to see the world. The theory of Post modernism may show America in favor of equality and it may appear as Identity-less but the deep-root culture is very strong in favor of Identity.
India's Goal
India's Goal is not to get assimilate in this global phenomena rather be different and acknowledge our core Dharmic and fundamental values. Unfortunately our education system never talks about our Dharmic Studies like (Bhagvad Gita, Vedas etc). You will be surprised to know that our Vedas have been used for writing the German literature and transforming Europe to what it is today. I shall write a separate blog on that soon. We acknowledged lot of Western research works and theories but hardly did the poorva-paksha of our own theories.
In Contrast, China countered the western framework without loosing its civilizational values, it preseved it language, culture and yet challenged the west. Russia on the other hand is super-power which countered the West, Japan for instance is a very small country but their country is deep rooted with their core fundamental values and advanced a lot in all areas of development. Japan is the only Asian country which escaped Colonization from the west.
The need for today for India is to re-align its framework and project Indian-ness towards development. Rather than fighting for Equality, human rights, caste etc, lets accept the differences and live with it in a pride. Mutual-Respect is the need of the hour.
Long Live India. Jai Hind.
Sarve Jana Sukhino Bavantu. !
- English Language.
- Consititution.(Influenced by it)
- Secularisation.
- Legal System.
- Knowledge Systems, Education. etc.
GLOBALIZATION VIEWPOINT
Today we are very deep rooted in our minds with western thoughts, the western model of development and there is hardly any Indian thought that is left except the (food, family values, festivity. etc) which i think will get digested in the long run for the next generations to come.The need for today is to understand between Modernization vs Westernization and to value ourselves with IDENTITY on the global platform.
Why do we need an Identity in this Globalization era?
What is a relevance of identity, does it have any benefits today?
Instead of fighting on the differences, why cant we agree on equality?
Who cares if its a western thought or eastern or Modern as long as it works.
The above are the typical questions most of us debate today. Before ignoring the fact of identity lets understand few things here. As we all know the world power is in the hands of America and Europe, they are the one who decides the concept of Universalism. I would call this as "Western-Universalism" . They super-impose in such a way that rest of the communities feel inferior and tend to follow the very same culture which the super nations project. So lets study these cultures and then we can decide whats good for us.
America's Identity History
American is a land of Identities, early people were called Pilgrims ,they called themselves ENGLISH MEN as they came from England and others were Native Americans(INDIANS). After a while few other people immigrated to the country - Germans, Irish, Italians etc. they no longer called themselves Englishmen because of various other language groups, so their identity became CHRISTIAN, later Native Americans got converted, they changed their Christian identity to WHITE (in 1630 - 1640). There were White laws, White Privilege, White marriage etc. and others were Non-White.
The Irish, Italian and Catholics were excluded, they had fights and violence for their privileges, the American religion shifted from Protestants to Christianity as the Catholics were included. Then, the Irish became White(Read the book "How Irish became White") and later Jews became White (read the book "How Jews became White").
Until 1930s Jews didn't think of becoming White because their ancestors never thought they were white and neither the whites thought.
This is the trajectory of Identities in America. All those people got assimilated to the White race of America.
Blacks didn't enjoy the same privileges because they couldn't assimilate. So Black kept their identity for themselves
Hispanics were Christian but didn't assimilate in to White because of the Spanish language. They wanted their Spanish language to live, so they kept their identity seperate
Currently, there is an identity fight going on for Muslims, Chinese, Asians etc. So, its not us who made America the land of identities, its just the character of America. America expect me to define my Identity. I can deny it in which case they will define my identity.
The choice in America is not an identity-less society because rest of America is not Identity-less. As a realistic person i accept what it is and positively project, define and live with it.
In the same way, America uses the same Identity lens to see the world. The theory of Post modernism may show America in favor of equality and it may appear as Identity-less but the deep-root culture is very strong in favor of Identity.
India's Goal
India's Goal is not to get assimilate in this global phenomena rather be different and acknowledge our core Dharmic and fundamental values. Unfortunately our education system never talks about our Dharmic Studies like (Bhagvad Gita, Vedas etc). You will be surprised to know that our Vedas have been used for writing the German literature and transforming Europe to what it is today. I shall write a separate blog on that soon. We acknowledged lot of Western research works and theories but hardly did the poorva-paksha of our own theories.
In Contrast, China countered the western framework without loosing its civilizational values, it preseved it language, culture and yet challenged the west. Russia on the other hand is super-power which countered the West, Japan for instance is a very small country but their country is deep rooted with their core fundamental values and advanced a lot in all areas of development. Japan is the only Asian country which escaped Colonization from the west.
The need for today for India is to re-align its framework and project Indian-ness towards development. Rather than fighting for Equality, human rights, caste etc, lets accept the differences and live with it in a pride. Mutual-Respect is the need of the hour.
Long Live India. Jai Hind.
Sarve Jana Sukhino Bavantu. !
