Indian Cuture - What is it?

Often, quite often, we have heard people say that western countries are devoid of "culture" while India is rich in it. As a kid, when I did not know what "culture" meant, I nodded on hearing this statement as any toddler would do when a 40-plus-sagacious-looking-round-spectacled uncle says it with a puff of serious air around him. Growing-up, I find that these round-spectacled uncles were not always right.

So, do I say that India is culturally impoverished as western countries are?

Oh yes, I do! But there is a subtle difference. Western society, at least the modern western society is founded on the basis of science. Church had long handed over the whip to control people's minds to scientific geniuses and philosophers. These people mostly were men of thought who often questioned conventional wisdom and practices and it is only natural that a society molded on their thought regarded culture just as an Indian first-class railway traveler would regard a cockroach just beneath his berth - Unnecessary, uncalled for, grossly out of place, and something to be stomped upon without any hesitation. On the other hand, India had no such renaissance. But there has always been a slow erosion of values from the cultures and traditions of India. So much so that people who talk today about culture and tradition in India do not know about the values that our culture tried to promote. So we are worse off - while the westerners evaluated and rejected culture, we are living thinking that we follow culture while we have floated afar!

Amidst the hues and cries of parties with vested interest that India is culturally superior lies the bare fact that there is a cultural bankruptcy here. People do not know/ignore the governing principles of life as laid down by our forefathers. Culture and traditions have become more of an overcoat - you wear one just to impress. You can hang it up anytime you want to and others consider it perfectly fine if you do so! Indian culture, as it is followed today, is just a set of practices without any values.

Quintessentially, we do not follow the customs while we say we do! Look around yourself. Look at the moral depravity around you, the immorality of the politicians around you, the sad state of the infrastructure around you. Who is necessary for all these? The British? It's us! How is that a society founded on high moral principles, impeccable cultural values and great traditions has degenerated into garbage?

The answer is simple. Indians do not follow anything to the T. We lack one virtue - Discipline. Imagine - a pious person performs all his rituals in the morning, reaches office and feels no compunction in fleecing an aggrieved party! Part of profession, you see? Almighty is invoked for everything in India. The people who printed out the CAT question papers and sold it for a few lakhs apiece had pictures of goddess "Saraswati" pasted on their computers! The trigger for me to write this - I saw a man spitting right in front of a temple today! The crux is - Indians do not have any darned idea of what their culture is! So they, well, cannot follow it.