Editor,
The two recent articles, “The real clouds of Meghalaya” and “When inner clouds blind the heart”, By Deepa Majumdar (ST Dec 25 & 29, 2020) speak what very few can think of and fewer still have the courage to write about. How could we see faults in us “now” when we have been brought up to celebrate and take delight in everything from the West? We have not just appreciated their knowledge of science and technology which are undoubtedly indispensable, but we have also picked up those which are prejudicial to our own culture as Prof Majumdar discussed in her articles. I do not want to go deeper into this except for a few examples in the “national” context.
Don’t we passionately want to mimic Elvis’s numbers and rock songs by Tina Turner and John Lennon and shake ourselves to their beats? Not just that; we have long been adapting our own folk songs to their disco rhythms. By hook or crook we have to sound a little more like the West, or else we feel outdated. This fever has not only gripped Meghalaya or the Northeast. The entire country’s urbane population, nay, now even the rural folks, try their level best to copy the West. The digital world has only accelerated the pace. Some of our youths have begun to appreciate pizza/cake than roti/pitha/putharo… The fine table manners of the west have literally brought revolution leading to total change in our kitchen settings. Have we not ditched our decent apparel in favour of western styles that match our painstakingly acquired western accent? Prof. Majumdar has aptly cited an example for us to ponder over how one strand of blonde hair caused so much euphoria in the classroom even in the late 60s. The author writes – “My awestruck colonized classmates passed around her single strand of gold hair as if it were gold itself.” It is no exaggeration at all!
Yes, everything is fine if we do not ridicule our own heritage or hate our own fellow brothers and sisters at the cost of our blind infatuation. We often tend to look down upon our immediate relatives/neighbours who still follow the customs, traditions and religious beliefs that our forefathers were following since time immemorial. Many parents find it difficult to get their daughters married if they are not converted. We have almost begun to measure our day-to-day mannerism, styles, gestures, customs, including religion, by the yardstick of our colonial masters. We have completely forgotten how they ill-treated us, denigrated the Indian culture and even distorted many of our historical facts. This is absurdly bizarre. If I am not mistaken, we often coin special vernacular terms to describe our fellow brethren who are slow to adopt the western culture.
In the rat race of becoming English gentlemen we have virtually buried many of our cultural practices, while some we have set aside only as ceremonial affairs. Usually, some of us do not even want to be reminded of our past practices. What one finds very unsettling is that, without ever making any unbiased efforts to analyze them, we habitually wink at those rich values and knowledge. When any elderly person tries to bring certain past cultural practices to our minds, he might run the risk of being called names. This I am saying from my own personal experiences.
Here is another shocker in India. Our fascination for the West is not restricted to the white skin. Even the cruel invaders from the Middle East have been glorified in many respects. Have we not been taught to call Akbar the Great and Babar the Great along with Alexander the Great? Some even call Aurangzeb, the Great! Didn’t he imprison his own father Shah Jahan and execute innumerable people from a specific religion that did not want to convert to his religion? How come the despotic invaders can be greats, I always wonder in amazement. How on earth do we adore those whose hands are stained with the blood of humanity? How could we call them valiant who exploited “countless” women/tender girls for their sensual fulfillment and destroyed so many sacred spiritual institutions? I find something seriously amiss in the country for quite some time!
Yes, even I would have been swimming with the same current with the same belief-system had it not been for a few books that I was inspired by my father to read. They alone had turned my head from the West to the East. In contrast the writers of those books were acclaimed “thinkers from the west”. I came to know from those books about the profound literary riches of ancient India. Cutting short the present discussion, the book – “The Tao of Physics” by the Modern American Physicist Fritjof Capra stirred my mind – this title has been translated into 23 languages. It instantly opened the door for me to move in the “right direction”. Just in a few months my long-held prejudice against the country vanished but after much struggle. I was amazed to know then that the epoch-making modern scientist like Niels Bohr was awestruck by the depth of Indian wisdom from that physics book. So much so, I learned that Erwin Schrodinger had proclaimed —- “Some blood transfusion from the East to the West is a must to save western science from spiritual anaemia”. This great Nobel Laureate who gave wheels to Quantum Mechanics by his “Wave function equation”, would not have applauded India had he not found gems in the ancient literary treasure troves. He has “very profusely” quoted Eastern wisdom in his several works.
Finally, I would like to assert here by quoting from the horse’s mouth. TS Eliot, probably one of the most celebrated poets and critics of the 20th Century writes in his “After Strange Gods” — “Indian Philosopher’s subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys”. If our western masters speak in this tone and tenor then I think we need to tune up the string of our minds with more circumspection. We need to “trust and follow” those values and knowledge that have been trusted by the most trusted thinkers.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali
Shillong
Rejoinder
Editor,
Apropos the letter, ‘Poor Work Culture’ (Dec 24, 2020) by Pratham K Sharma and ‘Rejoinder from SSPO’ (Dec 25th 2020) by Susmita Majumder, I agree with the former who has expressed displeasure at the working of the Laitumkhrah branch of the post office. I don’t know about being underage, but the workers look totally experienced and thus, take a lot of time to solve minor grievances of customers. Work culture is an important part of any organization, especially when it has to provide citizen-centric service to the public at large. It seems that the workers at the Laitumkhrah PO lack intent and that is having repercussions on the customers who have to face the problems because of their shambolic and lethargic way of dealing with work. I must also mention that instead of defending the PO, the ASP should instead resort to taking action against the ones responsible for this poor image of the Laitumkhrah branch. I myself have been facing issues at this branch since the last few years and it’s high time that things change for the better. Susmita Majumder also claims that people have to wait in long queues because of social distancing protocols. Well, I must clarify that there is absolutely no social distancing protocol being followed. I request the government to take this matter seriously, immediately.
Yours etc.,
Damien Phanbuh,
Shillong-3