Striking out the right balance

"In India one lives simultaneously in the twelfth and the twenty first  century - as well as in all centuries in between."      -U. R. Ananthamurthy

The above line aptly explains the state of our nation.The oldest continuously inhabited civilization now is in a dilemma. It is facing difficulty in choosing whether to forgo the age old traditions which have made this country possible or to still stick with them. On one hand we have mastered the art of sending satellites into outer space, on the other we still fight in the name of religion and caste. On one hand we touch the feet of our elders to have their blessings , on the other we have now started asking them to take refuge at old age homes. We now have stopped going to Tantriks for medical treatment but our tubectomy camps are killing our women.Now we know how to protect ourselves from cyclones like 'Hudhud' but we still don't have strategy against communal genocide of 'Muzzafarnagar'. 

The first testament of mankind i.e. The Rig Veda, the first systematic procedure for giving a melody to a chanted verse i.e. The Sam Veda, the first civilization, Yoga, the Karma, the Dharma, four major religions of the world, the invention of 'zero', the romance of bollywood, the allure of Kamasutra and what not? We have pioneered a lot of things. It was against this backdrop that Mark Twain once said " India is the cradle of human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, grandmother of the legend and the grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only". 

So should the population of 121 crore forget its age old traditions and start doing whatever the West is doing? No. Rather this calls for bringing out the right balance in our approach. We should not hesitate in carefully adopting from the West only on the condition that we'll indigenize it according to our needs. Simply giving up the idea of drinking 'lassi' for highly caffeinated cold drink will only cause harm in the long run. The time is ripe to shift gear. From the role of a follower we have to switch over to our earlier role of a trend-setter. The 17.5 percent population of the world should compel the world to follow whatever it does instead of following the West blindly!

We stand at crossroads where one path leads to development at the expense of our values and the other leads to preservation of our values at the expense of development. None can be taken without thorough contemplation. The Indian setting is such that we'll have to adopt a middle path. A path where we don't squander the values, a path where we aren't left too much behind in the race of development. This will be a challenge as we don't have many precedents to follow where development and value preservation have gone hand in hand. 


To choose between the comfort of 'kurta-pyjama' or superficial style of jeans, the taste of coconut water or the carbonated cold-drinks, donating to the poor or to temples in the name of God, promoting industries or traditional handicrafts, Sanskritization or Westernization,  Maa or Mummy  is getting difficult by the day!

Evolution has always taken its own course and will keep doing so. I just don't want Indians to lose their actual identities in the process. Therefore striking out the right balance is very important!