(via Sunny Narang)
My generation (born in 60's) was so tolerant of Indian indigenous spiritual traditions , all of them educated in English-Medium schools and proper colleges and US and UK "schools" , that whenever I used the word "Mystic" , they laughed it off and said , you mean "Mistake" !
I have never met a more self-hating elite than the Indian one in any country . The Thais , Sri Lankans and even the Bangladeshi are more coherent and self-appreciatory .
My generation (born in 60's) was so tolerant of Indian indigenous spiritual traditions , all of them educated in English-Medium schools and proper colleges and US and UK "schools" , that whenever I used the word "Mystic" , they laughed it off and said , you mean "Mistake" !
I have never met a more self-hating elite than the Indian one in any country . The Thais , Sri Lankans and even the Bangladeshi are more coherent and self-appreciatory .
Macaulay should be a happy man in his British Heaven .
Aparna Krishnan Sunny Narang,
why "I have never met a more self-hating elite than the Indian one in
any country . The Thais , Sri Lankans and even the Bangladeshi are more
coherent and self-appreciatory ." ?
Sunny Narang They celebrate and understand the strength of their own cultures and languages deeply
Aparna Krishnan Ya. Why ? Why did our elite become so defensive and nurse such a complex ?
Sunny Narang Look
at the 1900-1950 , the freedom movement , there was no dearth of an
indigenous elite , writing in Gujarati , Tamil , Punjabi , Hindi, Urdu
et al . What was literacy at that time ? Neither urbanisation . We lost
it . There are many reasons , among them the absolute loss of
inner-party democracy in Congress , rise of Communism , and then the
Darbari Delhi culture .
Aparna Krishnan How "loss of inner-party democracy in Congress " ?
Sunny Narang Congress was hold-all party pre 1947 , with a single point Nehruvian monopoly all indigenous leadership was sidelined .
Aparna Krishnan Gandhi allowed it.
Aparna Krishnan And his own Gram Swaraj died witn all this.
Sunny Narang Look at the Congress Presidents from 1951 onwards , all Nehru or his acolytes , mediocre characters and look at before . https://en.wikipedia.org/.../President_of_the_Indian...
en.wikipedia.org
Sethuraman Pasupathy Exception ( post 51 mediocrity ) could be K Kamaraj.
Aparna Krishnan Sunny Narang,
but could Gandhi have given it another direction ? Was there any leader
who shared his confidence and faith in villages, and in the
essentiality of Gram Swaraj ?
Sunny Narang Gandhi was irrelevant to most .
Sethuraman Pasupathy In
my understanding none of his colleagues who mattered shared his vision.
Gandhi after 1945 was more like Bahadur Sha zafar writing " Na kisi ke
aank ka noor hun, na kisi ke dil ka karar hun ''. His choice of Nehru
was because in his judgement he could see Nehru holding the nation
together, given the barbaric times, than any other leader.
Afsan Chowdhury Sunny Narang
Indians hopefully will one day come to analyse the negative effects of
Nehru and his "modernism on South Asia in general. He legitimized
Western "modernism" and made every indigenous stream "foreign" in India.
Its this tradition that continues in
South Asia in general and sadly, affects the academic community the
most of which i am a part. The villages have been forced upon by the
"modernist " cities with their urban narratives. Its the overwhelming
of values, structures and hope. In the name of politics, w perpetuate
this "exclusion". Religion for example is demonized without
understanding what it means to the impoverished villages in terms of
coping with the challenges of life. Thanks .
Aparna Krishnan Personal
atheism or theism is a matter of choice. When it becomes an ideology
and mocks at the religious as backward, superstitious, weak ... then it
becomes an overweening arrogance that borders on the maniacal. Every
single Indian village and villager is
religious in a deep and simple manner. And it is not just a 'coping
mechanisim'. It is dharmam, a way of life, an ethical perspective on
being, that is interwoven with faith and humility.
Aparna Krishnan I suppose it would be the same in bangladesh ?
Afsan Chowdhury Aparna Krishnan
Of course it is the same. I think entire Asia and Africa behaves the
same way. The rejection of faith practices of ordinary people as
backward in te name of "secularism" is the most violative narrative i
have seen. I have done a KAP study on
Bengali Muslims and almost everyone is a social Muslim which means they
learn about faith from their parents, families and neighbours. Theology
has little role in this. And there is no inter-communal hatred. Politics
disguise itself through religion and uses it to grab resources of the
poor. I could walk into any village in South Asia and identify the
common elements. I am what is called a "public Intellectual" (????)
which means I fight constantly. Now they joke that i have this mythical
villages where everyone is good. They are not but they would rater
lead their desperate lives without discussing ideology. Thanks
Aparna Krishnan Compared
to cities I have seen vast goodness in villages. And yes, saying this
irks city people. In india the 'social activist' (i understand less and
less what that term means !) usually prefers to see villages as 'feudal
patriarchal casteist' only. And would like to 'redeem' it, rather than
restore its own dignity to it.
Aparna Krishnan Afsan Chowdhury what is KAP ?
Afsan Chowdhury sorry. Knowledge (K), Attitude(A) Practices (P). My apologies. Stupid researcher.
Sunny Narang Afsan
we will have no real option left , between the urban hypocrites who
have "used" spiritual texts of Kabir etc without having any experience
of spirit and the fundamentalists , the deeply humanist and
communitarian folk and cultured spiritualities will have to be excavated
. Who will be its bearers God only knows.
Aparna Krishnan The villages still carry the essential indianness. if the villages can be yet be saved - for all our sakes.
Sunny Narang There
are what are "Organic Spiritual Elders" , but they need full on support
. Each is a living heritage . But I see no urban past 20-30 year
educated intellectual coming ahead . It will need a new energy . Young
from kasba and villages speaking and proud of their own narratives and
languages . And urban people like all of us who know that the cultural
answers are not with us .
Aparna Krishnan The english educated have lost it. Totally. The power has to emerge from the people. A few of us can support in our small ways.
Sunny Narang Absolutely , all India will have few thousand English speaking , it has to be a vernacular led movement .
Komakkambedu Himakiran 1) Education has to be moved back to the States list.
2) States should promote a hybrid model of primary in Native language with English as a language; Secondary in English with Native language as language and option of linguistic minority language as third language.
3) History/Geography should focus on local, district, state, region, country, continent, world in that order and with decreasing content. There should be no exams at all for these subjects, instead real time projects should be promoted. For eg.: documenting the food, religious, cultural, music and other traditions of family, clan, community, village/neighborhood etc.
4) Science and Math should be reoriented toward the local. Instead of a million software engineers, we should be producing hydrology engineers to work on water resources, Marine engineers to utilize such a vast coastline, agro engineers to create small machines catering to 2-3 acre sized farms.
5) it should be mandatory to spend summers in villages, with tribals, in slums to sensitise kids about the real India. NSS type programs should be mandatory to expose kids to various social, civil issues. By the time I finished school, I'd worked as OP Dept receptionist in a govt hospital, manned traffic signals, volunteered to manage events, spent a winter vacation refurbishing, cleaning and painting a school building for underprivileged kids apart from entertaining them every evening with culturals.. All this thanks to NSS. It should also be mandatory to teach swimming to kids as that's a great habit for a lifetime. People who swim in rivers, lakes connect better with nature. NCC can be changed to something that teaches first aid, disaster response etc.
6) Discourage all classes outside school and during weekends. If the kid is truly talented, he/she can learn music, sports etc, but right now all kids are forced to learn multiple things. Make it mandatory for kids to play and provide the spaces for the same. Shut down 1-2 streets by rotation in every neighborhood on sundays.
2) States should promote a hybrid model of primary in Native language with English as a language; Secondary in English with Native language as language and option of linguistic minority language as third language.
3) History/Geography should focus on local, district, state, region, country, continent, world in that order and with decreasing content. There should be no exams at all for these subjects, instead real time projects should be promoted. For eg.: documenting the food, religious, cultural, music and other traditions of family, clan, community, village/neighborhood etc.
4) Science and Math should be reoriented toward the local. Instead of a million software engineers, we should be producing hydrology engineers to work on water resources, Marine engineers to utilize such a vast coastline, agro engineers to create small machines catering to 2-3 acre sized farms.
5) it should be mandatory to spend summers in villages, with tribals, in slums to sensitise kids about the real India. NSS type programs should be mandatory to expose kids to various social, civil issues. By the time I finished school, I'd worked as OP Dept receptionist in a govt hospital, manned traffic signals, volunteered to manage events, spent a winter vacation refurbishing, cleaning and painting a school building for underprivileged kids apart from entertaining them every evening with culturals.. All this thanks to NSS. It should also be mandatory to teach swimming to kids as that's a great habit for a lifetime. People who swim in rivers, lakes connect better with nature. NCC can be changed to something that teaches first aid, disaster response etc.
6) Discourage all classes outside school and during weekends. If the kid is truly talented, he/she can learn music, sports etc, but right now all kids are forced to learn multiple things. Make it mandatory for kids to play and provide the spaces for the same. Shut down 1-2 streets by rotation in every neighborhood on sundays.
Afsan Chowdhury Sunny Narang
A lot of the problem lies with the wholesale depiction of the rural
world as backward. This began when the Brits arrived and a new elite
emerged who were slaves of "enlightenment" particularly in Bengal
under raja mohon roy who established the
Brahmo Samaj and was so pro-British he invited them to come and settle
in India/ Bengal. After that everything local became backward. Yer the
resistance to British rule in Bengal was peasant while the Babu - middle
class-culture flourished. So students read about what Kolkata did and
feel glorious but not what the villagers. We have deliberately created a
history from which he expelled the villages and the poor. Thanks
Ramanan Jagannathan Bharat
is an ancient country and you are all its son . Don't forget this fact -
said Bharathi . Some where along the line , we forgot the fact and are
Paying for it
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