Why is ayurveda, and doshas and dhatus, not part of schooling syllabus ? The way allopathy, and virus and bacteria are.
Why are eris and kulams and traditional systems of irrigation not part of schooling, the way dams and power plants are.
... and a generation lost through schooling, is a civilization lost.
There is a fantastic book on Indian traditions of giving. Refering to historical texts, and to archives. A very well researched classic. Which in my village I see as living traditions. Of giving and sharing. Of annadaanam.
The book has been introduced by the archayas of different mutts in chaste Sanskrit. each of those letters is a study in scholarship.
Yesterday in a conversation I realized that these introductions lowered the value of the book in the eyes of the Modern Liberal Indian.
The hate for roots, the self loathing that this species carries has no end. I suppose if it was imtroduced by IIT or Oxford they would have lapped it up.
School children in an english medium school in Chennai, 5th class, discussing,
'I went to a village ya. It was so dirty. There was cowdung on the road.'
Gandhi was not afraid to take the name of God, nor was Kabir, nor Nanak.
The modern English educated seek atheism as an entry ticket to their English educated peer group.
And term the peoples of this land superstitious, and their well beloved gods superstitions.
Daughter, "Do you realize that many people may feel proud of being 'deracinated' ... ", as she was going thro' my posts one day.
Then i realized that it was probably so !
When the children start to speak to parents in english at home, thats the warning bell. The beginnings of #deracination.
I have seen too many examples of the reverse.. kids trying to speak in motger tongue, parents replying in English. What do we call that... deracination indoctrination?
that is deracinated parents. hopeless situation.
In South India local language fluent women, the majority, wear sarees. (Most) english fluent women wear sarees only occasionally. As ethnic wear.
It is that simple. The alienation from roots that an English medium education confers.
How many children who have passed through an English education have the confidence to
1. Wear a pavadai, dhavini with comfort ? A dhoti with ease. Have saree, veshti, pymajas as their default dress when they grow older ?
2. Are happy saying a Namaste, instead of a Hi-Bye.
3. Are happy sweeping outside their homes daily and putting a traditional kolam.
4. Comfortable going to Bhagavad Gita classes with a swamiji.
5. Are happy to say they wish to study Sanskrit.
6. Have the composure to ignore their anglicized peers when they try to look down at all this.
When village girls joyfully making muggus/ kolams/ rangolis before the home every morning is seen as Patriarchy, and the girls are informed that they are oppressed.
Comments
many do it before going to sleep the previous day itself these days
Ok. Let me ask from a city slicker's point of view...why are the boys not making them as well?
Gender differances are not always gender discriminations.
These girls spend the afternoons trying muggus and enjoying themselves, those little fellows are lost in goli. One girl will join up with them sometimes, just as one boy wanders here to learn kolams.
Gender is a social contruct sex is biological
And hence can be challenged where there is opprrssoon
To see oppression where there is none is sometimes the lot of activists sold to theories that colour their viewing. In time and grounding the truth is eventually seen, despite our notions. But one needs to invest that time among and with the community one wishes to speak of, or speak for.
What?? Who says such things? That is ridiculous!
Not only gender and sex but the concepts of society, world, body, sex and ego are also only mental constructs in human mind. They disappear in pure awareness of deep sleep. Awake intellect challenges many concepts after identifying with any one concept and not the others. Intellect argues against concept of oppression and creates arguments. Understanding smiles at the ignorance of the arguing intellect.
Seriously,
Aparna Krishnan
, boys are given no duties , responsibilities, training , discipline.
They turn out oppressive and exploitative and have an enlarged sense of entitlement.
Women are overburdened with rules , duties , responsibilities, codes .
Some sharing is necessary. It's all rights and no duties whatsoever
yes. deeply entrenched in many ways. in all classes of society. and in all qualifications - maybe even more so in the 'educated'.
but in the case of this post - its the usual activist see oppression where none exists !
The oppression is not in the making of muggu
the post is about muggus
.
The oppression is elsewhere due to patriarchy and these gendered roles thus seen in benign things. You could have a society without patriarchy and some rolrs shared beyween the sexes
that there are power issues between castes, classes and genders is a givem. but to pull every simple reality to fit into that is a problem that deracinated urban ideologues have. i see more and more of urbans preaching and labelling. i wish they would focus on their unlivable cities - but the rural are softer and politer targets i suppose.
Proud of their English fluency. Proud of quoting English poetry. Proud of listening to English music. Proud of quoting English philosophy.
Unashamed of greater ease in the colonizers language, than in one's own.
Why is level of decay in our elite ? As compared to the elite of any other south Asian country ? A decay which by contact causes decay of all systems in the land.
The best of tools for chitta shuddhi, purification of mind and consciousness, are found in our yoga, pranayama, dhyana. And in the philosophical teachings of Vedanta.
There are great teachers who guide based on the pure princples of the shastras. The vedas, the itihasas, the puranas. Gurus who live the life of simplicity and learning.
And then when I see modern psycological tools being imported and offered at exceedingly high costs I wonder anew. At the depth of colonization that has clonized minds and pertceptions so totally.
If our childs circle consists of children speaking mostly in english we are creating a deracinated citizen.
In our village government school the children come early to sweep, sprinkle water anmd make a muggu/ rangoli.
As the bell rings, the children and teacher remove their slippers outside the classroom. A small prayer is said each morning before starting studies.
Before the midday meal the children sweep the floor, sit, say a small prayer, eat the simple meal of rice and a dilute dal. Then they sweep up the place and clean it.
As its a single teacher, the older children oftem are helping the younger children with their readings.
After school is done, they again sweep up the room.
... the urban school childen walking into classrooms with their shoes. Eating lunch without saying a prayer of thanks. Having servents to sweep their classrooms
... will never reach the simple dignity and rootedness of the village child.
... feel grateful our child began her student life in the village single roomed, single teacher primary school. It sets the compass for life.
My tolerence levels are coming down. I cannot really deal with those who only despise the roots of Indian ethos, wisdom and richness. Be it the village's sense of dharmam and an infinite generosity flowing out of that. Or their practices of treatment including both herbs and mantrams.
When I speak of Ayurveda, and the use of cow urine therein for medicines, when I hear hoots, I unfollow the hooters. Because I have better work to do that deal with donkeys happy to be donkeys.
Otherwise i consider it our duty to share what little we know in any debate, and collectively search for a better tomorrow for my country. To address every ill therein, and to build on every strength here.
Balasubramaniam Thyagarajan Aparna Krishnan unfortunately our people reserve their worst words for our own tradition.
Aparna Krishnan It comes out of a very deep inferiority complex that the educated carry. The uneducated are more confident, and able to respect themselves and also give respect.
Balasubramaniam Thyagarajan Without education you don't even know how much you don't know.
Aparna Krishnan Well, I mean routine and meaningless education. My village people, illiterate are far wiser than me and my clan.
Balasubramaniam Thyagarajan Don't worry we will educate them to ignorance. Just wait.
Aparna Krishnan Balasubramaniam Thyagarajan, it is happenning. Through a process called schooling. And schemes called RTE.
Gangadharan Kumar How is RTE helping?
Balasubramaniam Thyagarajan Helping to make more people ignorant. We need educated people to be able to buy nonsense that is freely flowing everyday. If you are uneducated, you may think !
Aparna Krishnan Gangadharan Kumar, forceing everyone into buying into schooling. Which teaches them to stop sthinking widely. And also teaches then to undervalue their traditional occupations, and doff their hats to us the literate. And also see the purpose of life as 'getting a job', 'making money' and 'consumeing'.
Gangadharan Kumar Ah.. got it. You meant - not helping
Someone asked me if I was a bhakt. I said I light the evening lamp before the gods and i pray to the gods. As does each person in my village.
All my children apply the sacred ash on their forehead from the small coconut shell in the temple as they run in droves to the government school.
And I wondered anew at the deracination that can allow use of a simple word based on bhakti as an abuse. As a political tool.
Daughter remarked, "Many may actually be proud to be termed deracinated !", reading one of my pozts.
I realised she was right. There are enough and more westernised Indians who can see no good in their heritage, their culture, their gods,. Their roots.
Why does the English educated teenage girl move away from bangles, anklets, long oiled and plaited hair, flowers in the hair ? Even kumkum. Even salwar kameez chunni.
Simple beauties that the vast majority of young girls in this land enjoy.
It is in these seemingly simple details that alienation starts setting in. Between the peoples and the elite.
For a long time bullshit was a favourite abuse among the deracinated.
We worship cowdung in every village, making a image of the goddess with it. We use it for our fields. We use it to mop our homes. Into a cool breathtaking green.
Now the deracinated have added gomutra to their list of sneers.
We use aavu panchadam to wash our bamboo windows. Which stay immune to insect attacks. We sprnkle it in our homes and over our heads. We use it as medicine.
As much as one can't stand the right with their centralised version of religion and of governence, one cannot stand these leftlib fools either. Preening themselves in their ignorance. And strutting in empty arrogance looking down on us all.
We need a governance rooted in village wisdom.
If I step on a piece of paper, I immediately bend, touch it and take my hand to my eyes. If I step on food by mistake, the same. The other day I stepped on some printed words on a plastic board, and again I did the same. I realised that even touching plastic came spontaneously.
When I pass a small roadside temple my head bends. Even without thinking. In a bus I see that all the others looking that way, also bow it it. For a second. Or less.
If one steps on someone by mistake, elder or younger, again one bends and touches with reverence.
The people of my village also bow to all this. And more. When they switch on the light in the evening they bow to it. Light, electric or oil, is Jyothiamma.The God. Before lighting the fire, they apply the stones of the stove with Kumkum and bow to it.
These acknowledgements of divinity immanent in all, is part of our collective unconscious.
Roots. Are about these collective shared ways of being. Ancient. Civilizational. Lived. Daily.
There was a lady who posted a plate of beef proudly announcing that she was giving up her vegetarianism. My village people themselves, who traditionally eat beef, would not post that picture as they would respect the feelings of others.
Next month the lady posted a powerful note against the farmers who were waging a struggle for Jallikattu, saying "I speak for the bull."
... it is such, who write abject nonsense in fluent english, who are read by our urban policy makers. And who spin and weave the noose that rural India strangeles on.
With the richness of Yoga Sutras, and Bhagavan Gita, and far far more with us. The vastest of knowlege available for the asking and for the application.
The English educated elite of this land seek western phycology learnings to create new expensive courses. For the English educated masses.
And the blind lead the blind ...
Aparna KrishnanSometimes that is packaged and sold in gowns of western psycology !
Quiz.
Who are the Indian contemprories of Shakespere.
Hint ( ... his book sold more copies than all of Shakespeare's books put together.)
8Rahul Banerjee, Sanjay Maharishi and 6 others
16 Comments
Krishna KanthAround that time or just before him there are many like Kabir, Bammera pothana, Kolla, tenali rama Krishna,
Krishna KanthKavi sarvabhowma Srinadha, Allasani peddana, Durjati etc ashta diggajas of Krishna Devaraya
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Aparna KrishnanAnd yet all the products of english medium schooling of my gen can recite from shaksephere with greater ease.
Krishna KanthAnd the judiciary in the latest famous 377 case had only looked for western wisdom to quote from!
Aparna KrishnanFrancois Gautier
... Here are some crowdsourced answers
1) When Shakespeare was writing, there was a Bhakti poet in India by the name Goswami Tulasidas. He wrote a book called Ramcharitmanas.
It sold more copies than all of Shakespeare's books put together. You may want to Google him
2) About a century before Shakespeare was born, there lived five great Odia poet-philosophers collectively known as the Panchasakha. They all thrived in the Jagannatha Temple of Puri and revolutionised popular belief, challenged social structures & shaped Odia culture substantially.
3) Shakespeare (~1560-1616)
His Indian contemporaries (not exhaustive):
- Surdas (~1483–1584)
- Narottam Das (1493-15?)
- Tulasidas (1532–1623)
- Raskhan (1533–1618)
- Gang (1538-1625)
- Keshav (1555–1617)
- Bihari Lal (1595–1664)
- Rahim (1556–1627)
- Vrind (1643 - 1723)
- Dadu Dayal (1544-1603)
- Banarasi Das(1586–1643)
- Nabhadas (~1580s - 1650s)
- Jayasi (1540-16?)
- Malookdas Khatri (1574-1682)
- Kumbhan Das (1468-1583)
- Narahari Mahapatra (1505-1610)
- Adho Duraso (1538-16?)
- Appaya Dikshita (1525-1598)
- Jagannatha Pandit (~1600-1674)
- Eknath (1533-1599)
- Tukaram (1568-1659)
- Govinda Dasa Kaviraj (1535–1613)
- Dvija Madhav Acharya (mid 1500s)
- Faizi (1547-1595)
- Abul Fazl (1551-1602)
- Thunchathu Ezhuthacchan (1495-1575)
- Manaveda Raja (1585–1658)
- Jagannath Das (1491-1550)
- Samarth Ramdas (1608-1681)
- Rupa Goswami (1489–1564)
- Jiva Goswami (1513 – 1598)
- Purandara Das (1484–1564)
- Sarala Dasa (1500s)
- Some of the Telugu Astadiggajulu, like Peddana and Pingali Suranna, would still be around
- Kanaka Dasa (1509 – 1609)
- Lakshmisha (mid 1500s - mid 1600s)
- Virupaksha Pandita (early to late 1600s
Ravikumar BalasubramanianAparna, your point about us quoting and knowing English authors and not ‘indian’ language authors is well taken. How many of the above authors are Tamil, the only Surviving Classical Language of India? ZERO.
My concern and fight today is this is exactly what will happen to Tamil, which is older than Sanskrit and more indigenous to India, will suffer the same fate 400 years from now, with the onslaught of Hindi.
Chitra SharanNo Tamil poets or writers???
Chitra Sharani don't know - need to research .. since someone had posted such a long list I was surprised there was no Tamil name though Telugu was there
Meena RadhakrishnanThe fact that his Indian contemporaries sold more or were more popular should not make us deride Shakespeare's genius. And yes, I can quote him
. But I can quote Bharathi too! There are so many great writers and thinkers, we don't have to put down one to make the other great.....
Krishna KanthThe point is about always quoting external references!
Do the feminists believe that women who wear sindoor, and follow traditional festivals, and say prayers before idols, and like glass bangles - that is, the large majority of the women in this land - are less intelligent than them, and need to be liberated by them.
Then that is arrogance, and certianly not progressive thinking. Imho.
23You, Kongara Gangadhara Rao, Priya Ramanathan and 20 others
15 Comments
Suraj KumarThat would be liberal feminism. Radical feminism is more centered and focused on the fact that the world we live in today is built up on a set of narratives, and thus has resulted in an actual way of life, that gives men the advantage and exploits women. I have no arguments against this.
But not that radical feminists get everything right. Maybe you should ask more pointed questions revolving around seeming gender roles present in our culture and there you can make even the radical feminists falter. Such as 'do radical feminists stand against the ritual of raksha bandhan?'. Am willing to bet not all will falter though. Those who are grounded in our culture won't.
Aparna KrishnanYes, that would be the Indian way. We have had the strongest women, as even clearly visible through our freedom struggle, who were never pressured to conform to westem standards of questioning ans western ways of being rebellious. This Raksha Bandhan there were so many standars, conventional, and routine questions raised against it by liberals - that I decided that the liberals are too conservative for me ! We own up our country with confidence, and from those rootsand understandings question what has to and stand by what has to. I would not even bother naming it Feminism. It is vaster, and of course it also questions gender discrepencies.
Suraj Kumar
Rajeev R. SinghBut in this country, the Hindu feminists do wear the sindoor, the bichiya, red tika, mangal sutra and bangles. Where did you come across feminists not wearing the above ? They also amply celebrate Holi, Dussehra , Diwali, Kali Puja and other Brahmanical festivals that 'celebrate the victory of the good over the evil' in which the main villan protagonists have always been the indigenous, dalit and adivasi people who were called rakshasas, ravanas, asurs (always dark skinned) or whatever.....
Aparna KrishnanQuestion every wrong. Stand by every strength. From a position of rootedness and belonging and owning up. Not from western or urban frameworks. That is my only submission.
Aparna KrishnanI incidentally wear glass bangles and love them. I also wear a bindi. And I only wear sarees. And I question every wrong, to the best of my understanding, whether to man, woman or child or dog.
Rajeev R. SinghThere is no such thing as western or urban framework to questioning. It's only uncomfortable questioning ....
Aparna KrishnanThere are rooted perspectives, and deracinated perspectives. Please find roots, and then you will know what I mean.
Rajeev R. Singh.... Adivasis in Jharkhand do not like kali pooja. Similarly, rural communities I am told in srilanka worship ravana ....
Rajeev R. SinghWhy are the dieties always fair and those they kill always dark? Some more western rooted questioning for you
Aparna Krishnanour south indian images in temples are of black granite. beautiful. anyway, never mind. each of us has to own up and belong to, in word and deed to some local community. and answers emerge from there. otherwise discussions get abstract and a bit of a time waste.
Rajeev R. SinghImagery on stone is same. It depends on the kind of stone available. It's red sandstone here, dholpur and kota in West and of course granite where you are. But imagery where colour differentiation is possible the differences hold sway starkly ......
Lalita MadimanKrishna/ Vishnu/ Kali/ .... depicted mostly as dark only. He is called Shyaam because of dark skin colour only. So please let us not say all Gods are depicted as fair only.
In any case God has no form or colour yet is EVERY form, colour ....anything & that is why God is Omnipresent. So it is high time all of us remember the fact of Omnipresence & not add to any sort of misconceptions. It is the artists' fancy to depict how they fancied as God is such an abstract, vast, all, tiny, everything & nothing too !
Rajeev R. SinghDark god fair 'villan'. Yet to see. Maybe there is at least one exception ......
Aparna KrishnanKrishna, Madurai Meenakshi, Kanchi Kamakshi. Just a few dark gods.
When Indian women start calling sarees ethnic wear, and make it occasion wear, #deracination is complete !
S R Suryanarayanan
But u know it's the men who started the process by giving up wearing Veshtis and Panchagachams...and by definition of "feminism", women is supposed to do everything exactly the same as men did..so we see sarees getting out of fashon too.
Mohua Lahiri
Sari is not the daily wear in many states. Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Kashmir, Mizoram, Nagaland.... the list can go on. We need to be a bit more careful about what we are dismissive of.
If you are talking about discarding traditional/ethnic/Indian wear for more convenient wear, then yes many women are giving up the sari for salwar kameez, cotton saris for synthetics (I know it is true in Bengal. May not be in Tamilnadu.) The discourse of convenience cuts across urban/rural, men/women divides. And yes, fashion influences all, some more, some less.
Aparna Krishnan
Saree is a metaphor.
Arun Kombai
Exactly! The message is not the word saree.
Rajeev R. Singh
#Deracination is an English term whose meaning is not known to even 99% english speakers of this country. Continued, stubborn and adamant use of this term when simpler expressions exist is questionable and smacks of the same motivations that are supposedly being questioned ....
Rajeev R. Singh
Sari is NOT the traditional dress in Western UP, UK too. Some traditional dresses are found to be convenient while others aren't. The traditional ones that are convenient and comfortable have not gone away at all...
Aparna Krishnan
Saree is a metaphor. And a saree is one of the most comfortable and versatile dresses. Have worn only a saree for 24 years to date.
Mahalakshmi Parthasarathy
Hmm you do not like people to choose?
Aparna Krishnan
Sure choose. But have the spine to know what that choice is called !
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