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Cultural nationalism... a sage advice
WHAT IS the fabric that constitutes India's culture? Is it static, dynamic? When India got Independence, the national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Jawaharlal Nehru and others had their own vision of national culture. For Nehru it was woven around secularism, hence, endorsing policies for multicultural society, for Gandhiji it was swdeshi, for Rabindranath Tagore it was an alternate culture of education as at Santiniketan, while Vir Savarkar conceptualised Hindutva, revising parameters of culture as `Indian'.
Do we retain one or all of these definitions of national culture? No, we do not. For, "culture is not a static entity. It is dynamic. That is why in last 20 years, India has witnessed tremendous change in national culture. It is the change of vision transferred from Aurobindo to Maulana Azad to Aligarh Muslim University movement to Kalakshetra to today's time to suit political purposes," says Geeti Sen, the art historian who raised the query recently, `where do we stand now? What is the current definition of national culture of India, or is it cultural nationalism that we are following?'
Hence, a brain storming session and a book launch on the same subject, `India: A National Culture?' is what happened at New Delhi's India International Centre this past week.
Edited by Sen, priced at Rs.850, this 306-page book published by Sage Publications India Private Limited, contains insightful articles by the likes of Singanapalli Balaram, Leela Samson, Mushirul Hasan, Ashis Nandy, Kapila Vatsyayan and many others brought together in an IIC journal earlier.
"Kashmiriyat was first associated with beautiful poetry, scenic splendours - a pure cultural experience, but now it holds a different concept altogether," said Dr. Karan Singh, who launched the book. "It is an insult to call India a developing country, be it a hegemony of Coke, Pepsi or anything else, in the globalising process, Indian villages have no place. Why today national culture is redefined to suit political purposes? Earlier culture used to be discussed, propagated, funded and spearheaded; now it has changed its definition to Hinduism. Since we do need nationhood we can't escape the definition," Jaya Jaitley seemed annoyed at fast changing definition of national culture in India.
"We still have national culture. We are reinventing ourselves with the passage of time. We withstood colonialism. People belonging to different religions have been trudging together since ages. It plays a crucial role in binding people," remarked Chandan Mitra.
So does the book.
"Culture can be refashioned, reinvented, co-opted and subverted to suit political purpose. From movies to national leaders to political giants to cricket megastars, our popular icons and hence, a national culture has seen tremendous change. Now it is time to change today's militant culture nationalism. We need a popular Indian culture once again, that can resist the vicissitudes of political agenda," says Geeti Sen.
RANA. A. SIDDIQUI
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