10-01-2006, 12:24 AM
Ravish, What's your fixation with who eats what? Was meat served on temple premises? If not, I fail to see your point.
On to those kids singing non-Hindi/non-Bengali songs, if you have not personally trained a single kid in sing in Bengali/Hindi you should hardly complain. Kids I know, and living in India are as much comfortable in singing latest Brittany Spears song as they are with say Jai Jagadeesha Hare. And they have more sense than most educated elites around to be boxed into Indic/Western binary choices based on food/singing habits.
Rather than some anecdotal evidence, why not post some facts and figures around here. If you want anecdotal evidence I too can provide some - I know a lot of people who went to convent since they didn't have much choice back then. But today they have kids in schools which have Hindu sounding names. Care to list out the number of accredited <i>non convent</i> schools that have mushroomed in past 10 years or so? I don't have numbers, but in suburbs of metro I'm familiar with, it's pretty huge. Even the dorkiest self-labeled secular journalist (who happens to be Christian) there sends his kids to Arya Samaj school - go figure.
You mentioned elsewhere about girls wearing jeans as another concern. Girls might wear jeans but many are as much comfortable wearing other Indian dress and haven't yet rejected it. I've yet to see a Hindu wedding where a girl has worn anything other than traditional Indian dress. I have also had a distinct pleasure of seeing a western dressed girl transform instantaneously into the avataar of combined Kali and Durga when her own faith was questioned by some missionaries peddling their literature. Poor chaps learnt fast to not judge a girl by her dress.
If we have to discuss the trends pertaining to lack of Hindu revivalisim, let's get some numbers - has hundi collection reduced? What about the number of people who frequent temple? How often? Hindu Holiday count? Numbers in regards to say shuddi movement? States with number of forcible anti-conversion laws; and did these laws come about in vaccum? How about list of non-Indian multi-national companies holding Satyanarayan puja in their Indian division?
The economic change will bring about changes in the nations - the world is just getting flatter, no turning back there. In fact a recent issue of US News had a cover story on how yuppie generation of India and China will dictate the world shopping/buying habits.
Malls and casinos might not teach Hinduism but aren't they better if it employs couple thousand Indians and rake some profits? Which is what their shareholders expect it to do. If shareholders wanted Hinduism being taught, they'd have invested in schools or colleges - not that they are not doing so, infact lot of business house have even put millions in local Vedic schools, another positive trend.
The points you raise are similar to a friend who asked me a while back as to why should one support a whisky drinking Vajapayee than a foreigner who has adopted sari, sattvic food and hindu style Bindi etc? Needless to say, going by the govt. record of these past 3 years, this charming lady who's adopted Indian sari/bindi/sattvic food hasn't proved my initial stand wrong.
Attributing some cosmetic short-term (compared to age of Hinduism) materialistic changes to declining faith is just plain bogus. Recent global events and issues show that Hinduism is the best at adapting and adjusting to changing times when compared to Abhramic religions.
Religion has multiple dimensions - the three I can think of would be : spiritual, political and personal. It's every easy to take a point from one and argue about other two. Could be theoretically correct, but has little pragmatic value and hardly proves the point in real world.
Bodhi:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Thomas Macaulay must be smiling in his grave.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Look how many of us have turned out desipte Macualay-Marxists-Missionary influenced education? Macaulay is on his last turn. His gig is up and don't expect next generation to accept many of the things at it's face value when we might have in our schooling days.
On to those kids singing non-Hindi/non-Bengali songs, if you have not personally trained a single kid in sing in Bengali/Hindi you should hardly complain. Kids I know, and living in India are as much comfortable in singing latest Brittany Spears song as they are with say Jai Jagadeesha Hare. And they have more sense than most educated elites around to be boxed into Indic/Western binary choices based on food/singing habits.
Rather than some anecdotal evidence, why not post some facts and figures around here. If you want anecdotal evidence I too can provide some - I know a lot of people who went to convent since they didn't have much choice back then. But today they have kids in schools which have Hindu sounding names. Care to list out the number of accredited <i>non convent</i> schools that have mushroomed in past 10 years or so? I don't have numbers, but in suburbs of metro I'm familiar with, it's pretty huge. Even the dorkiest self-labeled secular journalist (who happens to be Christian) there sends his kids to Arya Samaj school - go figure.
You mentioned elsewhere about girls wearing jeans as another concern. Girls might wear jeans but many are as much comfortable wearing other Indian dress and haven't yet rejected it. I've yet to see a Hindu wedding where a girl has worn anything other than traditional Indian dress. I have also had a distinct pleasure of seeing a western dressed girl transform instantaneously into the avataar of combined Kali and Durga when her own faith was questioned by some missionaries peddling their literature. Poor chaps learnt fast to not judge a girl by her dress.
If we have to discuss the trends pertaining to lack of Hindu revivalisim, let's get some numbers - has hundi collection reduced? What about the number of people who frequent temple? How often? Hindu Holiday count? Numbers in regards to say shuddi movement? States with number of forcible anti-conversion laws; and did these laws come about in vaccum? How about list of non-Indian multi-national companies holding Satyanarayan puja in their Indian division?
The economic change will bring about changes in the nations - the world is just getting flatter, no turning back there. In fact a recent issue of US News had a cover story on how yuppie generation of India and China will dictate the world shopping/buying habits.
Malls and casinos might not teach Hinduism but aren't they better if it employs couple thousand Indians and rake some profits? Which is what their shareholders expect it to do. If shareholders wanted Hinduism being taught, they'd have invested in schools or colleges - not that they are not doing so, infact lot of business house have even put millions in local Vedic schools, another positive trend.
The points you raise are similar to a friend who asked me a while back as to why should one support a whisky drinking Vajapayee than a foreigner who has adopted sari, sattvic food and hindu style Bindi etc? Needless to say, going by the govt. record of these past 3 years, this charming lady who's adopted Indian sari/bindi/sattvic food hasn't proved my initial stand wrong.
Attributing some cosmetic short-term (compared to age of Hinduism) materialistic changes to declining faith is just plain bogus. Recent global events and issues show that Hinduism is the best at adapting and adjusting to changing times when compared to Abhramic religions.
Religion has multiple dimensions - the three I can think of would be : spiritual, political and personal. It's every easy to take a point from one and argue about other two. Could be theoretically correct, but has little pragmatic value and hardly proves the point in real world.
Bodhi:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Thomas Macaulay must be smiling in his grave.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Look how many of us have turned out desipte Macualay-Marxists-Missionary influenced education? Macaulay is on his last turn. His gig is up and don't expect next generation to accept many of the things at it's face value when we might have in our schooling days.