10-01-2006, 02:19 AM
Just got some time to go through some more posts.
Once again have to admit that I am not really qualified to think in this area but I have seen a similar trend happen to Navratris in Gujarat. Extreme commercialization. Extreme sexualization. So much so that the abortion rates perhaps quadruple in aftermath of Navratri. Pls dont ask me for numbers. This is just hearsay. Which is fine perhaps. or perhaps not. I dont know as I said I am not qualified. What I do know is that a society draws some lines. Those lines get redrawn every few years or so. Movies like Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehnaa perhaps rewrite them or perhaps those TV serials in late eighties/early nineties (forget the name) did. Or maybe saas-bhi-kabhee-bahu-thee do. I dont know.
What I do know, having lived extensively both in India and the US that some of the decisions to redraw lines are made arbitrarily based on power-equations in the geopolitical world. In other words, if these lines are being redrawn just considering what is bad about hinduism then that is not a whole lot useful.
What is sorely lacking is what Rajiv Malhotra calls 'Purva Paksha' of the other. The Indian society has been studying the west in terms of how the west describes itself and not on its own terms. And what is worse is that the Indian society studies ITSELF ON THE WEST'S TERMS. And NOT on its own terms. <b>This absolutely has to change !!</b>
Once again have to admit that I am not really qualified to think in this area but I have seen a similar trend happen to Navratris in Gujarat. Extreme commercialization. Extreme sexualization. So much so that the abortion rates perhaps quadruple in aftermath of Navratri. Pls dont ask me for numbers. This is just hearsay. Which is fine perhaps. or perhaps not. I dont know as I said I am not qualified. What I do know is that a society draws some lines. Those lines get redrawn every few years or so. Movies like Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehnaa perhaps rewrite them or perhaps those TV serials in late eighties/early nineties (forget the name) did. Or maybe saas-bhi-kabhee-bahu-thee do. I dont know.
What I do know, having lived extensively both in India and the US that some of the decisions to redraw lines are made arbitrarily based on power-equations in the geopolitical world. In other words, if these lines are being redrawn just considering what is bad about hinduism then that is not a whole lot useful.
What is sorely lacking is what Rajiv Malhotra calls 'Purva Paksha' of the other. The Indian society has been studying the west in terms of how the west describes itself and not on its own terms. And what is worse is that the Indian society studies ITSELF ON THE WEST'S TERMS. And NOT on its own terms. <b>This absolutely has to change !!</b>