A Definition of Indian Culture
‘Indian culture’ is a set of beliefs, rules and practices that are invented and enforced by:
- those who have the power (through thugs, fanatics, police) to do so
- those who can make enough noise about it
I constructed this definition a few days ago and I’m looking to word it better so help me out.
People who disagree with the definition are also welcome to comment with their objections provided they don’t mention the words ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’ anywhere.
Category: Society
May 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I just hate when people judge anybody with their dressing.
But i used to say unless and until you get to know the person well by talking you can’t even find to .1% what kinda person is he/she.
Horrible thing i heard from my friend in 12th std, that if a gal puts her plaited hair towards left side in front it means she is of very bad character. what the hell?
Culture is set of rules forced to be followed by us even if we aren’t interested.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Dude, shut up. India is the best culture in the world. All the answers are in the Vedas. We are not depraved like other countries.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
George, Yeah yeah, we have all those Vedas and stuff, but who is following it. Everyone says Indian culture is so good , this, that!!! It was,sadly its not now.
There foundation for our ethos is really good, but there is no building erected on it. And so we are cursed for now
May 5th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
George was kidding.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Indian Culture - Often used by politicians to justify any nonsensical rule they are trying to implement.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Indian Culture: A term that fascinates foreigners more than it does us, Indians so much so that they come to India and get molested.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
By people like you?
May 5th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
It still is. Just because unpatriotic people like you do not care for the country doesn’t mean it isn’t great.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
@ Adithya
What the hell? I’m not the one who harasses women on the road. You and Marc started rapping the car window when you both saw a woman waiting in her scooter right next to the window at a traffic signal. And Ragha tried to kill her!
May 5th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Guys guys, wtf?! Seriously? Bloody engineering students, show some restraint!
May 5th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Well, I was thinking of making a post of this moral policing and virtual Indian Culture struff, but you seem to be having more time than me, Marc!
May 6th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Arun, that was a random victim. It could just as easily have been a man. Don’t make me start the Japanese aunty stories. I like your definition though.
Praveen, you hardly ever update.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:25 am
@Arun
What? When did that happen? Even if it did happen we are not desperate like you. Don’t make me start stories about you and Ashwin!
May 6th, 2008 at 6:08 am
[...] of dead bodies and we can have our real life game of Manhunt!), Romance/Love - it is against our culture(did you know?). You should also ban songs from movies. The idea of stars dancing in exotic [...]
May 6th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Marc, I know, i know
George, I think this much of comedy would do for now
May 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
@All : I don’t know why you people are standing against our Indian culture….. K i want you people to tell me a concrete reason/answer for this question
“I hate Indian culture, because of_________?”.
Then we will come to an debate..
Am waiting for the answers….
Note : Please don’t try to make fun of it!!!!!!
May 6th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
“I hate Indian culture, because of Selerines( you )?” oh no, am making fun of you, sorry yaaaaar
i don’t think so anybody would hate the culture. You can just put the question the other way like
” I don’t prefer Indian culture much, coz…………?
May 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
There is no “Indian” culture. It’s a mash up of many foreign cultures.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I would like my definition improved in this post.
You can use my next post instead. Go here: Who Defines Indian Culture?
May 6th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
@ Adithya
I am desperate to harass women? All women, did you hear that?
@ Marc
I dare you do that to a man instead. Random victim or not, you harassed an innocent women on two wheeler. And Japanese Auntie stories are figment of Ragha’s imagination.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Arun, she didn’t even notice. Imagination or not, it is still devastating to you.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Vinny, all cultures are a mashup of foreign cultures. But that’s not the point. Marc is talking about the term ‘Indian culture’ as thrown about by people with some repressive agenda not culture as in art, music and literature.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
@George
You seem to be the only person with self-respect. I respect you for that.
@All above me, especially Gowtham, Adithya
‘Indian culture’ is all the beauty of India. The art, the dance, the music. That defines India! That is what people from all over the world come for!
Go get some self respect guys! And please do have some restraint as George says! Respect your motherland!
@Marc
I agree the policing and defining what you should do is wrong.
Do not use the term “Indian Culture” for this! Its very very incorrect of you to do so. And please don’t give the excuse that moral police do it. Just because they eat shit, you needn’t eat shit as well.
If you are not interested in Indian culture, be so, but don’t abuse the term.
I can also abuse equally. Lets keep this fair. You don’t abuse our Indian culture, and stop this discussion here
May 7th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
@ Marc
How is it devastating to me? I don’t do harassing her!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Its Indian culture. If we don’t like it then its better if we keep quiet. We can’t change it anyway. So why talk about it???
May 8th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Thanks Arun,
I agree, don’t let the vocal minority piss you off, guys. There’s a lot to the country.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
@Arun
Good luck with that. You did successfully once. First day of college. I remember that incident.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Arun M,
Respect does not come automatically. It has to be earned. We are not talking about the arts. We are talking about the practices, customs and rules that are always in the limelight. We don’t have any other term for this.
So we will carry on our discussion and not listen to a small minority telling us what to do.
Vinod, the people who do not want to talk about it are the ones who do not care about it and support the ridiculousness of it all.
George, that is what we are talking about. A small minority taking over things. Instead of admitting the problem you want to keep on living this lie.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Well I don’t care about and I never want to talk about it in my life. I hate the stupid culture of every country. Why there should be any culture? We are all human beings and we all are equal. Thats what I think. Its my opinion.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Ha ha, the small minority is just a talky bunch in South India. They don’t do anything to people like you and me. Chumma, just for scene, you know. Honest dude, give it a shot. No one cares. Except for teenagers high on hormones, they stare at everything.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
@George
Yeah! A Handful of loudmouths! Nothing more to it! They do it just for being in the limelight.
@Vinod
Dude.. you are born to live, not to exist!
Culture is a result of people being creative and to expressing their feelings. Every country does that in its own way. Thats what makes things beautiful da!
Now, don’t tell me you are a mechanical robot which doesn’t even listen to music. :p
May 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Sure dude. M.F. Husain expressed his creativity and see what happened to him.
Dude.. you are born to live, not to exist!
Punch dialogue. Meaningless empty sentence.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
He is 91 or something but still draws nude women. You should see the perfect anatomy, angles and curves. Marvelous!
May 11th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Live, don’t exist. Common line. I think the meaning is obvious. And relevant when referring to a question like “Why should there be any culture?”
May 11th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
@ Arun M
I think all problems are occurring because of the stupid culture. Just why is culture needed?
Dude.. you are born to live, not to exist!
I know that.
And
Culture is a result of people being creative and to expressing their feelings.
Creative?? LOL
Do you love your culture a lot?
May 11th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Wow, there’s a good reason us Maths people use an unambiguous language.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
How do you say “My name is George” in Math? It isn’t a language.
‘Live, don’t exist’ is meaningless too unless you explain it fully. How would you like me to say “Don’t be like that. Be cool!”? It sounds nice but what the hell does it mean?
Like Vinod said, the excessive importance given to some people’s idea of culture is the problem. It should come naturally to people and not be forced on them.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Missed my point, sir.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
You didn’t have a point, which was my point.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
The question of whether or not Mathematics is a language is a big philosophical argument, and it’s orthogonal to this discussion. Anyway, my point was that there is considerable ambiguity in the phrase Indian Culture.
There are two meanings to the word ‘culture’. While you and others have argued against the moral systems that are part of what a person would consider ‘culture’, those defending it speak of art, literature and science. Those calling for a repressive society attempt to use the (admittedly interesting) art, science and literature to reinforce certain contrived moral systems that are not actually part of India’s culture, historically.
This nonsense is very obvious to most sensible people, but not to society’s discontents who are looking for a reason to fight at those, like you and me, who have had a good life. This may be for whatever reason, but I think it is simply that they blame us, unable to see that the very people stirring them up are the only people that are well-off that are keeping them down.
Global surveys have revealed that religiosity is closely correlated with lack of economic prosperity. We know that religious people are more likely to be tribal/cult-like. Therefore, so long as there are poor people, there will be such an audience for this crap. Anyway, I digress.
To return to my point, while railing against ‘Indian Culture’, by using their terminology, you put yourself in that much harder of a situation. It isn’t ‘Indian Culture’ you are fighting, it is the opportunism of those who seek power, favour, or a few minutes on TV.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Regardless, it is packaged and fed to people as ‘Indian culture’ and most of us understand what we are talking about by now. We’re really talking about morality and tolerance and all that of course.
I have pointed out that art which doesn’t conform is not tolerated either (see M.F. Husain example) so we can include that too.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Indeed, but by accepting that terminology you legitimise it, you accept that it is actually ‘culture’. I’m arguing that it is not. Do me a favour man, we’re on the same side.
Yeah, but it isn’t an artistic objection, it’s a moral objection. They believe nude pictures are amoral, a ridiculous idea. It isn’t about the art conforming to Indian styles of painting, many of which depict people in the nude.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
If we said we were talking about morality then some bugger would pop in and say it is Indian culture. So best start off with what the discussion would lead to anyway and make the distinction later.
What exactly is an artistic objection? I’m curious.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Well, if I was putting up a gallery of paintings like Monet’s Water Lilies or Branch of the Seine near Giverny, and you suggested that I should place a soviet era promotional poster (you know, like the ones that line the ruins of Chernobyl, or the the subways of Calcutta
) next to that, then I would raise an objection because that would mean your sense of aesthetics is broken in horrible ways.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
But there would be some people who would still like it. There is no such thing as an artistic objection. You cannot judge art.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Who cares if you like it? That’s not the point. Those paintings are of a different style, whether or not you like it.
And ha ha, nobody, sir, would like it. If you only knew how far apart the two are. And you cannot judge art? Cute statement, but unfortunately untrue.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:32 am
How can you be sure nobody would like it? That is generalisation. So now you’re saying you can judge art. I will hold you to that.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:44 am
What can I say, if you put the three beside each other nobody would like it. Not in the same way. It’s just like that. It’s pat-on-the-head cute to believe that all things are beautiful in their own way, but that’s simply not true.