Perception Of Culture
I remember talking to a classmate once who was
rather pleased with the college we attended because "at least people learn
to dress well". I said, aren't we here to learn how to think? That was
taken for granted by most people, or pushed into the background and not noticed
often. Looking smart became a priority, often, and it showed. Our class was a
little different though - we had to work harder than the rest or face
questioning, standing up. I wonder how many of our classmates benefited from
that.
I am sometimes reminded of that dialogue when
people talk about things they have not thought about, or taken the superficial
meanings for granted.
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One neighbour, Sh, a young girl, asked about
why another neighbour did not wear "Indian traditional clothes",
while she was dressed in what is known as Panjaabie (Punjabi) suit or salwar
kameez. She had little idea of where the dress she wore originated and how
recent it was that it was not a tradition but a very new fashion, and it got
the nomenclature due to the very fashionable (and advanced in many other ways
too then) province of Panjaab (Punjab) adopting that dress so quickly - but
when it comes to ceremonial and especially bridal dress, lehengaa-cholie it is,
often, even now. That was the older, more likely the traditional, dress - and
makes sense too, since the neighbouring province of Raajasthaan (Rajasthan)
uses it now as it did of old - and neighbours are usually not so starkly different.
Lehengaa (by various different names) is in fact very traditional in many more
parts of India, and it is no surprise that it was the old traditional dress of
Panjaab a century ago.
Sh did not get all this in answer that day -
answers do not come so easily when question comes with ill will, and it was
often so with her. But it should have been obvious to her elders sitting close,
and they too had forgotten in the fun of trashing a neighbour. They should have
known how much they differ from their elders, how much their parents did from
theirs, and so on. Without specific mention of details, much of even saree
wearing today is evolved since the last century absorbing various parts of
European attire, and in old or rural or poor women sometimes one sees the
original two piece attire of saree that was really Indian - today it is more
like four piece, and more if one counts footwear.
It couldn't have been so long ago that
trousers were not the default male attire in India, either, even in urban
areas. Dhotie was the more common rule. Traditional rich people had other
attractive wear to go with - some with silks, some with another tradition, that
of sherwaanie, and so on. Few went with European wear, and few could afford the
foreign fashion - and those who did attracted quite as much attention,
admiration as resentment, in equal measure, I suspect.
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As did those who went with "foreign
education", taken so much for granted today children often don't know
relevant and important things of ours. On a frivolous program a youth in road
did not know who Bhieschma Pitaamaha was. That shocked me. This is only a
decade or so after the telecast of the hugely popular serial, even if that
young person was brought up by parents too busy to supplement the school
education, and even if the grandparents were unable to do it either for some
reason.
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I don't know how many people have seen, or
even heard of, various parts of our cultural tradition that really is not
yesterday's fashion; and how many would be willing to stick to it in name of
cultural or national pride. Who would like to see their sons and daughters
dress in manner of the attire one can see in old temple architecture on various
statues, or paintings of Ajanta? Or for that matter Arabian Nights or even
Greek or Roman attire of the days of Alexander or Caesar?
It is one thing to see an actor acting it -
quite another to continue it today. Most people flow with time, and with tide
of peers. When they say tradition or culture, they mean yesterday's fashion,
often.
Glass was an expensive novelty not too long
ago - certainly no one could claim anyone in Raamaayana was wearing glass
bangles? And today it is claimed as a tradition, while it was not so common
even a hundred years ago, two at the most. Today people use mobile (cell)
phones a few hours a day, keeping in touch with those far away (and endangering
those in proximity) - once not so long ago it was mail that was a dependable
new set-up, and telegraphs were set to revolutionise the world. Do children
today know what telegrams are?
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What would general opinion be about what
really is our culture?
Most likely it would be easier to find
opinions on what it is not. Drinking, exposing, most people would say it is
not. There would be a good deal much along these lines too - and it can easily
be seen as exactly what some people do in the mistaken idea that it is what it
amounts to, to be modern or westernised to have a "lifestyle".
Respect for elders, is what most people would
agree about - it is an integral part of our culture, no doubt - and yet it is
unlikely today that elders get respected qua elders, unless they qualify for
some other invisible criteria. Often young and old alike have an understanding
about this, perhaps based on this criteria - or perhaps it is only a matter of
flowing with peers, again. You look as if you have dressed modern in your time
and you get treated as a indeterminate age youngster, while one who looks like
there was no option to old fashioned dress or traditional life can get away
with a good deal of leeway and yet get the elderly respect treatment.
But people of every culture do get older, and
where does it say in our tradition that elders of other cultures or traditions
are not accorded respect, I wonder - since a non-traditional dress is merely
that of another culture, often - or is it a matter of convenient
discrimination?
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Food, similarly, excites emotions not quite
justified - we often get asked what we eat, since we are perceived as non
traditional and frequently have been looked at askance - but few foods have
been so newly invented as to justify suspicion, and mostly it is matter of
either of one tradition or another, and often the differences are cosmetic or
superficial.
It is a sensation and one that gets
disapproval when it is disclosed we have been eating rajmaa (red kidney beans)
rather than toor daal - but the latter every single day for life is not better
than the former, and it gets little publicity that we do rotate our daals.
Sandwiches or pizzas are disapproved not for health reasons - we do use brown
or black bread - but for lack of conformity, and we are asked why we don't like
dosa (says who?); it is forgotten that pizza, for what good or not so much that
it is worth is not that different from the northern paraathaa, and the
differences are really superficial. Salads are not that different from
koshimbier of my origin - only more extensive in concept, and perhaps less
evolved in recipes or in cuisine as a whole; than again they have scope to
evolve.
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Much good (or opposite) can be done in name of
tradition and culture - some teach music and dance to children as a matter of a
proud culture and some others shun any such idea precisely in the name of
culture, a few hundred miles separating them sometimes - and then again, often
in today's age of jobs taking people to settle away from roots, often not so
much distance either.
Perhaps it is better not to mention those
traditions that have been uprooted with great effort, but that they did exist
and were followed and identified with the name of our culture is undeniable, at
any rate.
See Phaniammaa.
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