On Monday 24 Nov 2008 12:22:33 pm Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: > Or perhaps materialism is like the fire > water that destroyed the (other) Indians.
A good friend of mine, who happens to be Udhay's cousin made a statement that I had not heard before when I met him a few days ago. He lamented that "Development and status in the world is measured in terms of consumption" The more you consume, the more developed you are considered to be, or the higher your status in society. The irony in this statement did not really hit me till a couple of nights ago when I was helping my son study a chapter in his 10th std Social Studies textbook. The book has chapters on the economy, industry, trade, commerce etc and quotes statistics. in every case those statistics are compared with similar stats from a "more developed" nation with the take home lesson being "This is the way to go". My son and his peers - all of 15 years of age is being taught this and he will belong to a generation that seeks to increase Indian steel consumption from x tons per capita to 25x tons per capita, and to increase India's energy consumption from y million kwh to 100y million kwh. The world will not be able to sustain this unless india actually intimidates and grabs resources from others. This is, of course what the West really did, but the West is greatly admired in these parts. The virtues of not being overly materialistic, and overly greedy are both actively taught in Brahminical Hinduism and actively practised by many including some in my own family and among my ancestors. It is not at all clear to me that such things are actively taught as part of family culture among non Brahmins in India. Perhaps it is, but I suspect that it is not - especially in the classes/castes of Indians who are leading India into capitalism with the confidence of centuries of inbred business skills - a trait that is absent among Brahmins but abundant among vysyas - who state this fact openly. India is going to be a brash, grabbing power. Just my view. shiv
