You cannot define "Indian culture" without defining the Hindu. However defining the Hindu is not that easy.
The term "Hindu" is a result of linguistic fractal recursivity in which some people came to India and said "Hey you are all hindus" to a people who had no clue that they needed to (or could possibly) define themselves as one group. The latter group then took up this name with gusto and started saying "Hey-OK - we are Hindu" Fractal recursivity seems to be a very important phenomenon in which Hindus have anointed themselevs with a narrow set of definitions and charactersitics that were originally third party observations of "Hindu" behavior - (sometimes of niche behavior) by someone or the other. The Hindu of Bangalore will balk at the idea of the Hindu of Mizoram eating beef - the former having convinced himself that a fixed set of definitions constitutes "Hindu". When my classmate Vani Guha (sister of Ram Guha) joined college a senior of mine from Tamil Nadu (now settled in the US) asked "Is Vani Guha Hindu". The answer, from an Andhra-ite was, "No. I think she is Bengali" (which she is not) Whatever Hindutvadis claim was "original Hindu behavior' they find it dificult to admit that Islam had a great influence on Hindu behavior. It is also true that "Hindu" behavior affected Islam. This hybrid culture later absorbed western traits from Macaulayization. Indian culture is a hybrid of many cultures that have come down through the ages - but only Suketu Mehta describes it well. India has the ability to swallow something and puke it out in a manner that reembles nothing else on earth. Then came partition - which has had a deep effect on Indian psyche. at partiction the Pakistan idea gelled into "That which is islamic, with nothing Hindu in it". As a tit for tat reaction Hindus in India clubbed all Muslims as "Those who are Islamic with nothing Hindu in them" This has set the stage for modern Hindutvadis who are trying to remove "Islamic influences" and all British "Western" influences from indian society. Thse people are actually doing bullsh1t because they do not understand how deep both Islamic and Western influences run in Indian behavior. Removing those influences is not possible - for reasons that I intend to write about in due course. I have a standard method of getting Hindutvadis really mad - usually by saying that I have decided to convert and that all the behavior that they don't like is part of my new culture. While I sympathise with what I describe as a "loss of Hindu narrative" - I have little patience for GIGO. Make your vote count. Now more so than ever. shiv
