On Monday 09 Mar 2009 10:27:46 pm Radhika, Y. wrote: > Pakistan likes to > present itself as far more homogenous than it actually is and that it's > ideology of being a Muslim nation is not as exclusive as it would like us > to believe.
Absolutely. Pakistani leaders have tried to artificially unify the country using a cooked up uniform "culture of Islam" while trying to suppress any "Indian culture". One way to figure out "Indian culture" is to try and see what Pakistan is attempting to remove from Pakistanis. Having said that, the last time I tried to point out something about Pakistan I was asked if I had travelled to Pakistan as a pre requisite for obtaining the licence to comment knowledgably on the subject. Where's the rolleyes icon? I believe this is another hallmark of indian culture -i.e. the demand that one must question and correct oneself and one's own attitudes before passing any critical comments about anyone else. The 3 monkeys tendency "Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil" flows as a fundamental stream in Indian psyche - and are present as much in the Ram Sene goon as in the tank-top wearing girl or beer swilling man they bash up. On Monday 09 Mar 2009 9:41:57 pm Radhika, Y. wrote: > the question of what is indian culture i interpret as asking what do we as > a society cultivate? I tried to approach this question from the opposite direction and as "What is wrong?" and came up with controversial thoughts that have bugged me on and off because I have no clear answer. I have often looked at Western society's problems and asked "What has not been done right? The "problems" that seem to plague Western societies include high divorce rates and single mothers - which both indicate a break up of the nuclear family. This is accompanied by psychological stresses on children from broken families - or even a missing father/mother. Add decreasing fertility and falling birth rates and it all seems to point towards societies that are commiting suicide, But if you look at this from a different viewpoint, you find reasons for all this: 1) High divorce rates: Indian society has kept women forcibly bonded in married and if you allow women more freedom to live as they want - divorce rates will inevitably rise as they break free from the shackles of wedlock. We need to learn from Western society. 2) Broken nuclear families: This is a direct consequence of breaking marriages and sidelining the (artificial, male dominated?) "sacntity if marriage". The fact that children might suffer as a consequence is something society will have to learn to cope with. 3) Decreasing fertility and falling birth rates: The pursuit of personal freedom, choice and prosperity for both men and women demands fewer children. A decrease in fertility is a consequence of that. If populations become smaller so what? Here is the controversial and troubling thought - I would appreciate inputs on this: If you read between the lines above it is easy to conclude that the problems of Western society can be directly linked to more freedom for women. This is the conclusion that is being reached in Hindu circles. And if you look at Islam, these conclusioon have been arrived at ages ago. Questions that occur to me are: 1) Can nuclear families and marriages be protected while still ensuring that women have freedom to choose? Can female freedom be exactly the same as male freedom? 2) Does a child have a right to have a mother AND father? Whose freedom is being protected by retaining nuclear families? Whose freedom is being protected when familes break up? Whose freedom is protected by sanctifying marriage and monogamy? Whose freedom is protected by allowing easy dissolution of marriage? shiv
