On Tue, 2014-03-04 at 11:00 +0530, Kiran K Karthikeyan wrote:
> Don't agree with this observation by the Kerala HC, but the article
> below[1] posted by Madhu yesterday on Facebook demonstrates how
> ingrained
> playing as a team is in India.
>From a Hindu (also Jain and Sikh) viewpoint, "team play" is the basis of
Dharma which roughly corresponds to "duties of man".
Literally, "Dharma" is derived from the Sanskrit root "dhru" - which
means "to retain or preserve" and Dharma is what preserves and binds
society together. So it is teamwork by definition.
When you look at it this way, you can see how rulings that go against
what is called "Dharma" are considered as assaults on societies that
accept Dharma as their way of life. In any case Dharma, seen as "duty to
family and society" is essentially secular in concept and is practiced
by Indian Muslims and Christians as well. In his book about Mumbai,
("Maximum City") Suketu Mehta interviews and quotes a professional
assassin - a Muslim working for the Chota Shakeel gang (I think) who
performed his daily prayers without fail even as he bumped off people
because that was his "Dharm" which he had to fulfil. The same man also
verbalized the sound of a bullet tearing through human flesh - I can't
recall the exact thing but it was described in the book as something
like "phrrrrp". Charming stuff.
This "team play" is why Indian American parents pay for their children's
education, and get their parents over to the US to live out their last
days under their care in a repeat of what was done by their parents,
echoing what happens in millions of Indian families, including my own.
shiv
