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The Great Indian Garden

Image from Xinature


Last year during Onam Amit Shah greeted Malayalis in the name of Vamana Jayanti. The Malayalis not only pooh-poohed him but also trolled him left and right, up and down, so much so that the BJP President was left black and blue in the social media. Wishing the Malayali Happy Vamana Jayanti on the occasion of Onam is like asking the Bengali to celebrate the Durga Puja as the martyrdom of Mahishasura. There are people in India who worship Ravana as a divine entity. Imagine telling that to the North Indian who burns the effigy of the ten-headed villain during Dussehra.

In short, India is a country with an infinite variety of festivals as well as cultures. Hinduism is not at all a monolithic religion. The gods worshipped in one part of the country may be demons in another and vice-versa. That is the fantastic diversity that India is even within the single religion of Hinduism, let alone the diversity contributed by other religions such as Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and so on.

Culturally too, India has a similar diversity. Culturally, there is very little in common between the beef-eating Malayali and cow-worshipping North Indian. The differences are not confined to the bovine milieu alone. Most of the festivals of the North don’t ring a bell in Kerala and vice-versa. 

The North-east is similarly quite a different world compared to the rest of India. The people there may play the political games much like their counterparts elsewhere in the country and vote even BJP (a party that is totally alien to the cultures in North-east) to power, but when it comes to celebrations they will sway to western rock and pop music as much as to their indigenous, seductive rhythms.  Most of the festivals of the rest of the country don’t mean anything in that domain.

India is a potpourri of diverse cultures, languages and ways of living. Trying to homogenise it under the bulldozer of Hindutva is not only reckless but also would be (if at all the attempt succeeds) a tragic decimation of amazing variety.

Why would anyone want to decimate variety from a garden, for example? Why would anyone want to have just one kind of people everywhere? I for one can’t comprehend that. I would love my garden to have roses and marigolds, daisies and pansies, and a whole lot of vibrating colours and fragrances. I admire the rich variety of cultures in my country. I find that variety fascinating, scintillating, breath-taking.  Let no one pulverise that beauty into a monotonous monochrome monolith.

PS. Written for In(di)spire Edition 222: #culturaldiversity
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Comments

  1. NonaMay 18, 2018 at 2:34 PM

    I like your perspective and also argument.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 18, 2018 at 6:15 PM

      Love to hear that. Many people won't say that aloud for fear of certain powers that have risen too high in the country today.

      Delete
  2. pushpendra dwivediMay 18, 2018 at 6:31 PM

    interesting thoughtful post sharing

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pradeep NairMay 18, 2018 at 7:26 PM

    So true. For me, religion and anything associated with it, is way down in my priority list. I am actually blissfully ignorant about many things religious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 18, 2018 at 7:52 PM

      Blissful ignorance is good in this one area, at least. Most secular people I know are far better human beings than religious people.

      Delete
  4. Jyotirmoy SarkarMay 19, 2018 at 9:01 AM

    Very logical view points.

    ReplyDelete
  5. yatrasblogMay 19, 2018 at 7:18 PM

    Beautiful

    ReplyDelete

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