What really is Indian culture? – by Shobha Narayan

Excerpts:

I need what Ruth Benedict called “patterns of culture”, a set of qualities—aesthetics, values and common personality traits—that make up Indian society’s gestalt.

More and more, it seems, we urban Indians are refusing to be bound by a common culture. We live and let live, you and I—fellow travellers through the concrete jungles and shifting ideas of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. We can’t agree on whether we will call our cities Mumbai or Bombay; Chennai or Madras. We are gypsies, refusing to affiliate ourselves to traditional notions of caste, religion and routine. We mix rock ‘n’ roll with rajma-chaawal; tuxedo with temple. The twin angels of convenience and impulse effectively submerge the seeming contradictions in our lives.

I dislike using the word “should”, but I’ll make an exception in this case because I care so deeply about this idea. I think we should have a cultural identity. Not in a prescriptive sense but in a reflective sense. By that I mean that no one—not Muthalik, not me—should prescribe what Indian culture is, but that somebody, some coalition, needs to dig deep and find out what is reflected in our Indian culture.

We need to have a cultural blueprint to work with; one that we all agree upon, at least in principle if not practice. Until then, we are doomed to debate on their terms, not ours.