India created cultural illiteracy in the name of modernity YOGENDRA YADAV 23 February, 2022 https://theprint.in/opinion/india-created-cultural-illiteracy-in-the-name-of-modernity/843956/ We are okay with Fabindia clothing. But an encounter with popular culture anywhere outside a museum makes us squeamish.
the current rise of aggressive cultural assertion that passes off as Hindutva is a reaction to this cultural vacuum in modern India. Like most reactions, it is a mirror image of what it opposes. These proponents of Indian culture and traditions are often as ignorant as their opponents. They too seek modern Western approbation and invoke pseudo-science for anything they uphold in the Indian culture. Worse, they use it to put a gloss over some of the worst forms of caste oppression and patriarchy, not to mention hate-mongering against people of other faiths. Mercifully ridiculous when not out-and-out obnoxious, these defenders of our tradition do more damage to our civilizational heritage than the critics.
Is there a third way?
Can we connect with our cultural heritage in a relaxed manner, without awkwardness or embarrassment, without being patronising or aggressive? To my mind, this is the way forward, not just to take on the monstrosity called Hindu nationalism, but also to move towards true swaraj. If K.C. Bhattacharya’s Swaraj in Ideas was a philosophic manifesto for this third position, Ram Manohar Lohia turned this into a political position. Ashis Nandy offered robust social scientific grounds for this cultural critique of the modernist hubris. I like to place Devdutt Pattanaik’s rendering of Hindu mythology, T.M. Krishna’s or Singh’s soulful spiritual singing, Anupam Mishra’s excavations of pre-modern systems of water in this much needed third way of relating to our cultural heritage. Sadly, just when we were getting ready for this deeper, alternative and rooted modernity, we were taken over by a shallow, copycat and chauvinist response in the name of cultural nationalism.