Thoughts on Indian values and its roots from a Non-Indian | #DailyBlink53
Today I want you to read something that I feel is the best read of the day.
Here it starts:
Had a long conversation with a friend from US over Facebook chat. By the end of the chat, I realized how fortunate we Indians are, for having been born in this sacred land.
Following is a summary of what he basically conveyed during the conversation:
“Dear friend, I have been following your posts for quite sometime. Initially, whenever you praised Indian civilization, I used to laugh it off, because I always compared my country (US), with India, only on factors like GDP, per capita, roads, skyscrapers, infrastructure, etc, and always consoled myself that US is anyday much better than India.
But the last few days, have been very painful and sort of a revelation to me and most of my friends here. As you might already be aware, most of USA is also under lockdown, and our nation has come to a standstill. Day by day, it feels like falling into a bottomless pit, because except for factors like economy, infrastructure, etc, we really have nothing else. So, when economy halts, it feels like our nation itself has disappeared.
That’s when I was reminded of your older posts where you always used to praise softer aspects like culture, diversity, traditions, roots, etc. When I started introspecting over these, I realized that we Americans hardly have any roots. We always boast about Uncle Sam, Yankee Doodle etc as parts of American identity. But the truth is that we are basically a bunch of European explorers who landed at the American shores 300 years ago, and we eradicated all the native Americans here. That’s all the history we have. There is no other identity. All these factors like great American dream, the roads, the skyscrapers, dollars, big brands etc which we always try to show-off, are mere superficial entities. None of them can even come close to the cultural aspects that you Indians are usually proud of.
For example, we were proud of our skyscrapers like Empire state building. Whereas you were proud of Indian epics like Ramayana Mahabharata. Today, when all of us are locked down at homes, we don’t know what has happened to Empire State Building and we don’t even care now. But you are reviving and cherishing your Indian epics despite locked at home. That’s the difference. We built our nation through objects. You built your nation through values.
When you boast about Indian sages inventing zero, thousands of years ago, Ayurveda 5000 years ago, etc, we feel somewhat disconnected because we don’t have such strong and extended roots. As I was saying, our entire history is not even 300 years old. So, during times like these, while you Indians can feel more confident because you live in a “tried and tested” model which has already lasted for thousands of years, we Americans feel anxious because we know that our whole foundation has been shallow, based on money, based on greed, based on personal status symbols, and now that the whole flimsy system has collapsed, we don’t know how we will fare in future.
Now please take this as a brotherly advice. Don’t fall for the western trap. Life is not always about showing off new stuff. The idea of a nation is not always about GDP, infrastructure etc. We are realizing it the hard way now. A nation is supposed to be much more than those. It should be about all the softer aspects and value system as well. And as far as I can see, you Indians have done a great job of retaining your culture and values over the centuries. Cherish every bit of it. I know you are already proud of it, but in future also continue to be proud of it, and spread positivity further. All the best.”
Not sure, if it actually has happened but I can hereby attach the source of the post for you.
It gives me immense pleasure in knowing more about our cultural roots and the values associated with it. Sometimes I wonder why is it even forgotten over the period of time.
Well, it’s all a matter of time. We will get to know about it one day for sure.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you find it helpful. Say Hi 👋 Twitter Instagram. I’d love to connect.
Your Friend,
Riten
