Being “modern” does not give us the license to forget traditional values, to dismantle ourselves completely from the roots to which we belong, to be supercilious at will and also to show complete disregard towards and vituperating our own indigenous culture.
Today, in Indian middle class society, we often misinterpret “modernity” with cheap and useless acts of ostentation. There is a general perception that, to be considered “modern” and “up to date”, you should be trendy in your apparel, should possess the latest models of a mobile phone, a watch and an ipod; speak English (albeit not so well) at the cost of neglecting your mother tongue, gesticulate shamelessly beyond all civilized limits among a group of people; call your husband by name and refuse to anoint yourself with vermilion powder (“Sindur”) even after marriage (many working women do it !!); and of course, deriding people who are spiritually inclined, labelling it as “a waste of time”. To me, all such acts, which have become so commonplace in the last 25 years, do not have even an iota of ethics as its foundation. This is nothing but a travesty of the concept of modernity.
As time goes by, our life passes through a process of social and cultural change, either through improvement or decline. We should always look to welcome the former, but at the same time not renounce tradition completely. I honestly believe that modernity should always start manifesting itself in the mind – people should be open to improvements in their daily lifestyle, without sacrificing sound values of yesteryears, carry themselves well in front of people, wear clean and ironed clothes (need not be too trendy), use technology to their advantage rather than being too flashy thereby creating a nuisance, possess a soothing, genteel and mature personality with respect to speaking prowess and facial expressions, and finally respecting traditional rituals and practices.
The experience of modernity is, in fact, to live in traditional ways and to repeat tradition in unrecognizable forms. To be socially fructuous, we should stop emulating western cultures mindlessly and try to tap in only the best practices from them. If and when that happens, we as individuals would feel complete and the beauty, richness and greatness of our culture would be fully appreciated by ourselves. It would also get the outside world enamoured and only then, we can proudly say that we are a truly “modern’ society looking towards a progressive future.
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