'Cultural nationalism', a dangerous idea

by confuzzled dude Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:55 pm

The original Indian nationalism had been culturally very plural and had celebrated India’s tremendous diversity – religious, linguistic and cultural. The RSS brand of nationalism sought to base Indian nationalism on a single culture. The trouble was that existing realities simply did not conform to the ideational standards of the RSS.

India was not a country based on a single culture, or language or religion. The very DNA of Indian society, built over centuries of assimilation and co-existence, militated against such an idea of a single dominant culture pervading the entire country. Therefore, the idea of cultural nationalism had to be turned into a ‘project’, to be pursued vigorously. It required cultural engineering. In this project, a cultural mainstream had to be created and the multiple cultures of India, were either to be persuaded or coerced into merging into this cultural mainstream.

Cultural nationalism is a dangerous idea for a country like India. It is a complete negation of the very idea of India, its history and traditions. It militates against the very spirit of India. The Indian society has acquired its basic features through centuries of its history. It was a history of gradual evolution, multiple contacts and dialogues and centuries of give-and-take with outsiders.

The Indian society is a product of its own history and has been enriched by it. It cannot, and should not, be subjected to political and social engineering seeking to convert India into a mono-cultural society and thus alter its very DNA. Should the idea of cultural nationalism succeed, it would be nothing short of a death-knell for the very Idea of India, nurtured and sustained through centuries of its history.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/468454/cultural-nationalism-rss-dangerous-idea.html

by Kayalvizhi Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:57 pm

This whole article is based on author's ignorance of South Asian history or purposively burying the head into sand in order to be politically correct.

"The Indian society is a product of its own history and has been enriched by it." -- there is no such society ever until British guns formed a pseudo society.

"The Indian society has acquired its basic features through centuries of its history." --- There is no society for centuries. It started after British consolidated all their conquests. It started with an aloen occupation and must have ended when that occupation ended. Instead another occupation was created not by military might but through cunningness and false promises.

"The very DNA of Indian society, built over centuries of assimilation" --- there is no centuries of assimilation. There was an artificial assimilation after British conquest

'Cultural nationalism', a dangerous idea

'Cultural nationalism', a dangerous idea

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