Culture and Change

Given enough time, any system of practices tends to degrade and lose the essence for which it was created in the first place. And no where else has it manifested itself so apparently as in India. A country where rituals abound and sheer force of habit overcomes reason.

I still remember from school, one stanza from Tagore’s Gitanjali that went something like ‘Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit’. It makes as much sense now as it did when Tagore wrote those lines.

A change in thinking can come about either organically (from within the society, but without explicit effort this would be a pretty slow process since it takes someone to question existing norms and also be influential enough to change them) or the change can come inorganically (if the society comes to interact with another society with a different set of ideas). To quote Swami Vivekananda "There is not one single instance of any civilisation being spontaneous. There was not a race in the world which became civilised unless another civilised race came and mingled with that race." (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - Volume 2 - 'Hints on Practical Spirituality’).

It is probably an exaggeration but nonetheless holds truth. Though, he was speaking about this in a spiritual context, it holds just as true when applied to the social context as well.

The United States would probably serve as a very good example in how they have been able to attract talent from different cultures and have been able to forge ahead of most countries.

The British rule of India was one such interaction where we were exposed to a new culture. To their credit, the British were the first to outlaw the barbaric act of sati and among other things introduce English education in India. Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s exposure to western ideas came in handy in shaping his outlook and his reform movement. I would assume the British too had a lot to learn (eastern spirituality, yoga etc).

Today, the Internet is emerging as the virtual civilisation which is constantly evolving and presenting new vistas of thought that can influence and mould behavior of individuals. The beauty of the internet is that people do not actually have to mingle with each other to influence one another. The Internet is probably the most conducive environment (albeit limited in its reach currently) for the creation of new ‘memes’ or for the diffusion of existing ones. Meme mutation is best accomplished by exposure to newer meme sets and the Internet is playing a small but increasingly significant part in this memetic evolution.

A more powerful and effective agency of meme evaluation is the education system. I believe that an atmosphere that allows questioning of preexisting notions should bring about more objective thinking among the participants. This culture of open discussions and objective debates can be nurtured best by incorporating such an approach in our education system wherein our students are encouraged to debate and discuss on issues in an objective way rather than simply accept the things as they are taught. Thus giving an opportunity for examining existing meme sets and either accept or reject them.

This helps create a progressive environment where it becomes possible to scrutinize and hopefully eliminate defective practices and belief sets, thereby evolving popular culture.