Tuesday,
February 05, 2013
Letter to the
editor:
'Clash of culture' civil war in India
The recent public upheavals in India, over rape, Salman Rushdie, an anti-terrorist film are clear signs of a clash of culture between India's own cultural identity and the western mores being forced on the populace in the name of modernity, progress and development. The nationwide agitations and threat to public order gives a open play of forces of clash of cultures. The so-called liberalization and globalization is not only demanding its agenda for the economic and development strategies of a developing India, but imposes an entire set of social and behavioral changes to cater to the new wave of consumerism and a no-holds- barred freedom to challenge and force changes in the established order. The result of this clash of culture is becoming more and more volatile and demanding sweeping changes that are not always compatible to the working of a peaceful society. The gradual pace of change has now changed into a purpose driven head-on collision between East and West. And the West is clearly forcing the pace on its own terms. The ruling class long committed to progressive ideals as the future coming out of India, finds itself unable to manage the change and is becoming more arbitrary, brutal and dictatorial. The worst case scenario is the case of flaming Left Liberals, who in their own fight against orthodoxy and religion, are willy-nilly playing second fiddle to Western capitalist onslaught. In knee-jerk reactions, they instantly run with the hunters, and only later realize that they should rather be with the hunted to counter western imperialist designs on India. In India’s Muslims, the West has found a convenient target, to paint them as the ‘other’ and treat them just an extension of the same Muslim Ummah, that west is fight all over the Middle East. Those who prefer to judge the events in their wider perspective could easily make out the attempt by the Western capitalists to make in-roads into Indian society, by first demonizing Muslims. The old divide and rule tactic is all clearly visible in the trite arguments advanced by the ‘modernizing’ forces and their exploitation of media to destabilize India, before they take over and impose their own ‘stabilizing’ order on the vulnerable nation. The ‘Arab Spring’ is being repeated in India, with a new twist of clash between old and new. The intended result is the same: chaos. Here the Left liberals with their hold on media and intellectual life of the nation have immense responsibility not to act in herd-like manner without analyzing the negative impact of their action or inaction. Their fight against religion can wait while they counter the west’s capitalist agenda that may again enslave India. They must choose their priorities well and should not go on a limb. After all the stakes for a billion people of India is too high for them to keep playing their ideological games.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
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