Vanishing Values

Vanishing Values

E M ADITHYAN

Indian has a glorious past and a great civilisation embedded with all virtues which was once the envy of people the world over. However today even our highly educated youngsters are not much aware of our own culture and traditions. The Swadeshi movement, which was propagated during the independence struggle, has evaporated and the shadow of colonialism still hangs over our head. Consequently, we condemn our own virtues and blindly follow the western culture. Let us make an introspection of our vanishing values.

Sanskrit is the mother of all Indian languages and one the richest languages of the world. Some of our most outstanding epics and Upanishads are written in this language. Some people may say that Kalidasa has not won any literary award but the fact remains that he is the greatest writer India has ever produced. Our successive governments whether at centre or states did not make any serious attempt to promote this glorious language. Today, there are more Sanskrit scholars from Germany and France than from India. If we had promoted Sanskrit with right earnestness, we could have bridged the language barrier and cemented the friendship and fraternity among people of different regions.

We are least bothered about our own language and culture and even a student of literature is blissfully unaware of the happenings in other regional languages. While our highly qualified people take pride in talking about Spanish or French literature, they are totally ignorant about Indian literature. It is appreciable to have a universal out-look but it should not be by sidestepping the language of our own country.

India has one of the finest systems of medicine in Ayurveda. No doubt, it takes protracted treatment to cure an illness but many of the diseases once cured will not occur during one’s lifetime. It has neither any side effects nor it is slow poisoning. While in Allopathic the symptoms of the disease are suppressed by anti-biotic, in Ayurvedic system the disease is rooted out gradually. Even our Government and Public Sector Organisations give step-motherly treatment to Ayurveda. While the Allopathic treatment is reimbursed in full there are many restrictions on the reimbursement of Ayurvedic treatment. Is it because Ayurvedic system is completely indigenous and does not make a drain on the precious foreign exchange of the country? Still we believe in Allopathic only and many of the drugs, which are banned in other countries, are freely sold in India. Adulterated medicines and out of date medicines are also sold with almost total impunity, as the conviction process in India is abysmally slow and cumbersome.

Indian music, classical dance and folk dances are praised the world over. Our renowned artists perform in the prestigious auditoriums of the capital of India in half empty halls, despite the fact that admission is free. One of the greatest classical dance dramas – Kathakali – was on the verge of extinction a few dances back. It was due to the dedicated efforts of the great poet Vallathol that we could salvage this great art form. He took art to the various parts of the globe and only when foreigners started showering praises, we realised the beauty of this art. Do we always need somebody- nay foreigners to educate us about the greatness of our own art and culture?

Our filmmakers particularly from West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka have produced some of the finest movies equating world class standards. However, even Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan or Girish kasaravally finds it difficult to get a theatre to show their film for a Sunday morning show in the capital of India.

We are pioneers in many of the martial arts and sports like Archery, Hockey etc. Even today, no other country in the world has produced archers of the stature of Dronacharya, Arjuna, Karna, Ekalavya etc. However, today, we do not even qualify in the Olympics or world championship. We taught the whole world how to play Hockey and we were the undisputed kings for several decades. However, today we are fighting a battle for survival. Even our sports enthusiasts who listen to Cricket commentary from morning till evening have no time and interest to know what is happening in the field of Hockey.

Our traditional way of living and daily routine has lots of scientific base-whether it is taking early morning bath, Surya Namaskar, meditation, Pranayam or Yoga. No wonder people who live in traditional style are hale and hearty even in their eighties, whereas others who live with fast food and Multivitamin tablets are prone to disease at the slightest provocation.

It is high time we should make a self-introspection of our dwindling culture, traditions, values, ethics, morals etc. Let us not make a mad rush towards westernisation. Even in the craze for foreign and western, we have not understood and adapted their good qualities like discipline, punctuality, team spirit, cleanliness, competitiveness, quality consciousness etc. We have learned to imitate only their bad qualities. Let us make a judicious blend of our past glories and present technological achievements to bring peace, tranquility and prosperity to our great land of sages, scholars and social reformers.

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