Indian values do not need to be changed. It's simply our method of explaining them that must be updated with modern ideas, says Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati
I have lived in Rishikesh for the past 15 years and have witnessed a great shift in the mindset of Indians, particularly the younger generation. While they are ardently patriotic, and they join Facebook groups with names like “Yuva Bharat”, “Bharat Swabhiman” and “Bharat Nirmaan Sena”, they are not, in most cases, convinced by Indian culture. They are turning from vegetarians to non-vegetarians, and from teetotalers to drinkers at alarming rates.
My academic background is psychology from Stanford University, hence I have a predisposition to analysis. Further, I came to India at the age of 25, having grown up in los Angeles, in the heart of American upper class, ‘modern’ culture and was so enraptured by the grace, the truth, the divinity and the depth of traditional Indian culture that — despite protests from every single person I knew back home — I stayed. So I have seen both worlds, up close. I have seen hip American culture where acceptance is based on how you look in a black mini-skirt, with how many times a week you’re seen drinking coffee past 2 am in the local “hot spot”, with how many drug-filled dens of decadence you visit on a particular Saturday night. And I have seen the results. Fifteen year olds killed in drunk-driving accidents, cocaine-induced pregnancies and abortions at 17, anorexia and bulimia stealing the minds and lives of Ivy-league students, third marriages by the age of 25, a country where the most commonly prescribed medicines are anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, sleeping pills and Viagra.
There is much to be emulated about Western culture. There is a commitment to excellence and perfection unmatched by most other countries. Punctuality, reliability, fulfillment of promises, adherence to contracts, integrity and honesty are all attributes which other countries, especially India, would benefit by adopting. However, tragically, these are not the values being adopted by the metropolitan Indian youth. Rather, it is the illusion of sophistication, the allure of glamour, the myth of material enjoyment that are seeping into Indian culture.
It is not that India needs new values. Indian culture, values, ethics and traditions form, in my opinion, the very foundation of a successful, meaningful and fulfilling life. If you ask a random person in los Angeles, stepping out of her Mercedes car, “How are youIJ”, chances are you will get a litany of things that are wrong. My back is hurting, the housekeeper didn’t show up, the store ran out of my favourite cereal, there was too much traffic on the freeway, etc. If you ask the same question to an elderly village woman in the Himalayas carrying pounds of firewood on her head, back to cook the family’s one meal a day, chances are your question will be answered with “Sab Bhagawan ki kripa hai”. This is the fruit of Indian culture: Deep satisfaction despite the ups and downs of daily life. Objectively, God’s grace seems to have showered significantly more upon the woman in the Mercedes. Yet, she needs a pill to go to sleep, a pill to wake up, a pill to make it through the day. The woman in the Himalayas sleeps and wakes with a smile on her face.
Indian culture is one that feeds first and eats second. I cannot count the number of times a family that doesn’t have the means to feed itself has begged me to come home for a meal. Or, if I continually refuse a meal, at least a cup of tea. This is Indian culture. Abundance is not measured by a bank balance. It is measured by whether one feels that one’s cup is overflowing. If my instinct is to share, to give, if I feel that I have more than enough and hence I want to feed others, I am rich, even if my feet are bare.
India does not need new values. The values are what have kept India strong and united despite thousands of years of invasions. The values are what have kept Indians’ minds and hearts independent even when their country was colonised and oppressed. However, what is needed is a new vocabulary. The youth of today are being raised differently than any generation prior to them. Information is at their fingertips. Everything has an answer: If you don’t know it, just Google it. So we cannot expect them to accept anything and everything just because someone said so or because God made it that way.
Most middle-aged Indians would never have dared to question or disobey their parents. Therefore, their children’s rebuttals seem disrespectful. They assume their children are intractable, when the truth is they are simply bringing the new culture of questioning from school to home. The youth of today are being raised and primed to ask, to wonder, to question, to investigate, to discover. They will not be appeased by the same answers that kept their parents’ generation in check. Rather, what we need is to find the vocabulary with which to give them the same values, but in a way that makes sense to their inquiring minds. For example, I have heard innumerable parents exhort their children to believe that the cow is holy and, therefore, they must not eat hamburgers. “But why is the cow holyIJ” they ask. “Because it is”, or “Because our scriptures say so,” — these are the common answers. When there is an answer for everything today, the lack of an answer to this makes them understandably suspicious.
However, there are scientific, rational, pragmatic reasons to be vegetarian, regardless of whether one believes the cow is holy or not. The fact that the meat industry is the single greatest contributor to world hunger as well as environmental destruction is quite compelling. The wastage of grain, land, water and energy used in the production of meat is enough to convince most.
This is just one example, but it illustrates the fact that it’s not the values which need to be changed. The values are correct. It’s simply our method of explaining them that needs to be updated.
The writer, a graduate from Stanford University with a PhD in psychology, has dedicated her life to service and renunciation