“Lord let me not be too rich that I might forget you, let me not be too poor that I might curse you but give me enough so that I might thank you”
This statement represents the aspiration of the middle-station of society, they “protect” themselves from real issues in life and live without posing any serious questions. They imbibe the “popular” morality of their day and age and glide through life. The world rewards them for their humble submission by fixing their goals and ideology.
Modern Indian culture is not a shadow of the past or maybe even an antithesis. The questions posed by our great fore-fathers are never posed today but we claim to be their children without having any inclination to know who we truly are. Modern India is 62 years old, we are not a 5000 yr old civilization that we claim to be.Ethnic culture, vernacular texts and traditions have been sacrificed in the alter of “national integration” . Now war, terror, catastrophes, cricket etc binds us all ( hence Pakistan is a necessity for a United India) such is our frivolous unity. This cultural vacuum is now filled with crude materialism, popular western culture (not the rich developments in the west), a revival of vague and shallow spirituality, rationalism of baseless superstitions, neo-racism etc etc. People have no inclination to study the rich history, philosophy and religions of our country instead they just cruse along without asking any serious questions. In my state in Tamil Nadu, the average man is not aware of The History of Jainism in Tamil Nadu, Savite bhakti movement, contribution of Dravidian culture to art, learning, ethics etc etc, it is a sad state of cultural decadence. This can be witnessed throughout the world but the magnitude is less severe than in India. This is the direct consequence of undue importance given to science in relation to capitalism and not mankind. Need to sensually interact and objectively understand has taken the place of love and pursuit of true wisdom.
The tragedy is that the west has witnessed this cultural decay and have done their part in “reviving” us by making our cities “the engines of growth”. I might not be the greatest fan of Mahatma Gandhi but I do agree with him when he said that India is a land of villages and developing villages would develop India, now we have displaced migrants from villages occupying our cities. The tragedy is our children will be the victims of this cultural backlash, the west are now harvesting our youth but soon they will harvest the hearts and minds of our children if we do not act on time.