The songs you sing, the languages you speak, the dresses you wear, the food you eat, this is your culture. And from whence is culture born? The mountains, rivers, wind and sun. Take the Indian subcontinent. Indians have been wearing loincloths and slippers for thousands of years. They ate and slept on the floor. It is because the region is mostly torrid. And when it rains, it really comes down. The farmer tilling the land with his cows wears a bamboo rain hat to cover himself from the rain. His rain hat could have been made from another material. But it is bamboo. Bamboos grow everywhere. Bamboo furniture, bamboo hand fans, bamboo flutes, cakes made with the help of bamboos. A bamboo culture is born this way.
Now the Sacred Indian Cow. Any other animal could have been declared sacred. But it is the cow. The cow might have been consumed like any other animal meat, say thousands of years ago during the time of the miraculous sages. And the same thousands of years ago the Indian farmer also happened to be ploughing his land with his cows unlike his European counterpart who resorts to using horses. There arose the fear that the random killing of cows might reduce their number. No cow means no cultivation. And no cultivation would be the end of food for man. Something had to be done. But since even a royal proclamation against beef-eating might not work, religion was brought to make the people listen. The holy scriptures laid down that the cow is a sacred animal. Declaring something sacred is a smarter way of preserving the cow. People are always wary of antagonizing God. Since then, Hindus have been venerating the cow as a deity. It must not be eaten. This is the story to this day.
There is geography in religion. The term Hindu originated from the Indus River (Sindhu in Indian language). Plants and animals and even the elements gave birth to multiple gods and goddesses. And like bamboo, rice too grows in abundance. It became the staple diet. Cakes and different other delicacies got to be invented from rice. This became a part of our culture. Indians welcome their guests with areca nuts and betel leaves. They could have given something else. But they chose areca nuts and betel leaves. Because these things grow here in profusion. A culture is shaped in this way.
Now let’s look at Europe. How frosty, how miserably cold some places can be! Boots and jackets, hand-gloves, mufflers and hats came to be invented for sweet convenience. It became a culture. Indians had little use for boots. They could even sleep on the floor. This would be ridiculous in Europe. Europeans don’t want to have any contact with the dreary cold ground. So, they came up with the dining table idea and the bed for better comfort. They created the bath tub, too. It is natural that Europeans would like to drink to keep themselves warm. The drinking of wine became a culture whereas it is taboo in other regions. The European farmer works differently. Instead of bullocks, he uses horses to pull his plough. The cow had no reason to be held sacred.
The Europeans started sailing across the seas, looking for adventure and wealth and new places to set up colonies. The British arrived on Indian shores as traders under the name of the English East India Company. Soon, they started meddling in Indian affairs. The Indian kings declared war against them, but were vanquished by superior British arms and military tactics. There was no India then. Only kingdoms, many different kingdoms feuding with one another for their narrow political interests. The British Empire took advantage of this political disunity. They subdued the Indian kings and nawabs and soon occupied their land one after the other. The British didn’t only bring their armies. They brought something more important: their English culture. The occupied Indians took after their British masters, dressing up like them in shirts and cotton pants and leather shoes. English came to be spoken. Most of the hilly northeast region of India adopted Christianity. The ordinary Indian started celebrating his birthday which was once the privilege of kings.
Today, shirts and cotton pants and shoes are no longer a European identity. It has become a worldwide culture, as ordinary as dining on tables. It is customary for indians to greet people or give farewell with a graceful Namaste. But now Indians mostly prefer shaking hands. It is taken to be modern and hip, the sign of the young mind. Namaste, on the other hand, is viewed as ordinary and obsolete, only for village people and grandpapas.
Little do people know that the human hand is the notorious carrier of germs which can cause flu and other infections. A firm or continuous handshaking also has the capability of injuring the wrist. None of this would happen if we opt for our Hindu traditional way of folding our palms in Namaste which is so much more graceful to look at, safe and hygienic. Handshake is one foreign “invasion” that we can live without. If Indians can still eat with their fingers, so also can we stick to our glorious culture. Namaste!
