American Culture and Us

[Kartik Ramachandran <ramachan@grinnell.edu>]

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While I believe that it unlikely that there is scope for a major Sporting
Industry on the lines of the US here in India, Naveen's statements about
Gandhian models of development and the the importance of India's indigenous
culture and the threat of capitalism seems to bely a myopic view of the way
in
which a society will develop.

50% divorce rates, teenage pregnancies, single mother families????!!

Why not step back and take a look at the effect of the conditioning of our
own
society - need I mention child marriage (teenage pregnancies, you say?),
family abuse (50% divorce rates? At least people don't stay stuck in
marriages
where they are oppressed), entrenched casteism, etc.

Indian society will continue to hold on to such values that she believe are
in
her interests. An invasion of CK jeans, Heinz and pizzas is not an assault on
this culture, its the evolution of it. To see the trajectory of Indian
culture
as static and grounded forever in some individually-defined "roots" is
ridiculous. The influences of other cultures and peoples are undoubtedly
going
to take place and have their effect.

Kartik Ramachandran


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