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Is westernisation causing problems in Indian weddings and marriage, and what is Indian culture?

This blog's introduction, I concluded with the question, what influence has western culture got on Indian weddings and marriage? 


That is whether westernization wields any negative impact on Indian weddings and marriage, that is, to instill restrictive behaviors in Indian men and women when it comes to choosing partners and once chosen, in damaging their relationship. Or does it influence Kerala youths to go immoral? From what I hear, so many people believe so, especially who think that globalism has exposed the east to the Western ways of thinking and man-woman relationship which they consider immoral.  Adding credence to this is their belief that Indian culture is superb, value-oriented, perfect and innocent.




If so, what is this thing called Indian culture?






Traditional Indian culture


Needless to say, traditional India preserved a great culture. About how people wed and lived in marriage during those times, one can get some idea from here.


But gradually everything changed. When India became subjected to foreign migration, dynasty rules, colonization and religions oppression, that used tyranny, dogmas of theology and race as their socio-political weapons, tradition India got socially and culturally disoriented.


The major key to manipulating that social disorientation was interfering with the customs of weddings and marriage.


It marked the initiation of an Indian apartheid, to which birth was the central segregation tool.  Since birth happens through women they were caught in the middle of it.  That seed decided the quality and the social grade of people was the racial theory that apartheid used.  That is, the best seed planted into a female womb guaranteed the best progeny just as the best paddy ploughed in to the field produced the quality rice.   


So wedding became a means to plant the right seed into women's womb. Brahmins proclaimed themselves as the owners of the best quality seeds followed by the ruler and the trader sects. (They were termed the upper varnas or the Savarnas in the new racist vocabulary)  It came that even wedding was not necessary, a one night stand was more than enough.  In one Kerala sect females rampaged for savarna seeds because it fetched plenty wealth and inheritance.  And higher the mens' seed-status the higher they enjoyed sexual right over females.




There were large scale resistances against the new human husbandry.  But the resistors were slammed as socially inferior. They were called the scums, the avaras, the untouchables and the un-seeables of the society.


Wedding by then had long lost its traditional (vedic) meaning and purpose.  Needless to say that the status of the Indian women took a deep plunge. The dictum, 'no women deserve to be free', 'no woman is basically good' are associated with that time. To know more about the social deterioration of that time read this , the Laws of Manu, especially its chapter X. The book is a summary of all  inhuman social practices imposed on the descendants of traditional Indians as well as on the females. It propagated that all those were the religious ways of life ordained by a transcendental god- a god of Brhamanic rituals. They were also purported as the ways to reach that abode of that god- the heaven and moksha.


Western colonialism reinvented the laws of manu which suffered a tentative set back during another foreign religious rule that India suffered- the Islamic rule. The Islamic rules were neither different from the manu laws when it came to wedding and female freedom. The colonial agression that started with the Vasco-da-gama in the 1494 offered the same situation whereby the women in Kerala especially towards the northern costs were taken by men made themselves available to the colonial men.  As a result a huge section of Kerala population got blue eyes and white skin.


Post-independent India


Post-independent India never tried to have any recourse in to its social apartheid. Neither any attempt was made to recreate a new world order in man-women relationship based on humanity, equality and mutual respect. Both the male and the female leaders in the freedom struggle and the government pretended that India enjoyed the most ideal man-woman relationship.  In the social circle the old apartheid continued. Hence the 'free' Indians were never afforded a chance to evolve out of their categorization as 'untouchables', 'backward', 'forward', 'upper' 'lower' 'females', 'minors' 'weaker', 'sawarna' and 'avarna'. And weddings and marriage continues to be restricted within that old racial/r caste breeding lines.


The only change was the thriving of a new religious format- Hinduism/Hinduthwa, discovered somewhere in the thick and thin of creating an Indian Constitution.  


All three major religions in India- Hinduthwa Christianity and Islam migrated to the land-have a lot of in common when it comes to weddings and marriage.


The post-globalism India


Overcoming physical boundaries of nation-states for economic and market reasons is one primary objective of globalism.  It afforded Indians among other things great avenues to veer into other cultures beyond accustomed boundaries.  In the past two decades, India has emerged as an 'economic giant' affording in particular its youth great economic opportunities their predecessors could only dream about.


Females are not declined the opportunities they deserve when it comes to education and earning wealth is a thing that deserves applause. But the striking back of the old beast lying low in the grass when it comes to them taking decision in their weddings and marriage is disgusting.  




Drowned deep in greed and materialism, guided by an archaic racial/caste theology and a substandard education and trapped in the notions of their formative years majority among them are in need of help to deal with the dynamics of human relationship. Weddings and marriage, the most sensitive among all those, no doubt, are prone to suffer the most. 


Now coming back to the initial question; is westernization guilty in Indian divorces?




It is true that the western ways of weddings and marriage charm a minority Indians as a liberal alternative.  But it is not true that the majority see it a point to adjust themselves to suit with the western lifestyle because 1. they are trapped in their own cultural and theological convictions, as I have explained and 2. they treat westernization as immoral and dirty.  So I do not see any point in the argument that westernisation is impacting negatively on Indian weddings and marriage.  


Or rather, what the Indians should do is to sort out their own cultural problems.















Comments

  1. In the thicket of all these, what healthy world view an average Indian can develop, one can only imagine. Having no proper philosophy other than that of materialism and an archaic social grading and having no skill gained through education to deal with the dynamics of human relationship, the majority among them are prone to have serious behavioral issues. Weddings and marriage, the most sensitive among all those relationships, no doubt, are prone to suffer the worst.

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