culture or behaviors

[Guest guest]

At 7:06 -0800 11/25/99, COM: Basu Ghosh (das) ACBSP (Baroda - IN) wrote:

>

>While I thank you for the complimentary para here [wow! That's a first, eh?

>:-)], I must point out, again, that "alcoholism, domestic violence and STDs"

>are not "aspects of Indian culture"... but are a contravention of Indian

>culture.

>

>What do you think? Am I wrong here?

 

Well, it depends on how you define "Indian culture". It may not be a part

of "vedic culture" or "original Indian culture" or "Indian culture during

Prabhupada's days", but given the prevalence today, it's definitely a part

of the Indian landscape today, whatever you want to call that.

 

But I feel like this may be a less useful path to go down. I just wanted

to note that India and its inhabitants do not necessarily live ideal lives

these days and that if we're going to take them as role models, we'd better

define carefully *which* parts and not engage in over-generalizations about

either the country or its people.

 

Maybe it would be more useful to simply describe the behaviors and concepts

that we want to follow, rather than saying we want to be like "Indians".

"Indian's" today is a very mixed bag. And I don't have to have met

Prabhupada personally to know that he would not be pleased by the behaviors

that I have read about or observed during my visits.

 

Do you have any problems with that?

 

Ys,

Madhusudani dasi