The Bilateral Indian Culture - A Matter Of National Pride Or National Shame? By definition, the world culture means " The behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group". Well this is just how the dictionary defines the term "culture". But in India, culture means a lot more that just he above mentioned definition. In India, culture is a matter of pride for all Indians irrespective of caste, creed or religion. Indians boast of a culture that is thousands of years old. Most of the Indians consider it a possession which no other country in the world possesses. Whenever, there is a comparison of India with a country in terms of development, Indians very spontaneously #quote that "We Indians must be less developed but we have something which no other country has, and that is our culture". Of course every Indian would have heard this thing many times in their #lifetime. But what we, the present Indian generation have to ponder upon is that " Is our so called culture so great to be so proud of??". This is a question, the answer to which every Indian who has some love for his nation left in his heart, should think about in a very practical manner. Talking about the pros of the Indian culture, there are many and some really worth praising. Our culture teaches us to respect elders, India is one of the few countries in the world where the concept of joint families exists. In India, people are in general very much socially attached to one another, which is not the case with the western countries where people are least bothered about the others living in their neighbourhood. In India, people are generally very helping and caring in nature. In India, the bonding between children and their parents is very strong which gives a child the much needed emotional support while in his adolescence, whereas in the Western countries, the children from a very small age are taught to live independently and their feelings towards their children is not as strong as the Indians. Well after reading all this, any Indian is bound to feel proud to be born in this nation. But above mentioned culture is of that India which is visible to the outside world. But apart from that, there is an India that no Indian likes to speak or discuss about, and it is a India which some Indians like me are also ashamed of. In India, we present ourselves in a way that we have high respect for women. A girl in India is often referred to as "Lakshmi",who is the goddess of wealth or "Sarasvati", who is the goddess of knowledge and education. But what is the real plight of women in the Indian society???...The truth is that, even in 2012, there are many big cities and towns, wherein married women are not allowed to go outside the household or work. In the villages, almost all women are subjected to a similar treatment. Even in big cities, which includes metro cities, women cannot roam around at night safely. India has one of the highest rates of domestic violence (A STAGGERING 57% OF THE WOMEN IN INDIA ARE SUBJECTED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACCORDING TO A NATION-WIDE SURVEY) wherein a woman is brutally beaten by their husbands and subjected to other forms of physical abuse in extreme cases. The saddest part is that such cases are not confined to small towns and villages, but are equally prevalent in the big cities. In some cases, the men who are involved in domestic violence, are dignified people, and there are people who take pride in calling themselves a man by beating a woman. There are also far too many cases of rape in India, for a country which claims that it respects women. India might be the only country wherein couples do not want a girl child and they abort a child as soon as they come to know that it is a girl in the womb. The male favouring sex ratio in most of the states is a proof of that. In India, there have been many cases wherein a girls child is killed as soon as she is born, and the local people in those areas call it customary. How can anyone justify a custom as this???!!!. In many Indian households, wherein there is a girl and a boy, the boy's education is given higher priority and often the girl is given just the most basic education just to make her capable of getting married. In India, this discriminatory and derogatory attitude of men towards women can only be attributed to India's culture. In ancient India,women referred their husbands to as "Swami" which means owner. So how else or better will a owner treat his wife???...the basic problem is that the Indian culture has not changed with the time and has rather stagnated as time has passed. It is nature's rule that flowing water does not stink but stagnant want always stinks after a while. That is what has happenned with the Indian culture. The Indian society has continued to be male dominant and maximum of the men have the attitude of male chauvinists. In India, till date, a girl roaming in short skirts or revealing dresses is considered loose character and easily approachable by the Indian men....WHAT A SHAME!!! India also has one of the highest rates of child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse includes the cases of sexual abuse with a child under the age of 18 years. According to a leading survey, a shocking 46% of the Indian children are subjected to sexual abuse. Of this 46%, 57% victims are boys and 43% are girls. In most of such cases, it has been seen that the person who is involved in sexual abusing children, is generally a relative or a person who is very close to the victim. IS THIS THE CULTURE THAT WE TAKE PRIDE IN??? So does our culture after all teach us to disrespect women and spoil the lives of innocent children. I agree that every coin has two sides, and if there are some pros, there ought to be some cons as well. But seriously, these cons are unacceptable in any civilised society and to an extent inhuman. But the bottom line is that, this was never the real Indian culture. Over a period of years, it has been notoriously been modified to suit the interests of men in the most convenient manner. And the culture which is there today, is a result of those modifications. But who is the culprit for this situation??...THE ANSWER IS - We ourselves....not that all of us would have supported all that is happening around us, but because we never really had the courage to take a righteous stand against it. The future of this country lies in our hands, the present generation. It is upon us, so as to what we want to make this country from the current situation. For that we need to first of all, accept our mistakes and the flaws in our culture. Then, we have to change our own mindsets and set an example for the others to follow. At the end, I would urge all people reading this blog to take the things that I have written in a positive manner. I am not being cynical about this country's culture but being constructively critical of the state of this country in the hope that there will be a change some day. Anindo Banerjee