In the name of great culture!!!!!!!!!!

Today is our Republic day. For most of the Indians, this day is no more than just a reason for extended weekend. But I am one of those exceptions who were required at their workplace at 7 in morning. Well that gave me a chance to browse through major news sites. What caught my eye was a reference to attack of a pub in Bangalore by some so called Ram Sena in the name of saving our ancient culture. What a great service to nation on Republic Day eve. People are ready to do any bullshit thing to get a place on national newspapers. It seems as time is passing, we are moving backward towards medieval era.

I am always perplexed when someone make a reference to need to protecting our culture. What is our culture ? Our culture is not something which one can be proud of. We were consistently beaten by foreign invaders. Foreigners have romped our country at their will. Our culture alienated around 30% of our countrymen as untouchables. They were made to live in inhuman conditions. And the best thing about it is that they were not segregated because of their activities but because of their birth. Actually, our culture is nothing but a baggage from the past which is reason for all of our woes. When our innocent citizens are killed by some foreigners and common man on street give a cry for revenge, we are reminded of Buddha and Gandhi and that India is country known of its non-violence and tolerance. For our every failure and inaction to solve the problems, we take refuge in so-called culture. Problem is that since the childhood, we are told that our culture is great and we are a great country. Really, how is that and what is its significance in today's world. What is our contribution to modern world ?

Our country is today progressing due to hard work of its educated middle class. They are driving force for growth of India as economic powerhouse and they are shaking the very foundations of our society which are responsible for our stagnation. This has cause an anxiety in a section of society which derives its power from these very foundations. They have found out that they can stand nowhere in intellectual warfare against this maverick middle class. So, they have resorted to mob terrorism.They want to tell themselves that though they are irrelevant and unwanted but they still cal the shots. Whether its Raj Thackeray or Some 'Ram Sena', point is that when some real attack on culture and country take places, these guys hide below their beds in their homes as we saw in Mumbai 26/11.

Time has come to shed our perennial illusion of great culture. If some women want to chill out in a bar, they are not breaking any laws. They are within their rights. They are just breaking the chains of restrictions that were created in name of culture and religion. If people want to watch an movie about homosexual relationship, then it is their choice. They do not need permission from cultural hawks. The way these cultural hawks resort to violence just shows that they do not have any basis behind their arguments. They ruled because of fear and ignorance. India has to decide on its 60Th Republic Day whether it wants to follow progressive western ethos or it want to turn itself into a Afganistan or Saudi Arabia.