JAY JOSHI
Twitter recently had a field day trolling actress Sonakshi Sinha over her failure to know the answer to a simple question based on the Indian epic Ramayan. While some said that not knowing something is fine, and one could always read up and plug the knowledge-gap, others noted the fact that members of Sonakshi’s family bear names of characters from Ramayan, and that their house is named Ramayan. If one goes by the general belief, the epics Ramayan and Mahabharat are cornerstones of our culture, and Indians are expected to know at least something about these great works.
As expected, Sonakshi’s recent episode sparked a debate over the invasion of Western culture on India. To be honest, being open to other cultures and ideas is of course a virtue, but the question at the heart of this controversy was- is a section of Indian society losing touch with its culture? If so, why is that happening? TG Life posed this question to people who worked in cultural and spiritual fields to find the answer.
“Many people will say that there is a lack of general knowledge among today’s youth. I have myself seen this in the course youth-related my programme, but the youth have deep knowledge of fields about which they are passionate,” says Sachin Surlikar, a TV presenter who anchors a youth-related GK quiz programme on a Goan channel. “In my opinion, not knowing something is fine; but what worries me is that the lack of ignorance of today’s youth about our ancient culture stems from their lack of interest in these things. We grew up watching Ramayan and Mahabharat on Doordarshan, but today’s generation is not being exposed to our cultural heritage in this way. It is the responsibility of the parents to tell traditional stories to their kids and pass on this rich cultural heritage,” says Surlikar. “Unfortunately, parents themselves do not have much time to tell stories from the epics and folk tales to the children, “ he adds.
Swami Prakarshananda who is associated with Chinmaya Mission and previously headed the organisation’s ashram in Margao highlights other factors. “Today there are many external influences that shape one’s character. The peer group in schools and colleges, information one consumes from the media, and of course the education system. Also, the epics are not a part of our academic syllabus. The students are not taught how they are relevant even in today’s life. Hence, their lack of interest in the epics,” says the Swami, who now heads Chinmaya Mission ashram in New Delhi. He further informed that the organisation makes an effort to educate the people about the relevance of scriptures and epics through discourses and talks, but these events fail to attract young audience.
Shreyas Joshi, an engineer from Ponda however, counters this view. “ The idea of teaching epics and scriptures as a part of academic syllabus is not ideal for a country such as India. We are a pluralistic country with many faiths, and that is why our education system has to be secular,” says Joshi. “Also, I have watched and love the old Mahabharat. The graphics could be spiced up a bit so that it appeals to a young audience like myself,” says Joshi, adding that the packaging of Indian culture needs to improve. “We have been telling and retelling the same epics for ages. If we look at books and films such as Percy Jackson, the gods come to modern world and do so many interesting things. I would love to read or see stories where our gods come to the modern world. Then those who don’t know mythology will be curious about all the stories and characters and Google the stuff,” says the engineer.
To most people, forgetting the old epics is an aspect of the battle between the traditional and the modern that continues in the world today. How do we keep the old alive even as we welcome the new, is a question that we must now answer using our innovation and creativity.
