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Tharoor reflects in length the pluralism in Indian kaleidoscopic culture that consists of a continuous play of history, culture and power. He deals with the multiple assaults on the Republic of India, such as language, religion, caste and class and how they play a significant role in breaking up Indian culture into individual entities. Hosting a novel amidst the morbid sectarian clashes in 1989 in North India, Shashi Tharoor explores the cultural diversity in Native India. Tharoor voices his stringent views on how culture is broken up due to the hatred between communities, and carefully traces up the controversy over the Babri Masjid. The backdrop of the novel is set in 1989 when Ram Sila Poojan Programme was undertaken by Hindus to rebuild the temple in Ram Janma Bhoomi which led to the destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992.
According to Tharoor, India currently boasts 18 nationally recognized languages, 17 other distinct languages and 22,000 dialects. He tells in the novel Riot through Lakshman, the young Magistrate of Zalilgarh, “Language groups have their own political entities to look forward to give expression to their linguistic identity…. Language divides” (42). Through an interesting love story, he spins out potent social commentary and a broad historical analysis. Though 82% of Indians are Hindus, they are fragmented into castes and sub castes, and classes – upper, middle and lower class. Tharoor further studies that the privileged elite is just 5 % whereas 75% of Indians are formed by the poor, lower class.
Apart from these divisions and discriminations haunting India, another cause for the cultural collisions and communal tensions in the country is religion. He observes in his text:
Religion also bree...
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Gergen, David. "India Turns 50: A Transcript of an interview with Shashi Tharoor" On-line. Newshour. August 1997.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/august97/india.html
SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association). "Bio of past SAJA guest speaker Shashi Tharoor." On-line. SAJA. Columbia University. 1997. 12 Feb. 1998.
http://moon.jrn.columbia.edu/SAJA/shashi.html
Tharoor, Shashi. "Whose Culture Is It Anyway? The role of culture in developing countries: an Indian writer's view." On-line. Harvard Asia Pacific Review (HAPR). 12 Feb.1998. http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hapr/tharoor.html
Tharoor, Shashi. “Politics of identity”. "The Hindu", Online edition of India's National Newspaper May 21, 2006 http://shashitharoor.com.html
Chabal, Emile. “Passion and Politics”. Newsline. Karachi, Pakistan. Feb 2002. http://www.shashitharoor.com/reviews/riot/riot-karachi.html
Dubey,A.P. (2008). Modernity and the problem of cultural identity. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre Publications
As Indians living in white culture, many problems and conflicts arise. Most Indians tend to suffer microaggressions, racism and most of all, danger to their culture. Their culture gets torn from them, and slowly, as if it was dream, many Indians become absorbed into white society, all the while trying to retain their Indian lifestyle. In Indian Father’s Plea by Robert Lake and Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie, the idea that a dominant culture can pose many threats to a minority culture is shown by Wind-Wolf and Alexie.
Ram Mohan Roy: He argued for the construction of a society based on both modern European science and Indian devotional Hinduism
Norton, James H.K. India and South Asia. 9th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2010.
San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000. Print. The. Gold, Gerald. A. Gandhi Pictorial Biography. New York: Newmarket, 1983. Print.
Owing to India’s diversity, these identities are determined by caste, ancestry, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation and geographic location, and play an important role in determining the social position of an individual (Anne, Callahan & Kang, 2011). Within this diversity, certain identities are privileged over others, due to social hierarchies and inequalities, whose roots are more than a thousand years old. These inequalities have marginalized groups and communities which is evident from their meagre participation in politics, access to health and education services and
Kumar, Ravindra. Mahatma Gandhi at the Close of Twentieth Century. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 2004. Print.
challenge to the modern historiography. Writer-politician Arun Shourie re-reads history of Christian missionary works and conversion movements of Dalits from point of Indian nationalism, identity, culture, language and race to erase the memories of Christian contributions and Dalit reaction to Hinduism. Breaking India by Rajiv Malhotra, a highly imaginative self contradicting work, vehemently attacked on Christianity and its works among Dalits and down trodden communities in India terming the works as dividing India and serving Western interests without understanding the oppressive-colonial nature of Hinduism. The challenges of Hindutva, the programs of Ghar Wapsi, and Shuddhi, communalized history textbooks and glorification of Hindu martyrs
India is at the center of a very serious problem in the world today. It’s a very diverse place with people from many different religious backgrounds, who speak many different languages and come from many different regions. They are also separated economically. Two of the country’s religious sects, Muslims and Hindus, have been in conflict for hundreds of years. Their feelings of mistrust and hatred for each other are embedded in all those years and will not leave easily.
India is well known as a nation of contrasts, and the nation itself is a paradox. It is one of the world’s oldest known civilizations, yet it has only existed as the nation the world now know sit for 67 years. Similarly, it has produced some of the most important contributions to mathematics, science, philosophy, and trade, yet it is still considered to be a developing nation. The country’s history is a long, winding journey that has led it to its current state – the world’s largest democracy featuring both the same technological advancements enjoyed by the first world and the same challenges and problems faced by the rest of the developing world.
…….…, “Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and the Blurring of National Boundaries”. Conference issue of South Asian Review 25.3; 2004.
There is a distinct difference between popular Indian nationalism, that is the nation believing in a state independent of Britain, and Indian nationalist movements, for example the Muslim League or the Hindu revivalist movement. These movements fought for independence but were far more religiously orientated and were fighting in their own interests. Although Indian nationalism initially found expression in the Mutiny of 1857, its deve...
Siva, Manu. Difference in Cultural Values. India Today (20) 3. 45-48 Retrieved April 03, 2006
Nicholas B. Dirks. (2011). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton University Press
Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.