Social Relationships in India
The Indian culture is family-oriented. More than the past fifty centuries, our social reformers, influential thinkers, politicians, and rulers have supported the social theory of living. This concept is completely conflicting with the concept of individualism and money-oriented devotion of the west. Until the late sixties, Indians did not maintain this concept. But during the early seventies, Indian society was altered according to the influences of the western culture. The concept of a joint family ended and the concept of a nuclear family came into being. The feeling of self-determination, autonomy from the control of the family, and adventure became the guiding illumination for Indian youth.
Therefore, the social relationships suffered a lot throughout the late seventies and early eighties. The decay in the joint family system was almost complete by the middle of the nineteenth century. The children began to disobey their parents. The students defied the educational rules. The affection and reverence for elders vanished and everybody seemed to be primarily engaged in money-oriented goals. The society was no longer affectionate. It had become bitter due to the materialistic attack initiated by the western culture. The cable TV, cinema, magazines, traveling abroad, Internet, and other factors contributed towards this community decay. The Indian society tried to imitate the western society and in this deadly process of alteration, it lost its own identity
Our culture, as previously declared, has not been planned for promoting an individual's goal. It has always supported society for promoting the interests of the individual. In the stir of the altering patterns in Indian community structure, the concept of joint family does not seem to grasp its origin. But Indians lead good lives even in the nuclear families, as has been done by individuals of western nations. We could carry the nuclear family concept as everybody has a right to explore new horizons in his life which may not be probable in a joint family.
The reverence for elders and parents is a different subject. Nowadays, students do not give value to their teachers. This growth is not a good one. The present generation must learn good manners. The confusion of the late nineties has forced us to think that our youth do not worry about their elders and this is an accurate reflection of our rotting social system.
Apart from this, other social principles like politeness, etiquette in public places, reverence towards ladies, and close communications with family members or relatives are experiencing a shady period. These days, contacts are developed to earn money. Our mind is not fraudulent but money and greediness have forced us to become psychologically sick. We are now logs in the machines, trying to meet our own basic ends and ignore the family, the society, and the nation.
The Japanese are quite well-off but their culture has been retained for posterity. They follow cultural traditions even while they take tea. Similarly, the Germans have maintained their cultural individuality, though westernization has made profound inroads into their culture. The Indian culture has both the ancient culture and contemporary Western enlightening traditions. There are many other nations in the world, which unlike the Indian nation have not given up their customary culture and social values. Indians must also try to keep hold of their social norms.
We do not desire that Indian society should take up evil social practices like Sati, child marriage, torture of women due to dowry, wife-beating, fighting with neighbors, etc. We must reject the depressing aspects of our society. Further, we must approve and learn high-quality aspects of western society. The people in the west are efficient and sensible and they work together with unity. We should also follow them.
But contrary to this they are stiff, less sympathetic, and money-oriented. So, we should accept and opt only for those modern social practices, which could be easily mixed into our culture without any rot in our society. This is the era of modern technologies, realistic thoughts, and those theories, which could be brought into practice.
Our social environment needs to be altered in favor of development. Unluckily, the change in our social system has been shallow, thus we still remain backward and resilient to change.
Our social structure is under a serious risk. We should make our society flexible enough to stand exterior cultural shocks and maintain its exclusiveness as we have remained exceptional.
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