Originally posted by souro
I don't think the topic questioned the righteousness of western culture, rather it questions the need for Indians to discard everything Indian and become western.
Has someone got the right to emulate the values of another culture, especially if they are good? Certainly. However, is it right to discard everything, especially good values, that are indigenous just because of this drive to adopt the foreign? I don't think so, as in the long run you place yourself in an inferior and subservient position by losing your own identity.
Even if the good indigenous values are substituted by equally good foreign practices, it still comes across as lack of self-esteem.
"Good" values would be a relative concept. It just depends on what people are seeking. Emulation also does not mean lack of self-esteem or being subservient. There are many reasons why people emulate other cultures. That being said, I'd agree that blindly discarding one's culture to emulate something foreign is not desirable.
Ultimately any culture as we know today is the result of years of cultural influences and changes. Ten years from now, they all will have changed. Personally, I think instead of perceiving culture as Indian or Western, Traditional or Modern we need to adapt a more pragmatic outlook towards culture. Are the cultural changes we are going through going to benefit us in the long run or will it be detrimental. Trying to categorize culture and pit them against each other makes us blind sighted to the pros and cons out there.
Other than that I do feel that when people raise the concern about westernization, there is some rooted prejudice against western culture. Sometimes how we perceive culture is also completely flipped over. People simply assume they are westernizing, copying USA, Europe or other cultures. But they are copying what they assume to be reflections of other cultures. When you travel to these countries you see the deeper rooted indigenous cultures and see how the emulation was based on stereotypes and perception rather than reality.