Posts Tagged ‘India’

• 2002-03 Winner (Fourth Place): “The Vulnerable Culture” by Saumil Gandhi

  Date: 2003.07.12 | Category: Selected Essays | Response: 0

  “The Vulnerable Culture” by Saumil Gandhi PDF

  In the past and to this day, the Indian culture has been under the constant influence of the western world.  This influence that was first welcomed is now slowly but surely becoming a threat to the survival of the Indian cultural beliefs.  The magnitude of this influence encompasses from the entertainment industry to traditional family values.  Some Indians call this influence an unwanted change and term it as a cultural genocide.  They believe with the introduction of this genocide our rich ancient culture is at stake. Mary Louise Pratt, author of the article “Arts of the Contact Zone,” terms the process by which this unwanted change is introduced in a culture as a “contact zone.” She defines this term as [ . . . ] “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power” [ . . . ] (Pratt 575).  This social space created by the clash of two or more cultures tends to engulf the subordinate culture by the culture in authority and dominance, leaving the subordinate culture vulnerable to extinction. I fear the extinction of these subordinate cultures and believe that the contact zone in India enables the dominant Western culture to diminish and inhibit the growth of traditional Indian and other minority cultures.

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