PEOPLE’S IDEOLOGY ON CULTURE AND HERITAGE

[KEEPING IN MIND THE CHANGING SCENARIO OF THE WORLD AND THE PRESENT GENERATION]

Whatever we witness and practice today or we learn or learn something from our ancestors, is called knowledge. When this knowledge gets tested over the time, it takes the shape of experience; and when this experience is imparted to new generation, it becomes ideologies, good/bad practices or sometimes even prophecies.

These ideologies, when spread into huge masses, forms groups of people (society) with similar beliefs and practices. Over the period of time these groups of people, where they reside with their similarities and dissimilarities, together, develop art and culture.

So culture in simple terms is the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular group of people or society. This culture, art or anything that we inherit from our forefathers becomes heritage.

However, in context to “The Great Indian Subcontinent”, these definitions are just mere words. In India, with all its diversity and dissimilarities, different ideologies and practices, different forms of art and dialects of 1.3 billion people living together in unity, defines it’s true form of culture.

For individuals, their culture is their identity, which one is born. In the world of development, progress and competition, people tend to make their identities in their fields of specification (as doctors, engineers, businessmen or journalist etc.). 

However, they end up being mistaken, assuming it as their only identity, completely forgetting about their culture and responsibilities towards the society. Specially, the youth of the day, forget about their original cultural identity and get influenced by other trends specially westernization. 

There is no harm in following some good practices from other cultures as well but in order to balance this with westernization, we will have to study and propagate our culture, realize its importance and respect it’s beautiful existence.

 As it is truly said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”