What an American taught me about India's cultural wealth.
Many years ago, an American colleague was visiting India from the company I worked with. One evening in Mumbai, we were driving through Bandra for dinner and passed a roadside Ganpati pandal.
The lights, the decorations, the colossal idol - collectively, they were inviting. He asked me to stop.
We walked into the sarvajanik temple-like temporary structure by the road-side. People were seated before the idol. The crowd looked at us with amusement.
I told him: take off your shoes, do a namaste, close your eyes, and pray to your own God, or just sit in silence.
He looked around in wonder, and did exactly that.
He stayed in that silence longer than I expected.
When he opened his eyes, a small child came and gave both of us a banana as prasad.
I explained it was spiritual ambrosia. We got back in the car. He was quiet. Overwhelmed.
Then, as I drove, his eyes welled up. He started to cry.
I was stunned.
He said: “America has lost community living. Look at all these people. They have so much of it.”
In that moment, I realized how wealthy we Indians are. I had to hold back my own tears.
I’m an urban person. I don’t practice religion with the same zeal as many do. But I do believe our traditions have immense soft power.
And my point is only about India and Indian-ness.
Talking of community living, we say “India lives in its villages.”
We also hear “religion divides.”
But religious conflict is not really a village story. Almost all major riots happen in or around Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Often it’s politics, with megaphone given to it by the TRP-hungry media, or now, social media pouring kerosene on the flame.
In villages, religion does something else. It helps people cope with poverty and adversity of life.
Yes, different religious communities may not intermarry. But they have learned to live in harmony.
Sometimes I feel we in the cities are trained to assert our rights, but not to use judgment.
We demand a small gain, rather than accommodate for the sake of peace. That creates conflict. Religion then becomes the excuse, not the cause.
Sacrifice. What is that?
The “live and let live” wisdom is a moralist's slogan, often it’s just lip service.
The people in the villages are the ones who actually practice it.
Tradition is the thing people cling to when they’re facing the abyss.
Drive through the heart of India and you’ll notice something. The law doesn’t reach there. Yet people don’t rob you, even when the gap between them and you is so wide, maybe huge.
Why? Because "God is watching."
Faith is a fact beyond the realm of proof or reasoning.
They have a Dharmic sense - a principled duty towards fellow beings, to nature, to society.
They don’t question endlessly; that's an urban malaise. They let things be.
In my observation, the most intolerant people are the pseudo-intellectuals. The “Socratic” types who question everything without any real intellectual depth.
Financially secure, the socially loose "Liberals" dismiss all ancient traditions as superstition or practices beyond the expiration date. They demand utility and logic for everything.
They question. And they never give answers.
These are social ethnocides.
Selfish hippies - inspired by those Westerners who have no strings attached, who demand freedom from tradition, but take zero seconds to think about the consequences of throwing away practices that have lasted perhaps centuries.
They’re the media’s favorite guests during prime time. Notice how angry they are. Even when their questions are valid, their method is wrong.
So, let me attempt to answer - why traditions matter?
By itself, tradition may look like a mechanical ritual or a restriction.
But it also gives us three things: pride in your past, belonging in the present, and continuity into the future.
It brings people together. That's community living 101.
That’s the essence of a people - survival, unity, inspiration. And when things are down, it offers them succour.
Deeper the roots, sweeter the fruits. And that bonding is exactly what’s dwindling in our cities.
Without deep tradition, we are like a kati patang - a kite with no strings attached has no direction and goes where the wind takes it, soon to get grounded.
Gandhi pushed for reform. But he was also deeply traditional. His philosophy was: swim with the current of your tradition, not against it - as long as you don’t drown in it.
I’m not defending every blind practice. Reform, if needed.
But never forget - tradition keeps a community intact and content.
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