Is Indian culture decaying?

印度文化正在衰退吗?

以下是Quora读者的评论：

Aman Tanwar , Just Curious, IIT Alumni

Our culture is decaying because we as human beings are decaying.

Secondly, we are not valuing our own culture, instead we find honour in a the west. The West itself is now started recognizing greatness our culture, and we are copying from them(and this has been going on from histories)! The attitude towards our culture should be changed.

To give some examples of greatness of our culture...

We gave the world zero, pythagoras theorem (a few to name in mathematics) , martial arts, clothing, ship building, Yog(not to forget)........ and many more.

West is now just 'rediscovering' what our vedic culture told us much earlier- gravitation, newton laws, astronomy, mathematics, atomic bomb.... to name a few.

我们的文化在衰退，因为我们印度人正在衰退。

其次，我们不重视自己的文化，而是以模仿西方为荣。西方现在开始认识到我们文化的伟大之处，而我们却在模仿他们(这在历史中一贯如此)!对我们文化的态度应该改变。

举例说明我们文化的伟大之处…

我们给了世界带来了零，毕达哥拉斯定理，武术，服装，造船，瑜伽(不要忘记)……还有其他很多。

西方现在只是“重新发现”了我们的吠陀文化很早就告诉过我们的东西——万有引力、牛顿定律、天文学、数学、原子弹……

Sheffield University, studying the behaviour of heavenly bodies and recording the sounds emitted by them, concluded that the sound “Om” is the sound that the sun gives out. Of course, they called it the sound  emitted from transverse pulling of the guitar string, but still no one  has ever conducted such a research.

There can be many examples like these to give. What we must understand is the power of our culture and heed back to it whose basis is KARMA, whose basis is doing Service and Charity selflessly. This is not to save our culture but our culture can save us.

(In past 200 years (when west's knowledge came to practice) no one had seen such pollution levels, emotional congestions, increase in diseases, grey haired youths. Like other previous civilisations it is facing dangers of its end, but our culture had been in exstence for more than 5000 years with not so many problems like these......... see the difference!!!)

谢菲尔德大学研究了天体的运行情况并记录了它们发出的声音，得出结论：“Om”是太阳发出的声音。当然，他们称它为吉他弦横向拉动发出的声音，但至今还没有人做过这样的研究。

这样的例子不胜枚举。我们必须理解的是我们的文化的力量，并关注它的基础是因果报应，是无私地服务和慈善。这不是为了拯救我们的文化，但我们的文化可以拯救我们。

在过去的200年里(西方知识应用到实践中)，没有人见过这样的污染程度、情感障碍、疾病高发、早生白发的年轻人。和之前的其他文明一样，它也面临着灭亡的危险，但我们的文化已经存在了5000多年，没有这么多这样的问题，这就是区别! ! !)

Shivansh Mehrotra

Well before the Britishers invaded India and exploited its resources. India was known as the golden bird which meant that it was self sufficient. India excelled in agricultural, trade and handicrafts amongst others. But when the Britishers came they saw that the caste system was quite prevalent and disunited the people. So they came up with the policy of divide and rule that proved to be a master stroke for them and it was here that the disharmony amongst religions and castes became noticeable. It was a huge set back for whole country. The Britishers thought that was their best chance to capture India and so they did and we became the "gulams" or slaves.

Slowly the rulers started to nurture their culture in our country then they started several new projects of transport and industrialization for turning the raw material into finished goods as well as for import and export, time passed by and India became independent in 1947 and slowly India fought her way through several other problems that it had to face after getting independence. Industrialization was still in its early stages and most of the people still survived on agriculture.

In 1990s India declared the LPG reforms, (Liberalisation, privatisation and Globalisation) which basically meant any one from outside India could come here and set up his business. This improved employment situation in the country at the same time expanded consumption options. This proved to be a boon as it also led to technological advancement. The influence of the western soft power was noticeable but still the essence of the Indian culture remained the same. It is in our architecture, food, tradition dresses and even in our art and music.

在英国人入侵印度并开发其资源之前，印度被称为金鸟，这意味着它当时是自给自足的。印度在农业、贸易和手工业等方面都很出色。当英国人入侵时，他们发现种姓制度非常盛行，四分五裂。于是他们提出了分而治之的政策，这被证明是他们的一大创举，宗教和种姓之间的不和谐变得越发明显。这对整个国家来说是一个巨大的挫折。英国人认为这是他们占领印度的最好机会，我们成了“古拉姆”或奴隶。

统治者开始在我们国家推行他们的文化，开始若干个运输项目、将原材料加工成产品的工业项目以及进出口项目，随着时间的推移，印度在1947年独立，慢慢地在解决独立后面对的其他几个问题。工业化还处于初级阶段，大多数人仍以农业生产为生。

上世纪90年代，印度宣布了改革开放(自由化、私有化和全球化)，这基本上意味着任何来自印度以外的人都可以来这里创业。这改善了该国的就业情况，同时扩大了消费选择。这被证明是一大好事，因为它带来了技术的进步。西方软实力的影响是显而易见的，但印度文化的精髓仍然没有改变。它存在于我们的建筑、食物、传统服饰，甚至我们的艺术和音乐中。

译文来源：三泰虎  http://www.santaihu.com/48697.html 译者：Joyceliu

Yes the coming of technology might had overshadowed these things but there is another dimension to it that with technology and social media coming in, many art form and dance forms are also getting revived so, I would like to conclude just by this that the Indian culture is still very prevalent and it is not decaying. One might feel like it is getting overshadowed under new technology and social media but the fact of the matter is that you cannot detach yourself from your default nature just like that you cannot seperate yourself from your culture because this is inherent in you since childhood. Our culture is displayed even in the littlest of things around us, we just need to pay attention for it to come into the big picture.

是的，未来的技术可能使这些事物黯然失色，但有了技术和社会媒体，许多艺术形式和舞蹈形式也得到恢复，所以，我想通过这些信息得出结论，印度文化仍然非常普及，并未衰退。你可能会觉得它在新技术和社交媒体下变得黯然失色，但事实是，你不能把自己从你的本性中分离出来，就像你不能把自己从你的文化中分离出来一样，因为这是你与生俱来、根深蒂固的。我们的文化即使是在我们周围最微小的事物中也能得到体现，我们只需要留心，就能豁然发现。

Ankit Chordia, Business owner

I would say yes. We have started dressing up, eating, working and behaving in a more western way. Our lifestyles are completely westernized. But I am not against that. I believe it makes India progressive and aids in our development and positively impacts globalization. My only problem is with three things:

我会说是的。我们已经用一种更西化的方式打扮、饮食、工作和行事。我们的生活方式完全西化了。但我并不反对。我认为这使印度进步，帮助我们发展，并对全球化产生积极影响。我唯一担心的是三件事：

1.Even traditional occasions like marriages and festivals are falling prey to western traditions. Though westermization is welcome in every other frame of life, I feel like it should be avoided during marriages and festivals. Thats when we should try embracing our culture to the fullest and keep in touch with our roots. Its not too much to ask. It is only one or two days in a year at max.

2.Women who wear sarees and other traditional clothing are looked down upon by those who wear western clothes. Especially at restaurants and malls, etc in the big cities. Even men who wear kurtas are not very welcome at any place. They are made to feel out of place and old fashioned. We talk about being accepting about any type of clothing. We don't realize that we are becoming less accepting of traditional Indian clothing. People who embrace it in daily life are somehow “uncool”. How about we accept ALL types of clothes?

3.Speaking English is viewed as fashionable. While speaking hindi and other local languages is considered weird and not welcome in urban India. I know urban India is cosmopolitan, and hence english is the only common language. But there is nothing wrong for example, in wanting people to know hindi in the north, even if they were from the south. Look at countries like Italy, France, Spain, etc. They expect even tourists to know their language. They speak english only as a last resort, and a majority of their population doesn't even speak fluent english. Yet they are developed and doing extremely well. Thats why I respect people from Delhi, Kerala and Tamil nadu when it comes to this issue. Extremely proud of their culture inspite of being developed and educated, and are unapologetic about it.

This is only my opinion and I don't mean to offend anyone.

1.婚姻和节日等传统场合也受到了西方传统的影响。虽然在其他方面西方生活方式很受欢迎，但我觉得婚姻和节日应该避免西化。我们应该尽量拥抱我们的文化，并与我们的文化根基保持联系。这个要求并不过分。一年最多只有一两天。

2.穿纱丽和其他传统服装的妇女会被穿西式服装的人瞧不起。尤其是在大城市的餐馆和商场等。穿库塔的男人在任何地方都不受欢迎。它们让人感觉格格不入，很老土过时。我们谈论接受任何类型的衣服。我们没有意识到我们对传统印度服装的接受度正在下降。在日常生活中穿着传统服饰“很土气”。让我们接受所有类型的衣服吧，怎么样？

3.说英语是时髦的事。虽然说印地语和其他当地语言被认为很奇怪，在印度城市不受欢迎。我知道印度城市是世界性的，因此英语是唯一的通用语言。但这并没有错。看看意大利、法国、西班牙等国家。他们希望游客了解他们的语言。他们只在万不得已的时候才说英语，他们中的大多数人甚至不会说流利的英语。这就是为什么在这个问题上，我尊重德里、喀拉拉邦和泰米尔纳德邦的人民。尽管他们的文化得到了发展，但他们仍对自己的文化感到无比自豪。

这只是我的看法，我并不想冒犯任何人。

Rijul Bajaj, Product Development Associate at Think and Learn Pvt.Ltd. (2016-present)

I don't think any culture ever decays. It just transform from its old version to new with the people.

This world is a big churn whatever good or bad comes out of it people picks it, depending on their comforts and surroundings.

If by decaying of culture any one means that we should keep things the way they were earlier then I think someone is wrong here because you cannot hold old practices and traditions forever. You evolve with them.

You cannot wear your traditional clothes daily and go out and work for some MNC. No one is stop you from practising your traditions and culture but think about it say your company for which you are working has people from different nations with different cultures and traditions and if everyone feels like wearing their traditional attire daily I think it would be a fairly weird place to work.

And those who feel that getting modern and by accepting other cultures decay our own, think about this again that if Indian culture is so rich it is because of its ability to intermix with other cultures and tradition not by opposing them.

我不认为任何文化会衰落。它会和人们一起，在旧文化基础上更新换代。

这个世界是一个大熔炉，无论好坏，人们都会根据自己的舒适程度和周围环境来选择。

如果文化的衰落意味着我们应该保持事物的早期状态，那么我认为有些人是错误的，因为你不能永远保持旧的习俗和传统。你和他们一起进化。

你不能每天穿着传统的衣服出门为跨国公司工作。没有人阻止你践行传统和文化,但你的公司里有来自不同国家的人，有不同的文化和传统，如果每个人都穿传统服装，这将是一个相当奇怪的工作场所。

那些认为接受其他文化就会使我们自己的文化衰落的人，可以想想看，印度文化如此丰富，是因为它与其他文化和传统融合的能力很强，而非抵制其他文化。

Vaibhav Kadam, lives in India

The culture of India is one of the oldest and unique. In India, there is amazing cultural diversity throughout the country. The South, North, and Northeast have their own distinct cultures and almost every state has carved out its own cultural niche. There is hardly any culture in the world that is as varied and unique as India. India is home to some of the most ancient civilisations

Indian culture is rich and diverse and as a result unique in its very own way. Our manners, way of communicating with one another, etc are one of the important components of our culture.

印度文化是最古老和独特的文化之一。在印度，整个国家有着惊人的文化多样性。南方、北方和东北有自己独特的文化，几乎每个邦都开辟了自己的文化生态位。世界上几乎没有任何一种文化像印度那样多样化和独特。印度是一些最古老文明的发源地。

印度文化丰富多彩，因此有其独特的方式。我们的礼貌、交流方式等是我们文化的重要组成部分之一。

1.PUBS : I’m seeing my friend asking me to come to PUB, Night Outs and wandering around.

2.DATING: Indian culture is really very rich if we do observe 80′s and 90′s we will have kind of idea that richness in culture have lost nowadays in western trends. Dating is one of the way to get laid easily without having many kind of clues.

3.Dressing : Many of us do often dress saree only on traditional days , Ganpati Ustav and or on many kind of festivals. Else we have adopted Western trends.

4.Language : Many of girls I’m seeing are used to talk in English with Auto Driver. I mean it doesn’t make any kind of sense. Adopting English is really very good thing but not with rikshawalas.

5.Diversity : While talking about culture, apart from natural India have diversity in religion which is spoiling nowadays . People are tending to spoil the peace which is really bad thing.

6.Respect: “ I shall give respect to my parents,teachers and all elders" this is what a sentence in our pledge which we have forgotten.

7.Atithi devo bhava : Atithi devo bhava (Guests are gods) is what one of the slogan is Indian Culture which is not followed by us at all.

8.ANY OF US HAVING WISDOM CAN WRITE 100 s of pages on this topic,

Its who we young people can survive our Indian Culture :). Dhanyawad

1.酒吧:我看到我的朋友邀请我去酒吧，晚上出去玩，到处闲逛。

2.约会:印度文化真的很丰富，如果我们观察80年代和90年代，我们会有这样的想法，丰富的文化在今天的西化中消失了。约会是一种无需太多暗示就能轻松上床的方式。

3.服饰:我们很多人只在传统节日、乌斯塔夫节或其他节日才穿纱丽。

4.语言:我看到很多女孩都用英语和汽车司机交谈。我是说，这根本说不通。说英语确实是一件好事，但对人力车车夫来说不是。

5.多样性:在谈到文化的时候，除了自然之外，印度还有宗教的多样性。人们倾向于破坏和平，这是非常糟糕的事情。

6.尊敬:“我应该尊敬我的父母、老师和所有的长辈”，这是我们遗忘了的一句誓言。

7.客人即上帝，是是印度文化的一个口号，但我们已经完全不遵循了。

8.我们中任何一个有智慧的人都可以写100页关于这个主题的文章，

我们年轻人可以在我们的印度文化中生存。

Aarsh Chokshi, im just a thinker, i like thinking

No, indian culture itself is not decaying. Our culture is ever growing.

The main problem is people have forgot the culture, and the main problem for that is people are not exposed to the culture, people donot know whats what in our culture.

Beauty of our culture is unknown threfore we are being attracted towards western culture. Treasure of knowledge which used to pass thorugh generations in ancient times, is not passing now.

不，印度文化本身并没有衰退。我们的文化在不断发展。

主要问题是人们忘记了文化，主要的问题是人们没有接触到文化，人们不知道我们的文化是什么。

在我们被西方文化吸引之前，我们的文化之美是未知的。过去曾代代相传的知识财富，现在已不复存在。

Divyanth Jayaraj, UI Developer, Lone Wonderer

No, Indian culture is not 'decaying'. Like all cultures in the world, Indian culture is evolving.

When cultures come in contact with other cultures, they pick their best aspects and reject the bad aspects. That's how cultures survive. Those who resist change or evolution, eventually die.

不，印度文化没有“衰退”。跟世界上所有的文化一样，印度文化也在发展。

当文化与其他文化接触时，他们取其精华，去其糟粕。文化就是这样生存下来的。那些抗拒改变或进化的人，最终都会死亡。

Ramaswamy Subramanian, Enrich your thoughts, and live a life of your own.

Every culture will keep changing. Culture cannot be standardised to say, whether it is improving, changing or decaying. There is no uniformity in Indian culture, to ascertain its moving trend. Village culture is different from city culture, North-east culture is different from south-east culture. Every region follow there own culture. If the living condition improves, we can say that the culture is also improving, and vice versa. But somewhere it improves, in some places it remains static, and in other place, the situation may be bad.

If marriage is taken as an indication of a given culture, it differs from one culture to the other. The age factor, ritual factor, the way of selection of brides and grooms etc., will all differ from one community to the other. Some will opt for love marriage and others may accept, marriages arranged by parents. Each custom will have its own merits and demerits. Every religion, region and the immediate social set-up, will also dictate their rules and regulations on it. Similarly every activity of mankind, from dressing to food, places of worship, way of worship, its timing and style, will all differ. The same people will adopt different style of living in different places, to suit the immediate surrounding.

Changes do happen in all society, but it need not be taken as good or bad, but are just changes, generally for betterment.

每种文化都会不断变化。文化不能被标准化，不能说它正在改善、改变或衰退。印度文化没有统一之处来确定其发展趋势。乡村文化不同于城市文化，东北文化不同于东南文化。每个地区都有自己的文化。如果生活条件改善了，我们可以说文化也在改善，反之亦然。但在某些地方它会改善，在某些地方它会保持不变，而在另一些地方，情况可能会变糟。

如果婚姻是一种特定文化的象征，那么它就会因文化的不同而不同。年龄、婚礼、挑选新娘和新郎的方式等，在不同的社区都会有所不同。有些人会选择爱情婚姻，有些人可能会接受父母安排的婚姻。每种风俗都有其优点和缺点。每一个宗教、地区和直接的社会结构也将规定它们的规则和条例。同样地，人类的每一项活动，从穿衣到吃饭，礼拜的地点、礼拜的方式、时间和方式，都是不同的。同样的人会在不同的地方采用不同的生活方式，以适应周围的环境。

变化确实发生在整个社会，但无关好坏，只是变化，通常变化是为了进步。

Ishan Dubey, Student

In my view yes,India’s ancient culture is decaying.No,one is decaying our culture.We Indians ourselves are responsible for it.Now a days our youth is attracting towards foreign culture.They are fond of western culture,they are addicted to drugs,the sense of solidarity is depleting and many more….The only remedy for this is the compulsory teaching of Holy Bhagwad Geeta,Ramayan in schools and at home.

在我看来，是的，印度古老的文化正在衰败。不，有人在腐蚀我们的文化。我们印度人自己要对此负责。现在我们的年轻人被外国文化所吸引。他们喜欢西方文化，吸毒成瘾，团结感日益减弱，还有更多……这方面的唯一补救办法是在学校和家庭强制教授神圣的巴格瓦德·吉塔和罗摩衍。