Decaying society??

The tragic shoot out in a Gurgaon school has raised my issues about Indian society which is undergoing rapid transformation. Some would say that it is the outcome of adopting western (read American) type of lifestyle and culture. The school shoot out is not very uncommon phenomenon in the USA. The news of a school boy killing his class mates with gun in America used to be a sited as a ground for criticizing American way of life. It is true that after accepting globalization as a means to develop Indian society, there have been unprecedented changes in the cultural trends in India. The western culture in general and American culture in particular is spreading at a faster pace throughout the world as compared to other cultures. However, the positive aspects of the western and American society and polity are not spreading with as much pace as negative aspects. The spread of awareness among the people about the issues such as human rights, gender equality, consumer rights, labor rights, civil liberty etc. which are the hallmark of the western society continue to be very low. The rate of dowry death remains unacceptably high. The divorcing of women on frivolous grounds, the lynching of lower caste people by upper caste, mindless killing of innocent people in communal riots etc. are some of the shameful characteristics of Indian society which are indigenous. Indian society definitely needs to take the lesson from the evolution of western society in all these respects. Unfortunately these necessary adoptions from these societies are not happening with the requisite pace. On the other hand, some of the unwanted aspects such as objectification of women, emotional infidelity, violence, short term relationships and lack of respect for elders are unabashedly emulated by the people especially youth. In this way the Indian society is loosing its characteristic strength and due to adoption of evil features from other societies it’s on the decay course. It is upto the civil society to arrest this decay in the interest of the sustainability of the Indian civilization.

Beginning

I heard about blog 2 years back. It took some time to digest the fact that in order to express ones views on social,political,economic and environmental issues, and also to be heard and read widely, one does not need to be a well known intellectual, a popular journalist or having a university degree or a specialist job in these areas. I believe that the greatest contribution of the Information Technology is that it has empowered the common man to be counted and getting the feeling of fulfilment.We may blame the IT for creating the 'digital divide', but the one divide which the IT has surely bridged is the divide between the common man and the the so called intellectuals. Blog is the best example of this contribution. Besides, IT has also enabled the common people world over to interact freely without any restrictions of nationality, ethnicity,race,caste and colour of the skin. I read the blogs on various topics and by diverse people in my free time, but the idea of creating a blog of my own struck me only recently. So I thought it better to start late than never. I commit myself to regularly express my views on diverse issues impacting the lives of common man and thereby connect myself to the common folks all around the world.

Anand