Analyzing The Rammohun's Response

Throughout time, Westerners have more or less oppressed Eastern culture, creating the west as the metaphysical head of the world. The west’s ethnocentric tendencies, have acted as a suppressant to the spread of non-western thought. Even though Eastern ideologies tend to differ greatly from thoughts of the western world, there is some level of unity between the two. Unlike the ecclesiastical influences, seen in the west, Confucianism and Sikhi present thoughts about the individual and humankind’s natural goodness. In many cases of political and social order, Eastern and Western philosophy have found themselves parallel in thought.

Many of the themes explored by Gandhi in Hind Swaraj are directly or indirectly influenced by these texts. ‘I lay no claim to originality. They have been formed after reading several books.’ For instance, Gandhi’s explanation of colonialism is built upon Tolstoy’s Letter to a Hindoo where he argues that ‘it is not the English who have enslaved the Indians, but the Indians who have enslaved themselves.’ Similarly, an uncompromising critique of industrial culture, the hallmark of Gandhian thought, is derived from Ruskin, Tolstoy and many other writers. Further, Maine’s contention, that Indians were inheritors of a civilization that had representative institutions but destroyed by the new utilitarian state, was used by Gandhi to point out the superiority of

Culture builds up and shapes how people view the world and the people in it. It determines how we judge and view the way others act, look, and even how they think. In the texts “Where worlds collide”, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, and “Two Kinds”, it is shown that a person’s views of others and the world are solely determined by their culture.

Uma Narayan, warns that “understanding, despite great effort and interest, is likely to be incomplete or limited” even amongst the allies of privileged

The religious practices which are still followed in the country, makes one feel that they are living in the primitive world. The story of Roop Kanwar from Deorala , Rajasthan, is a violent and forceful murder, Which was fabricated as ‘Sati’ by the villagers. When speaking about ‘Sati’, Dalrymple enumerates:

Ram opens up about his culture and religion to the audiences. We also learn that all religions are similar, but all of them share the same concepts. But every culture is different from others. In the book it show us how people all around the world live on a daily basis. By reading this book, it tells us that religion plays a big part in people's life and how it affects them.

“Kochinnenako in Academe” by Paula Gunn Allen exposes the problems not only with the distortion of traditions/texts through interpretation, but the distortion of the purpose of life in general when perspective is limited. I strongly agreed with Allen’s statement regarding the translation of the harmonious, balanced tribal story into a very linear and shallow western story. Allen accurately states “Soon there appear to be heroes, point of view, conflicts, crisis, and resolution…the result is a western story with Indian characters”(Allen 31). After reading through the essay I drew the conclusion that prevalent forces such as western society, tend to obscure the “backgrounds” (other aspects of life), leading to the promotion of a unidimensional, unbalanced lifestyle that is heavily dictated by material gain and loss.

Ronald Terchek writes this article to describe the viewpoint that Gandhi has on some of the traditions that are present in the Indian culture. The title of his piece ‘Reclaiming a Tradition and Making It Your Own’ is exactly what he writes about, because Gandhi takes his form of Hinduism and he molds the traditions to be more flexible to his own ideas and interests. The reason for this article is to describe how Gandhi and his fellow Indians took parts of their own religion and reformed some of the original traditions which they had believed had become corrupt and ritualized over time. Terchek asks in this article, just why was Gandhi so keen on changing the traditions of his native religion?

Alexie remarks on his experience dealing with this standard, remarking that “a smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike” (Alexie). He faced the ‘ideal’ growing up and noticed those who thought against it, like himself, were viewed as “dangerous” — a threat to the majority’s power and capable of subverting the social order; he illustrates one method the majority uses to maintain their power: those who threatened the ‘ideal’ were mocked by both the majority and minorities who were manipulated into adopting the ‘ideal’ way of thinking to force ideological rebels to submit to the ‘ideal’.

The Rabari people live in the Kutch area in the state of Gujarat in the center of India. They have lived a nomadic lifestyle for most of their history by willingly travelling place to place in search of water, food, and grazing land; recently about 1-2% have been living a semi-nomadic lifestyle (RabariSamaj). This happened because globalization forces such as influences of education, technology, and trade have forced them to become more westernized, further stripping them of their rich culture. The forces, with good intentions, try to uplift the underprivileged people of the tribe and are engaging in similar methods which completely ignore the value of the Rabari cultural heritage. The organizations’ intentions are commendable, but the impact on cultural aspects should not be neglected.

On the other hand, culture is formed with wide variety aspects, not only history. For example, language is one of the biggest problems for foreign people understand. “The biggest problem with the word culture is that nobody seems to know exactly what it means, or rather, that it means very different things to different people.” (Scollon. R, Scollon.S.W, Jones.R.H, 2011). In addition, the news about the India crime chief causes outrage with ‘if you can’t prevent rape, you enjoy it’ comment (India crime chief causes outrage, 2013). It is hard for foreigner to understand the situation and the feeling about India rape problem, and this comment may produce negative feeling for the world-wide people. However, Indian may feel normal for this comment, because rape is one of the common crimes in India’s history.

Gandhi," Ghosh himself turns into a piece of the activity. Portraying the outcome of Indira Gandhi's death and the resulting slaughter of Sikhs by Hindu swarms, Ghosh expounds on his little part in guaranteeing the wellbeing of a Sikh couple, who, until it was past the point of no return, declined to trust that they could be the objectives of a crowd's wrath. Be that as it may, in spite of the dramatization of that entry, the heart of the paper lies in the little demonstrations of resistance mounted by standard natives insulted by the gore. His expositions spell out little truth from huge

Mahapatra’s concern of the vision of belief and loss, dejection and rejection are typically Indian.

K. Narayan has presented an encompassing view of Gandhian ideology and philosophy. The theory of Karma, spirit of oneness with all, the theme of transformation from materialism to spiritualism, the concept of non-violence are discussed in the novels discussed here, namely, Waiting for the Mahatma, The Vendor of Sweets, The English Teacher, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Man Eater of Malgudi and A Tiger for Malgudi. Narayan probably never met the Mahatma and didn’t know him personally but he has superbly grasped and mastered the quintessence of Gandhian philosophy. In an interview with Susan E. Croft, R. K. Narayan

Aziz agrees, the Englishmen have no choice but to insult the Indians to emphasize that they are the superiors and the rulers of India. Both Dr. Aziz and Hamidullah commend that, the British, “all are exactly alike” (Foster, 9), under the colonial system, a to be unanimously contemptuous. Even though at first, some of the English newcomers are friendly, they all turn out to be racists as their conversation goes: