Importance of Maintaining Cultural Links

Importance of Maintaining Cultural Links Rohit Vadhwana

Deputy High Commissioner, HCI, Nairobi Former First Secretary, HCI, London (Expressed opinions are personal)

Culture has its own way of making its presence felt. It becomes an integral part of our lives and society over a period of time. The culture percolates down from generation to generation, making society richer with time.

Culture is one aspect that we need to take very seriously because our well-being depends on it. It might sound a bit strange but whether a person is actually happy or not depends less on the actual situation and more on the culture s/he is part of.

Culture has the tendency of creating strong value systems in human beings. This value system decides how you evaluate any particular situation and how you react to that. The cultural aspect actually works on our psychological development.

The culture nurtures our minds to be stronger or weaker in certain circumstances. I would like to substantiate this argument with an example. In Indian tradition, especially Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism- people believe in karma. They consider that for the present situation it is the past karma which is playing a role, and if they do better Karmas, then that will decide their future. The cycle of Karma continues from birth after birth, not limited to one life. This theory of Karma justifies the circumstances and situations which may not be the immediate result of one ' s doing in life. The person tends to believe that if the situation is bad it is because of the Karma he might have done in the past lives. Also, good fortune is believed to be the result of past virtuous Karmas. This understanding brings humility to a person while in a good situation. On the contrary, in a difficult situation, the individual tries to justify and rationalise the situation rather than blaming other people for the same. On the contrary, in societies where the theory of karma is not part of their culture, people feel the pain much more rigorously. They believe that you get good or bad fortune because of your own action. There is no attribution of success or failure to the past Karmas. It is considered to be the immediate result of own action. It sometimes leads to overconfidence or disappointment. In case of difficult circumstances, they think that it' s because of either their own fault or because of other people ' s misdoing. In this case, they try to either indulge in self-guilt or hatred toward others. This may also lead to situations where people enter into vengeance and antisocial behaviour. In such societies, people are trained differently to tackle their situations. Thus, culture decides the mindset of people and their ability to tackle a particular situation, either good or bad. In those cultures where society is given more importance than oneself, people are much more compassionate in comparison to individualistic societies. Culture decides how you evaluate the situation, and how you react to them. Therefore, it is important to nurture and follow the culture we are born and brought up in. Sometimes, a person is born in different culture but for the majority of his/her life lives in a different society. In such cases, one tries to accept one of the cultures as own but still tries to adjust to the other one. It is especially true for those who live abroad, leaving their motherland. There cannot be enough emphasis on maintaining the cultural ties with own homeland and traditions. Leaving them completely to settle in the new land may result in a tricky situation where one finds own self belonging to neither of them. So, it is better to maintain a stronger link with own culture.