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Indian School

It's a familiar refrain, "These modern ways are diluting our culture and tradition!" You will hear this lament in the East and the West.

India has a rich, vast culture, with a diversity that is amplified by the sheer scale and size of the country. The culture of the South of India is often no more familiar to those living in the North than that of America; in fact, it can even be less so.

What is a common binding factor across the many cultures is the seemingly unstoppable rise of Western values and fashions throughout all of India. I hesitate to say "Western cultural influences" as they are also too varied to describe as one generic entity. It could be those of the MTV generation or the British Royal Family. One person's cultural norm is another person's misunderstanding.

It is enlightening to see the concern about Western culture encroaching on India, when it is so readily welcomed both for its financial possibilities and its entertainment. Could the same thing be happening the other way round, with Indian culture feeding back into the West?

Is the concern of the schools to ensure that somehow Indian culture and traditions are not diluted and compromised by Western ideals, undermined by the use of English for teaching and conversation?

Further, is there not an extent to which getting to grips with the language involves an understanding of the culture? Perhaps, while English is the main medium in schools then there will always be an element of dilution. After all, the parents all speak English at home too.

The inference could be drawn that 'modernity' must always compromise culture and tradition. But I wonder if this is true? Perhaps modernity actually allows the students (and the wider society) to become more acutely aware of their own heritage and influences – working as an accelerator which allows and encourages tradition and culture to be celebrated.

The questions, however, are not as new as the cultural pressures they concern. These ideological battles have always run through Indian society, and perhaps always will.

About the author

Billy Khokhar is an assistant director with the Open University, and an expert on cultural awareness and diversity. Billy used to be a teacher, and is interested in how education in India compares and contrasts with the UK.