The Shadows of Culture Extinction
Saurabh Thapa
‘Who is he and what is he playing?’ asked a
small Nepali boy to his mother pointing towards
a ‘Gaine’ or a ‘Sarangi player’ in a busy market place. It is sad to know that
many of the young generation teens have very little knowledge about their rich
cultural heritage. Cultural homogeneity, an effect of Globalization have
disrupted and confused many of the younger generations regarding their cultures
around the world. But excluding these cultural effects, the rise in the
standards of living has also a great role to play in leading many of the
cultures towards the verge of extinction.
A Gaine, (by the profession) in the district of
Darjeeling, has a lot of concerns regarding this context. He explains that it is
very hard to live a decent livelihood only with the help of his occupation in
the modern standards of living. The constant rise in the prices of daily needed
commodities has made it very difficult for his line of work to cope-up with the
harsh and expensive world. He worries that the youngsters of his community are
slowly leaving their profession and are opting for other jobs for a better
life. In this pace whole of their community would be extinct in a matter of
time.
Media, specially the television and internet,
has a great dominance over the recent world. These mediums of communications
are empowered with the great power of persuasion. Therefore, it does what it’s
meant to do, act as a powerful tool of globalization and sow the seeds of some influential
cultures upon other communities. Better known as ‘Mass culture’ and ‘Pop
culture’, these are widely accepted by a huge heterogeneous mass on the planet.
Many of the cultures are dying because of the massive adaptation of Mass
culture by not only the youngsters but also their parents. Adaptation of mass
or the pop culture not only mean to adopt the most accepted culture and trends
of the world but it also means to let go of their long held and accepted ethnic
culture and rituals.
It can be witnessed in the district of Darjeeling
and the state of Sikkim (even in many north-eastern parts of India) that a huge
number of teens have been greatly influenced by the Korean culture. They mostly
watch Korean movies and T.V shows and even dress like them. Some have even started
learning Korean language and we can see a lot of names changed into Korean names
in their Facebook profiles. Though these acts may seem harmless but in a
context it is slowly ‘deterritorializing’ the regional culture and is ‘reterritorialized’
by the Korean one. But no one can say whether this is a temporary or a permanent
process. Though it can be rightfully said, that in the coming future the
persuasiveness of Korean culture may be instantly replaced by another popular culture.
These can be seen as an evidence that our culture is slowly losing its grip on
the young generation teens. However, this is only one of the examples prevalent
in these parts. Other cultures such as Hiphop culture, Heavy metal culture,
etc, has also slowly started its influence within the youths of the region.
The ignorance or the negligence by the people
of any community towards their culture may result in the total disappearance of
what portrays their identity, their rich culture. A culture not only signifies the long held
belief, customs, rituals etc, but it truly helps to identify and give identity
to any specific community within the world. But with a very high rate of mass
culture adaptation, communities are now slowly merging with each other. The uniqueness
that once differentiated one culture from another is slowly fading away.
Evolution is a part of human characteristic and
like everything else, the world now is experiencing cultural change in the name
of cultural evolution. But when we talk about evolution, need or the
requirement to do so plays an important part to justify it. There is always a
reason and necessity, which is normally for the survival for anything to evolve
in the planet we live in. Keeping this in mind the question arises, Is there
any need for cultural change regarding the context of human survival? Or is the
change necessary in-order to walk in the footsteps of modernization?
The ongoing traditions and cultures that have
been passed from generations to generations seems more like a silhouette in the
modern world. Every thing’s changed in the name of modernity. Not only in the
perspective of culture but the so called modern world has led the people to leave
their ancestral settlements and move to bigger cities. As a proof of the
persuasive and very influential power of the media, it can be seen that the
life styles advertised by the big media houses have been very successful in changing
the livelihood of more than half of the population of the world, in some way or
the other. These changes may be both good as well as bad but it is all upto the
people to recognize and act accordingly. It totally depends upon what you adapt
and what you let go of. The main challenge here is to maintain a balance
between the inherited culture and the new culture adapted. The adaptation of
new culture may not always be harmful but to let go of the culture passed on
from generation to generation by our ancestors may prove to be very devastating
in some context.
(Published at Sikkim Express newspaper on 29th august,2012)
