Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Indian culture has a "national" cohesion that America lacks

Today, telecast of Ramayan/MB was used to keep people at home

Is there a program in US that can achieve the same end?

Maybe Gone with the Wind / It's a Wonderful Life a few decades ago

But nothing comes close!

Even the mythology around the founders cannot quite keep all Americans glued to the TV

I know the "Hamilton" broadway play was a big hit

But then there are millions of Americans who have no idea who Hamilton was.

So what keeps America going as a nation is -

Its geographic isolation means immigrants lose their culture soon. It's a melting pot. So this keeps cultural nationalisms from breaking it

And it is a great place to make money. Which it rationalizes with libertarian rhetoric

But there is no cultural basis for America - which existed somewhat some 80 years ago. But no more

America has no common religious folklore. John Winthrop is not a household name.

Nor does it have a "modern" folklore based in movie-dom (Contd..)

In India despite Hindi being a language of < 50-60% of population, movie stars like Raj Kapoor or Amitabh Bachchan are household names across the land

Can't say that about US. I've met so many Americans who have no clue who is Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, or Katherine Hepburn