@Anviksiki there is another angle to this- fear/distaste for the curved line. A very big marker between western and eastern civilizational ethos seen in architecture/music etc Straight lines thought as elegant while curves thought as confused.
@Anviksiki Another angle is revulsion seen in colonial writings with phrases like "teeming millions" when referring to India's large dark skinned pagan population. the horror of vast hordes of pagans translated into crowds = bad
@Anviksiki in Indian writing you will never see this trope. in fact, crowds are thought to be a good sign of vitality in urban centers.

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More from @maxratul

13 Sep
The seeds of India's colonization were sown by 15th century itself. While we were wallowing in internecine warfare and hollowed out socially, Europeans were discovering the world. Japan escaped by skin of its teeth tks to Meiji restoration possible due to its cultural homogeneity
We became a backward society, at best adopters and users of new tech, instead of developers and innovators. This is true for every kingdom in India regardless of religion or region.
Add to that nonsensical rules and taboos enforced on an enfeebled society by its elites, the capacity to generate the necessary system shock to change trajectory was simply not there.
Read 5 tweets
9 Aug
Beef is not just another meat in Indian context. This was an instance where food was weaponized by jihadi hordes specifically to desecrate Hindu temples and assault Hindu sensibilities. There are countless historical evidences of this practice.
Beef consumption gained another dimension in colonial era when Macaulayite class used it as a declaration of their scientific temper. Many young students would eat it as a mark of rebellion against prevailing social norms.
This became a trend in British Kolkata - one of the most famous incidents is that of Rev Krishna Mohan Bannerjee, who was accused of eating beef and wine at a gathering of youth under Derozio, got outed, and was ostracized.
Read 10 tweets
7 Aug
Dharma never falls short. Never ever. It is our misinterpretation of what Dharma is that leads to confusion. Dharma is realisation Srishti-Sthiti-Laya cycle is fundamental nature of universe. Over-emphasis on any one will always lead to disaster. Nothing western- this is Shruti.
The Shruti emphasizes this dynamism everywhere. Indra releases the waters kept stagnant by Vritra. H civilization has been outward looking- this sensibility was at the core of H civilization before the Islamic invasions.
But then we got locked in a Civilizational war, and prioritized stability above everything else. Result is we lagged behind the world, and became colonized. Satyam eva jayate, and at that point in time the truth was we were weak in a world of Matsyanyaya.
Read 4 tweets
7 Aug
the caste jati system is obsolete in the post industrial world. we can keep crying (because industrialization is interlinked with colonialism in Indian context), but the failure of H society to adapt to the new world is at the root of deracination.
social order is tightly coupled with social justice. Once industrial revolution happened, H society lost means of providing social justice, because market economy became norm. That lead to inevitable collapse of social order.
but crying about market, industrial revolution etc is meaningless and futile. So is sticking to older notions of social order and dreaming about its return as if they were some golden era. No. Times change. The world change. There is no going back.
Read 5 tweets
15 Jun
Tradition is a non-argument against equality of opportunity in this day and age. It is always going to lose because it will go against public sense of natural justice.
Earlier times there was guarantee of income associated with hereditary rights and exclusions. Post industrial age those hereditary rights have become meaningless in practice because economic model itself has changed.
Traditions, which are to guide society, will either evolve- organically or by external force, or will become extinct in time. The wheel of time itself will grind it down without mercy. Those who can see that reality and adapt will survive.
Read 4 tweets
4 Jun
One unfortunate long term effect of colonialism on Hindu psyche is the "this is the true X" syndrome.
Current "RW" is majorly a victim of this. Let me try and explain.
So when the British came and colonised India, the Indian traditional knowledge system was dissected and then subject to a brutal assault by protestant/enlightenment forces. The latter operated with completely different fundamentals compared to Indian processes.
Since the foundation was different, the universal truths for these ideologies were also different.
Let us for example take the concept of the individualism.
Read 16 tweets

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