Tulsi Prajna 1993 01

SR No.: 524573
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 156
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 9 MB

Page 25

TUL SĨ PRA J&A
19
Values in the tradition of Indian thinking
and Values relevant to our contemporary needs
S.P.Banerjee
Every community or country tries to reassess its value-frame periodically in its attempt to sustain itself, if possible, with dignity. The need of such reappraisal is felt more acutely in the periods of crisis, supposed or genuine. There is a widespread feeling in our contemporary society that the present state of affairs in our society is far from normal and symptoms of a disease are manifesting themselves through degeneration and decadence in all fields of our social and cultural life. The political arena shows shameless corruption and gross violation of minimum norms of decency and decorum in almost all places, high and low, and academic field is showing signs of utter frustration as shown through rampant malpractices in examination and careless teaching; the religious attitude is becoming more and more fundamentalist and intolerant and above all, there is lack of mutual trust and respect. Consumerism in the economic field, gross hedonism in moral life and cynicism and scepticism about the political authority or any sort of value-structure are resulting in ultimate frustration and despair and most serious of all, in failing out of the vitality of the nation as expressed through a lack of innovativeness and creativity.
To the discerning section of the society this is high time that we take a close look at our cultural roots and find out if the ills stem out therefrom. Fortunately or unfortunately our country has a cultural heritage which is at least five thousand years old and quite a few of its elements have been widely appreciated and acclaimed. But that should not lead us to complacence and need not blind us to the dead log in our cultural heritage which is irrelevant to the needs of our society today. It is, therefore, proper that we reassess our cultural heritage in order to determine what is to be retained, what is to be rejected and what is to be modified and readjusted to the conditions of a free, multilingual, multireligious society with inevitable ethnic pluralism. A very significant historical reality to which we must pay our serious attention is the comprehensive attack on our cultural moorings by the colonizers of the recent past who planned to throw the community totally out of its keel in order to implant new, alien structures to facilitate and retain their
January-March 1993