We need a Tradition 2.0 for
India. There are just too many traditions
that do not make sense in today’s day and age but we just do it because it was
passed on to us by the blessings of “Shruti”
– meaning “what is heard”.
I am glad that this generation
rebels against a lot of things and we are seeing radical changes. But we are
still far away from a logical way of operating.
Bharat was one of the most
forward countries in some era. In all these last hundreds of years, we have stuck
to the belief that we are superior and our traditions make us superior. We are
wrong, our ancestors were superior. And their traditions made ton of sense. They
relied on logic to make those traditions. Pandits (meaning – the learned. And mind
me, they make sure to learn a lot before calling oneself a vidvaan) used to
define a certain way of doing things. This is because not everyone could understand
reasoning so they just defined a standard operating procedure for the society.
The procedure was applicable hundreds of years ago. I have read numerous
articles explaining the scientific reason behind so many traditions any I am in
awe of how advanced their thinking was.
However in the modern day even
after years and years of formal education, we remain illiterate to just copy
the beliefs of what was made as a standard operating procedure ages ago. Things
have changed, way of working has changed, then why not bring an element of
change in traditions? Instead of doing a cut copy paste of what was good and
what we were told by our great grandmother who was told by her great
grandmother we can just use our brain to define a new tradition – standard operating procedure that will
benefit us way more?
I am not in favor of rebels who
just don’t want to follow traditions on an outright basis. I also do not like the youth who disbelieves in traditions. I will also allude a
100 miles away from copying western world’s way of life to the east. All I am
saying is that tweak what was told by our ancestors to a new way that suits us
more. There is a pleasure in doing things the traditional way, the feeling of
belonging to a community that follows a particular way of life is joyous. I am
not asking to move away from that feeling. Move with it. Follow traditions,
update them and increase the joy you can get from them.
-A traditional Indian Girl battling right vs.
wrong (only in her head and thoughts, not courageous enough to implement) 
