the crazy blue of e - 602 : post two

samrat bharadwaj. musician. friend. do-his-own-thinger. samrat is singular, in the way he uses his words. you can't see it so much in this article, but you have to hear him speak. in his world, a movie is not merely bad, it is 'supreme shit'. people can't be floozy, they are 'panty'.
his expressionas are original. and yes, fun. pretty much like the guy himself.
he was in bombay for 4 days. to play a gig at zenzi (and boy! was that a good evening). he stayed at home. and therefore, he had to write a post. this is it:

how the east turned to west (and vice versa)

as a kid, with the given freedom to aspire and achieve and an abundance of western literature, music, philosophy et al, i grew up with a preconceived notion of a world, where the east was ancient and rooted and the west was expanding and superior. but this myth fell apart piece by piece, and new information and opinions helped create a new world order in my mind. the cliches and romantic notions about the west and its culture (taught in schools and by our parents and peers) seemed to continuously fall apart and the apathy and struggle of the east seemed to provide more answers to survival than the thousands of books written in west could ever describe.

what if there was no industrial revolution, what if there was no bourgeois, what if there was no colonization, what if the western explorers (fueled by their respective monarchies) didn't set sail to foreign lands with corrupt intentions, what if there was no automation, what if benjamin franklin hadn't discovered electricity?

what am i going on about ?

to me, the world today at large is governed and cultured by western principles and western standards of consumption and prosperity. ancient traditions and regional ways of life are being constantly wiped out by industrialization and automation. if change be the harbinger of progress, then one must be ready for it, and not be scared of the consequences.

take a look at india for example. a land invaded and colonized by several races, ethnic groups, barbarians and religious sects for more than 2500 years now. india has been on the road map of illustrious invaders like alexander, darius, ghazni, babur and vasco da gama and the eventual east india company. with each of these invasions and others, a new wave of settlers and tribes befriended the indian subcontinent and contributed to the culture and legacy of india. each new tribe and invader attempted to wipe out the native population, and in turn got slowly consumed and absorbed into the ever increasing spectrum of what we know as the indian tradition.

as the world stepped into the 20th century and western colonizers approached the saturation point of their colonization & power (devastated by two horrid world wars), the east re-emerged as the new frontier. now, it was time for the west to turn into the east and the east to turn into the west. two thirds of human population emerged from the east, struggling to feed and shelter its millions and millions. world trade and economics were the new doctrines of supremacy and the west laid down most of the rules based on capitalist or marxist ideologies. new frontiers based on technology, law and commerce were marked out by west european nations and america unto the east. in short economic colonization was the agenda. the greatest impact of western civilization would take place outside the west itself, deep inside the east, as the teeming billions from india, china, japan, latin america, africa, southeast asia and arab nations would embrace it and have to live with the consequences of change.

as the marxists tsunami swept through china and the far east, the capitalist culture of consumer goods and freedom to consume arrived in india and the arab world. india emerges as perhaps the most interesting nation in this case. technology, automation, consumerism and the idea of the "opportunity" were introduced into the lives of millions through western methods of education and production. older customs & classes crumbled at the feet of these standards, giving rise to a paradox of aspiration and disillusionment.

the effect has been gradual yet total across india, deep inside remote nooks & villages to the suave urban image of a better life and opulence & comfort. opposed by numerous reformers, political leaders and prophets ( remember "be indian buy indian" ) to avert this change, has had little or no effect on the general psyche of the indian. as much the effect of western technology and production, the popular culture of west, especially american standards have had a very interesting effect on almost every indian. we have embraced, improvised, aped and plagiarized the sheen and allure of western pop culture and with the advent of mass communication in india the effect has been complete. the western format of mass media and television can seen across every channel often on the verge of saturation.

urban life, based on western ideologies and fashion, gives us the impression that we are living in an ever speeding and changing world. incidents of stress, disillusionment, corporatization, suicides, divorce are new to our society. so, is the west going to consume and process us to an assembly line life ? will tradition and customs be wiped out by technology and automation ? would ancient barriers of caste and creed be rearranged into classes based on economic layers ? will traditional art & music be digitized into electronic oblivion ? the answer to all the above questions is no.

india, as a culture and way of life is churning over the decades. change is inevitable yet the basic sentiments and traditions have improvised to modern redefinition. the mass of population in india, shaped by centuries of native and foreign customs and conversion has formed manifold roots which keep the sense of "indianess" alive and going. divided and often criticized, the spirit of india is re-evolving, providing a space for us in the future. indians are stepping out into the west and making their presence felt in almost all walks of life. be it a cab driver in london, aeronautics engineer at nasa, or the haute couture of rajasthan in los angeles, indians are increasingly taking to the world, slowly yet surely. labour, craftsmen, skilled workers and entrepreneurs are being sought after by the west as a gold-mine of human resources (we are 1 billion plus after all). as much ancient religion and the ways of a simple un-industrialised life is alluring thousands of westerners to seek india for solace, nirvana, and final destination (and i'm not talking about the click happy tourist) . one can view this as an eventual sell out, but that’s short term. a century from now, indians would be all over the world and the east would be so far deep inside the west, that one would have redefine society at large.

the west is returning to india to seek resources, inspiration and intellectual avant-garde. to help the decadence, to plunder the art, mythology and rituals, to acquire human resources and to even find ways of redefining western life and ethics which have been visibly violent and out of control. we witness, this change gradually, as geographic, social and economic barriers fall to the feet of giant population armed with technology and tradition, as the greatest crossover of humanity. where the balance of power and the concept of an old world (india) redefining itself and holding up the new world (west) into the future.