“There were concrete efforts to falsify historical evidences and symbols to be used as props in cultivating cultural nationalism in India,” said art critic and columnist Sadanand Menon here on Tuesday.
Delivering a lecture on ‘Distortions of and threat from cultural nationalism’, he criticised the recent concept of nationalism, that is quite different from the concept during the freedom struggle, in which one patriarchal figure decided what was good for the whole nation. He cited the example of a committee to prove the ancientness of Hindus as people as an effort to manufacture a lie.
The idea of democracy is being mocked in India these days as our schools fail to communicate the evolution of democracy and what it meant to the newer generation, he said and added that the value of democracy should be imbibed with mother’s milk and that it was integral in the formation of a citizen.
He pointed out that the Indian Constitution was challenged on a day-to-day basis by people who do not value democracy and lamented the present plight of India in which many people were willingly abdicating their rights granted by the constitution.
The Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation (CREST) organised the lecture as part of Kerala diamond jubilee celebrations.
