How does one establish his/her
affinity towards their culture? Actually, let’s start with a simpler question.
How do you prove which culture you belong to? A very theoretical argument would
say that your culture is determined by the family you are born in, the place
you are born and the language you speak. So basically you inherit your
ethnicity from your family while your cultural proximity can be influenced by
the place you dwell. So some Niharika Pandey, who is born and brought up in Assam,
can be ethnically a Punjabi but culturally an Assamese because that’s where she
has been all her life.
The question however which I want
to address here is a little complicated. So, how do you determine if someone is
a misfit in a particular culture? In the political discourse, this probably is
one heated debate today as we find multiple interest groups trying to impose
what belongs to greater Indian culture and what not. Every other day we find
someone being asked to go to Pakistan because according to certain ideological
groups, their activities of do not reflect Indian culture. This post however
deals with the topic a little differently, from a very personal perspective.
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| Assamese Bihu Dance |
So last month I was approached by
someone from the institute to be a part of the annual North East Cultural fest
of the college. I come from the North East Indian state of Assam and Bihu
happens to be our state festival. I was asked to be a part of Bihu dance troop
that was suppose to perform. I however had to politely decline the offer for
the simple reason that I can’t dance. As a matter of fact I can’t dance nor can
I sing anything. Performing art is something I am not at all good with.
The reply which I got from the
person was a little surprising and put me into a deep introspection mode. I was
asked, ‘How can you be Assamese if you don’t know how to dance or sing Bihu?’
So, is knowing Bihu dance a
criterion for anyone to be Assamese. In fact, this has been in my mind for
quite some time; compared to my other fellow region mates; I am horrible with
art and music. Generally, North Easterns
are assumed to be good with art and music. Any NE festival that I have been to,
I have seen brilliant exquisite performances being put up by my friends while I
had to sit back as mere audience.
This puts in a deep existential
crisis. Am I culturally a misfit within the North East crowd? It’s a little
disappointing to find myself in a position where I know that I am not good at
any of it.
Hence I have this serious
question in my mind as to how do I determine if I am actually a misfit in the
entire cultural spectrum of the North East. Not just that, when it comes to
literature, it’s a little unfortunate that I am not well aware of it. Thus
barring the fact that I can speak Assamese and born to Assamese parents, I have
nothing else to prove that I am an Assamese. Politically, probably that’s just
more than enough, but in the greater intellectual as well cultural discourse
probably I am a misfit.
What are the consequences that
led to this situation? What are the factors that contribute to the alienation
of an individual from its cultural traits, if there exists any?
I strongly believe creativity is
something that you inherit by birth. You only polish your creative skills by
learning. Also, you might be damn good at certain skill yet you can’t be
creative enough. For example, I was put into an art school at an early age of
six. I was trained in fine arts for eight years and eventually I graduated with
a visharad degree. This degree
however does not qualify me to be creative. It of course brushed up skills, but
even today I can’t paint something of my own. I can just copy and recreate
something that someone else has done. Hence being creative and being skilful
are two entire different things. A similar feat followed when I was put into a
guitar school. Give me a tune, I can play it, but I can’t compose a tune.
Because of this lack of
creativity, I gave up all forms of art which I used to practice and today here
I write contemplating my existence. The stringent English education that was
enforced upon me did away with the habit of reading Assamese literature and
this was a huge mistake. One gets closer to his/her culture only when one keeps
in touch with vernacular literature. The mistake is largely mine as despite
having studied Assamese till tenth standard, I could not keep up with the
practice of reading local literature.
There was actually no point of
writing this post. I am just venting out the frustration that inhibits inside
me of not being able to determine how I ended up being a misfit within my own
culture. I partly answered the question but there is one part which still
remains largely unanswered. In society, we largely run by the stereotypes that
a Punjabi will know how to Bhangra, an Assamese will know how to dance Bihu and
a Delhite knows how to abuse. So partly, it’s the society that decided how much
you fit into a culture, partly by your own actions and the rest you inherit.
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