VII SEMESTER

B.A.LL.B. (HONS.)

BOOK REVIEW

BECOMING INDIAN: THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION OF CULTURE

AND IDENTITY

BY: PAVAN K . VARMA

AS A PART OF CONTINUOUS EVALUATION

FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2018-2019

PREPARED & SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO :

ADITYA SHUKLA MR. NITESH CHAUDHARY

15BAL002 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

INSTITUTE OF LAW

NIRMA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRACT:

Culture and identity are considered to be the most quintessential element of any country or
civilization. Culture and national identity is crucial for a country as culture is a shared sense
of customs, language, belief, and behavior. Culture identity makes a person feel he is
belonged to some group that provides a sense of security. For a nation it is important if the
citizen’s share with the same culture and identity, the country would be much easier to step
forward, it is not to say that the country would be modernized quicker or the economy, but
the process of modernization would be much more stable.

India has been one of the most diverse nations of this world holding together a treasure of
culture. Having a treasure attracted a lot of invaders who tried to rip apart this country for
their own gain, after the invaders and the rulers the British came to India and colonized us
for 200 years, which had an impact that to this day is visible in our everyday lives. We
considered the British the epitome of a utopic world following which we became their
imitators. In the process of getting validation and acceptance in the west we reduced
ourselves to caricature or mimicry.

The purpose of this article is to understand the process which resulted in this change of a
civilizational excellence to civilizational imitation. For this we need to understand what the
intervening period of colonialism did to us in the realms of language, culture and creativity.
Only if the impact of the past is understood can we grapple with the forces of co -option and
asymmetry at work today, and reappropriate our culture authentically and with dignity.

KEYWORDS: COLONIZATION , CULTURE, CO-OPTION, IMITATION, LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION:

The author was a Indian civil services officer which was set up by the British in 1872, it is
his experience working with the British and with the people of his native country that he
could see what was happening, being a ICS officer he has reiterated several times how the
British created ICS to create a elite class of Indians to rule India through Indians. The
author has divided the book into 7 chapters in order to portray the different aspects through
which we can evidently say that we did have freedom from the British when we attained
independence, the independence attained can be said to be of physical in nature, meaning we
got free from the British physically and not mentally. One of the myths about colonization
of India is that people believe that British colonized us through physical subjugation what
they don’t understand is that they ruled us for so many years not because of their army but
through knowledge. For all those years we were being psychologically conditioned to do
what the British did, and in the process become like them and loose our culture and identity.

PURUSING THROUGH THE CHAPTER’S:

One of the chapter in the book portrays that how the English language became the most
important language of this country which is very evident today when we see that the
majority of population in India can understand English, they can read write English but if
asked to read or write in Hindi or any other native language they would find it difficult if
not impossible.

English is a language of great benefit, it serves a purpose and should be available to

everyone but it is false and damaging to forget how it was brought to and imposed on India.
Today in our country we can see how English dominates every other language, when we see
white ambassadors (the vehicle of high office) with this written on the back: GOVT OF
INDIA. POWER BREAK KEEP DISTANCE or a sign board outside an important
government office in the capital city reading INSURANCE REGULATORY AUTHORITY
OF INDIA. We ourselves have chosen exile for us and the future generations.

In another chapter the author had tried to cover what legacy Macaulay had left. Macaulay is
the person responsible for the position that English holds in the eyes of people alien to it. He
gave certain instances where the level to which English language has been psychologically
engrained in our brains, one such being when one of his Chinese counterpart was visi ting
India for a meeting, while he took the Chinese official for a welcome dinner he noticed that
that personal notes of that Chinese man which he had prepared for the meeting were in his
own native language and not in English, another such example can be when India finally
broke the chains of British bondage Nehru’s first words to the millions across the country
waiting with waited breadth to hear one of the most towering leaders of the freedom
movement were in English.

Except for language there are other aspects which clearly show that British are still there
with us. In this regard the author has talked about two cities, Delhi and Chandigarh. He tells
us how the Rashtrapati bhawan in Delhi and the city of Chandigarh both the creations of the
British people to this day dominate us and make us follow their definition of architecture.
To this day there is no city in India that is as well planned as Chandigarh, or an architectural
giant that is the rashtrapati bhawan. If one goes to visit Chandigarh or visits rashtrapati
bhawan at every step one can feel the absence of our native culture.
REVIEW:

According to me considering the west as the epitome of excellence and acceptance to the
global world we became so blind that we gave such less priority to our own native culture
that it got lost somewhere in the past. We can realize this in a better way if we see Japan
where they are so happy with their culture, their way of drinking tea or having dinner, their
dress, their language, their architecture, everything in that nation represents uniqueness or if
we see any other country with a rich and unique culture. The case with India is
heartbreaking where we can see the people talking in a foreign language even in their home
or with their friends, it is sad that even the most important buildings do not represent our
culture but a foreign culture, our songs our dress, our way of behaving, everything is an act
of imitation.

According to me the difference between the British and other invaders is that the British
came to India from a industrialized country to take away everything that would profit them
and the other invaders like Mughals they allowed for their cultural attributes- cuisine,
music, language, dress, custom and aesthetic to blean into the weave of Indian life, the
British were made of an entirely different fabric. They stayed in India but lived separately
they lived with a superior feeling and not if everyone is a human being. The problem was
that while the independence movement was in force all our leaders were busy to get us
physical freedom, no one at that time realized that our psyche was also bein g colonized that
somewhere our culture and identity was fading, today after more than 70 years of
independence we are still struggling, yes there were a few benefits of the British coming to
India like the Dalit issue and the women’s issue got highlighted because of them but if we
talk only in the framework of culture and identity then there is not a single point on which
we can say that their coming to India was of some benefit to us. Just like Maslow’s
hierarchy of human needs the most basic need for humans is food, sex, shelter and then
comes social relations security etc. same is with a nation for a nation to survive culture is
the most basic need that needs to be fulfilled in order for the nation to move on to other
needs. The condition of this country would have been much better if we would have saved
our culture and would have taken only a few good things out of the British and not
everything and becoming like them. The British did everything in their power to ruin us,
they distorted our culture they made some of the great leaders of that time imitate them and
starting to follow them. They were very smart and we Indians were naïve.

Still even now the complex and deeply problematic legacies of colonialism continue to
shape our world, we are faced with equally complex effects of globalization, which appears
irreversible it is imperative therefore that those at the receiving end of the project of co
option, whether at home or any other country that we preserve and reassert our cultural
identity.