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Westernisation is often just about adoption of western attire and life style.Are there other aspects to being westernised? Or is that about modernisation?
More than adopting western attire and life style, it is subconsciously accepting the cultural superiority of the west and their way of living.
And this adoption transcends attire and life style. The whole value system changes. Some are positive like liberal thinking, social structures giving way to individualism etc.
Others are negative like jo naya trend start hua hai ki dangerous stunt karte hue videos banao and phir YouTube pe upload karo. Ye sab Amreeka ki den hai.
Westernization per se is the adaptation of a culture which is more prominent and visible in certain countries of north America and Europe. Now the concept of western ideas is a very dynamic development of ideas which has human liberty and collaborative development at its core. Its development has taken place with development of very small concepts in the early days of renaissance (Re birth). Any culture per se is neutral looking at others culture as wrong(inferior) is termed as ethnocentric view which is not correct, western culture has number of elements which are different then ours for example in India a child takes care of his old parents this does not happen in America, we cannot say they are wrong but that is what is commonly followed there. Modernization also is very important in western culture but modernization should not only be limited to technological or economical advancement it is more concerned with the development of human thoughts and exercise of his rights.
You may for a moment ask should we follow their culture? we need to answer this question by considering the question in a broader historical perspective, migration is very common throughout history, for examples the timurids migrated to India and established the Mughal dynasty they brought their Persian together similarly they themselves after 100's of years got assimilated into this culture. similarly even we are continuously getting bombarded with exposure to western culture and it is bound to happen an impact , the problem arises when it contradicts with one's native culture which creates friction
Now coming to a broader question of social Change and development.
Look Development per se is a subjective experience (individual, country, society, economy) a society decides what should be the vision and path for its growth, historically it has been observed that countries and societies' with high capital base have developed at a faster rate compared to other societies' and hence a one on one comparison between countries is not a smart move similarly education level and how much the local culture of the society accepts development is also important consideration. let me give you two examples to make my point more coherent.
India won its Independence on 1947, with very little capital and huge population we have to embark a journey which was very difficult (literacy rate was only 12 % in 1950).on the other hand other countries like USA had almost cent % literacy and huge amount of money it utilized its resources and became a world leader we too are doing very good so development has to be looked only after considering many other factors. As far as other countries like France Japan and china were concerned they has educated and skilled population bouncing back was no difficult task for them.
Now i can go on and on so better toss specific questions related to your queries on which we can discuss especially on societal change.
It would be surprising for you to know that there are societies in practice which are Egalitarian in Nature, i would take this opportunity to provide a few examples 1.Kung nomads are a very good examples, usually all the Food collecting societies are generally egalitarian societies their nature and sharing of resources may vary . 2. Australian aborigines are very fine examples of a food collecting nomadic Egalitarian society Similarly as we move from food collectors to intensive agriculturist societies' we se a change in the pattern of societies so a central political authority with more diverse work culture is bound to have more inequality. so as you said a modern society can have no equality but still eaglitarial societies' exist in world. PS In any case one should not go for the literal meaning of the word egalitarian as that is impossible because in every society there are bound to be changes for example children may not have as much importance as food collecting adults and skilled may be more valuable then unskilled. More of economic and social elements need to be considered.
@pal Thanks buddy ! My exact doubt was that can we conclude that a person with westernised clothes nd appearance but no Democratic nd egalitarian value has modern attitude? I asked question on that! Sociology is not my subject.I was just going through ncert nd came across this question
there are various levels on which westernisation can be described.
1) the political setup- post renissance, democracy and equality became popular and it was the ideas of renissance that prompted Indian nationalists to start a freedom struggle. although other cultures talk about equality and justice, but renissance happened to be the most popular one. Plus british were here at that time so that might have been an influence.
2)The cultural setup- As far as I know, western societies are largely homogenous in terms of religion .and there is no caste system,although there were huge discrimination issues back in the past, but these days its mostly gone.So its an attractive social set up, with mostly economic discrimination.(talking about whites only- excluding racial discrimination)
3) Technology and business environment - They might not be the first ones to develop a tech but they are always the first ones to capitalise on it. So the world sees most of the tech. as of western origin. Their business practices and enforcement of contracts is better than in India. That can not be denied.
4)Popular culture- their attire has effectively replaced traditional attire since long.since most of the high quality entertainment material originates in the west, people who watch that material( all of us) are inclined to dress like them.
@Varonika Singh "My exact doubt was that can we conclude that a person with westernised clothes nd appearance but no Democratic nd egalitarian value has modern attitude?"
Well that depends upon how narrowly you define modernity, as far as democratic values are considered it is considered an important aspect for development but as far as egalitarian system is considered it is an feature of a society and not an individual per se and hence even a person belonging to any culture and any mentality has to be considered a modern person if he is considered to have taken a correct position vis a vis a problem in context of his culture. let me give you an example an Indian and an Japanese may agree that they have responsibility towards their ageing parents but the same may not be correct from an American's point of view. In this case we cannot say that Indian are more modern or American's are! but when a person takes a decision which has legality and standardization in his culture he is correct and has to be considered correct evrywhere same is with modernity.
@pal U said " even a person belonging to any culture and any mentality has to be considered a modern person if he is considered to have taken a correct position vis a vis a problem in context of his culture " can we say tribal people modern if they he is taking some correct decisions wrt his culture ?
Yes even tribal's are modern, we always try to look at other societies by simply comparing it with our culture which is wrong and hence modernity as development is an subjective experience and hence we cannot say a tribe is backward only because they do not use modern technology or even do not have modern institution of democracy . as long as their culture supports what they are doing they are correct
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Comments
And this adoption transcends attire and life style. The whole value system changes. Some are positive like liberal thinking, social structures giving way to individualism etc.
Others are negative like jo naya trend start hua hai ki dangerous stunt karte hue videos banao and phir YouTube pe upload karo. Ye sab Amreeka ki den hai.
Any culture per se is neutral looking at others culture as wrong(inferior) is termed as ethnocentric view which is not correct, western culture has number of elements which are different then ours for example in India a child takes care of his old parents this does not happen in America, we cannot say they are wrong but that is what is commonly followed there.
Modernization also is very important in western culture but modernization should not only be limited to technological or economical advancement it is more concerned with the development of human thoughts and exercise of his rights.
You may for a moment ask should we follow their culture?
we need to answer this question by considering the question in a broader historical perspective, migration is very common throughout history, for examples the timurids migrated to India and established the Mughal dynasty they brought their Persian together similarly they themselves after 100's of years got assimilated into this culture. similarly even we are continuously getting bombarded with exposure to western culture and it is bound to happen an impact , the problem arises when it contradicts with one's native culture which creates friction
Now coming to a broader question of social Change and development.
Look Development per se is a subjective experience (individual, country, society, economy) a society decides what should be the vision and path for its growth, historically it has been observed that countries and societies' with high capital base have developed at a faster rate compared to other societies' and hence a one on one comparison between countries is not a smart move similarly education level and how much the local culture of the society accepts development is also important consideration. let me give you two examples to make my point more coherent.
India won its Independence on 1947, with very little capital and huge population we have to embark a journey which was very difficult (literacy rate was only 12 % in 1950).on the other hand other countries like USA had almost cent % literacy and huge amount of money it utilized its resources and became a world leader we too are doing very good so development has to be looked only after considering many other factors. As far as other countries like France Japan and china were concerned they has educated and skilled population bouncing back was no difficult task for them.
Now i can go on and on so better toss specific questions related to your queries on which we can discuss especially on societal change.
It would be surprising for you to know that there are societies in practice which are Egalitarian in Nature, i would take this opportunity to provide a few examples
1.Kung nomads are a very good examples, usually all the Food collecting societies are generally egalitarian societies their nature and sharing of resources may vary .
2. Australian aborigines are very fine examples of a food collecting nomadic Egalitarian society
Similarly as we move from food collectors to intensive agriculturist societies' we se a change in the pattern of societies so a central political authority with more diverse work culture is bound to have more inequality. so as you said a modern society can have no equality but still eaglitarial societies' exist in world.
PS In any case one should not go for the literal meaning of the word egalitarian as that is impossible because in every society there are bound to be changes for example children may not have as much importance as food collecting adults and skilled may be more valuable then unskilled. More of economic and social elements need to be considered.
Sociology is not my subject.I was just going through ncert nd came across this question
1) the political setup- post renissance, democracy and equality became popular and it was the ideas of renissance that prompted Indian nationalists to start a freedom struggle. although other cultures talk about equality and justice, but renissance happened to be the most popular one. Plus british were here at that time so that might have been an influence.
2)The cultural setup- As far as I know, western societies are largely homogenous in terms of religion .and there is no caste system,although there were huge discrimination issues back in the past, but these days its mostly gone.So its an attractive social set up, with mostly economic discrimination.(talking about whites only- excluding racial discrimination)
3) Technology and business environment - They might not be the first ones to develop a tech but they are always the first ones to capitalise on it. So the world sees most of the tech. as of western origin. Their business practices and enforcement of contracts is better than in India. That can not be denied.
4)Popular culture- their attire has effectively replaced traditional attire since long.since most of the high quality entertainment material originates in the west, people who watch that material( all of us) are inclined to dress like them.
"My exact doubt was that can we conclude that a person with westernised clothes nd appearance but no Democratic nd egalitarian value has modern attitude?"
Well that depends upon how narrowly you define modernity, as far as democratic values are considered it is considered an important aspect for development but as far as egalitarian system is considered it is an feature of a society and not an individual per se and hence even a person belonging to any culture and any mentality has to be considered a modern person if he is considered to have taken a correct position vis a vis a problem in context of his culture. let me give you an example an Indian and an Japanese may agree that they have responsibility towards their ageing parents but the same may not be correct from an American's point of view. In this case we cannot say that Indian are more modern or American's are! but when a person takes a decision which has legality and standardization in his culture he is correct and has to be considered correct evrywhere same is with modernity.
belonging to any culture and any mentality has to
be considered a modern person if he is considered
to have taken a correct position vis a vis a
problem in context of his culture "
can we say tribal people modern if they he is taking some correct decisions wrt his culture ?
Yes even tribal's are modern, we always try to look at other societies by simply comparing it with our culture which is wrong and hence modernity as development is an subjective experience and hence we cannot say a tribe is backward only because they do not use modern technology or even do not have modern institution of democracy . as long as their culture supports what they are doing they are correct