11 Responses to “Is there a Western civilization?”
Matthew Newsham Says: July 7th, 2007 at 12:13 am So, you don’t think that the values of the enlightenment through postmodernism are particularly unique? What about Humanism? The focus on the individual, his growth, and rights under the law, up to and including modern women’s and civil rights?I would be curious as to your perspective on some of those elements.
Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: July 7th, 2007 at 5:20 am Although there are several authoritative works on the subject, this theme has not been probed enough on the net. Congratulations to Ray for digging up a really integral handle in order to heal people of selective amnesia.
Anand Rangarajan Says: July 7th, 2007 at 6:24 am Ray, this is one of your better pieces. Given my Indian background, I’ve been sorely irritated by the term “West” for longer than I can remember. I’ve become convinced that there’s a computer program running in my colleagues’ collective heads since they keep parrotting the term “Western” despite my best attempts to convince them that the term is meaningless. And your intuition that leftists tend to perpetuate this term is spot on especially when they try and encourage a victim mentality in us poor downtrodden Easterners who’ve been subject to (and became subjects of the evil, imperialist West. Anand
drmsprasad Says: July 7th, 2007 at 7:02 am The article is quite impressive.
True, it’s the vociferous leftists who have fed and keep feeding the masses with anti’western( European) sentiments. These are attractive generally to the less informed people of failed states ( read the third world countries) who ought to find a scape goat in some body to blame for all their imagined and real failures not only of themselves and their cunning leaders as well!
I am a Hindu Indian but I unabashedly say that the best thing that had happened to India was the British rule. This is a politically suicidal statement if I say so in my country but after reading volumes of historical documents & books and going through the evidence of solid work done by many colonial officers, I am convinced that despite some excesses, the English were the most civilised lot among the colonisers known to the mankind though the author dismissively says, ‘is there any coloniser who is better than other?’
The English were certainly the most benevolent and much less ferocious and certainly civilised. They sure had sense of fairness and justice in their rule so much so that the living elders today recall those colonial days with nostalgia!! In private many educated openly admit these facts and pay tributes to the by gone English rule. Anti imperialists may call me an empire apologist or a slave to the bygone British masters but the fact that many villagers in Godavari districts (in Andhra Pradesh, India) worship- yes they literally worship and observe his death anniversary nearly a century after he lefet the shores of India- out of deep gratitude for all the good he did for them as a colonial engineer, cannot be ignored easily.
Where as the muslim invaders destroyed the Hindu temples and trampled our culture for a millennium so badly that the dearth of leadership among the Hindus in India prevailed and is prevailing even now.
The leftist influence is so dominant among the third world press and the half educated that no one likes to publicly admit even the glaringly positive things done by the English. The Taj Mahal, a personal tribute paid by a prodigal Emperor to his wife and the monument gloated as world’s wonder with no public utility was built from public funds. Where as the informed say that it was infact built to satisafy his insatiable vanity for glory. But people see greatness in Shahjahan the Taj builder than Dalhousie , the viceroy who initiated the Railways , the lifeline of our country.
I consider that if I am living cofortably today it is beacuse of the contributions by the Western culture which has given the mankind many beautiful things. No need for the west to feel gulty about the present globalisation.
True, it’s the vociferous leftists who have fed and keep feeding the masses with anti’western( European) sentiments. These are attractive generally to the less informed people of failed states ( read the third world countries) who ought to find a scape goat in some body to blame for all their imagined and real failures not only of themselves and their cunning leaders as well!
I am a Hindu Indian but I unabashedly say that the best thing that had happened to India was the British rule. This is a politically suicidal statement if I say so in my country but after reading volumes of historical documents & books and going through the evidence of solid work done by many colonial officers, I am convinced that despite some excesses, the English were the most civilised lot among the colonisers known to the mankind though the author dismissively says, ‘is there any coloniser who is better than other?’
The English were certainly the most benevolent and much less ferocious and certainly civilised. They sure had sense of fairness and justice in their rule so much so that the living elders today recall those colonial days with nostalgia!! In private many educated openly admit these facts and pay tributes to the by gone English rule. Anti imperialists may call me an empire apologist or a slave to the bygone British masters but the fact that many villagers in Godavari districts (in Andhra Pradesh, India) worship- yes they literally worship and observe his death anniversary nearly a century after he lefet the shores of India- out of deep gratitude for all the good he did for them as a colonial engineer, cannot be ignored easily.
Where as the muslim invaders destroyed the Hindu temples and trampled our culture for a millennium so badly that the dearth of leadership among the Hindus in India prevailed and is prevailing even now.
The leftist influence is so dominant among the third world press and the half educated that no one likes to publicly admit even the glaringly positive things done by the English. The Taj Mahal, a personal tribute paid by a prodigal Emperor to his wife and the monument gloated as world’s wonder with no public utility was built from public funds. Where as the informed say that it was infact built to satisafy his insatiable vanity for glory. But people see greatness in Shahjahan the Taj builder than Dalhousie , the viceroy who initiated the Railways , the lifeline of our country.
I consider that if I am living cofortably today it is beacuse of the contributions by the Western culture which has given the mankind many beautiful things. No need for the west to feel gulty about the present globalisation.
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