Thursday, July 14, 2005

Assimilating into a society

We had seen this movie 'Bharata Vilas'. What a comedy stuff?? How many times we have switched off the TV, when we got the national integration songs.[Desa virakthi padalgal, aka desabakthi padalgal].
We find it perfectly ok for "aathla theertham saptutu, schoola thanni kudikanam".

Identifying oneself with the neighbourhood and the society we live is the key to assimilation and acceptance.

Bharata vilas has a good point, people there have not lost their identity, at the same time have accepted and recognised their neighbours and have a harmonious community.

The current generation in tamilnadu has come up wholly as a community mainly due to 2 reasons.
1. The school. This has been a great unifying factor. The common schools where the integration of pupils from the whole spectrum, nourishes the acceptance of differences, from the young age. The hostels at school, at college, and the flatmates, when shifting to work have all reminided us to be a part of the community and still preserve the individual identity derived through the family and birth.
2. The media. The exposure to a common media, mainly entertainment, nurtures the opinions almost in the similar directions. This makes oneself identifying with the socieity, a very simple activity. [An, example is the results of the public elections of tamilnadu over the past decade and a half]

Now, this tendency is carried over by all of the expatriates. Though we maintain an identity based on our culture, we tend to be extremely cautious not to be isolated. I can see a lot of our expat people in the Community Securitiy Watch meetings, the education and service initiatives, thereby contributing to the building of a strong society as much as the natives. This integration brings a feeling of neighbourhood, that translates into a feeling of safety, in turbulent times.

The lack of assimilation into the society, not identifying with the mainstream, living as isolated communities, always has unpleasant repurcussions. Even dangerous effects, so much so that persons born in the same country with birth certificates from this soil, have turned to kill their own innocent people, in the name of whatever whatever.


6 Comments:

At Thu Jul 14, 09:26:00 AM CDT, Blogger ada-paavi!!!! said...

Tj, social integration has happened but inside the household? i dont think so, tamilnadu may superficially look as an integrated society but deep down divisions still exist.
maybe if we begin with social integration then maybe in time caste differences can be wiped out

 
At Thu Jul 14, 10:35:00 AM CDT, Blogger TJ said...

vatsan,
social integration is where it should stop. i dont find any reason why to take it inside the household
I will not call it deep divisions. I will say uniqueness of people are maintained. Just Unity in Diversitiy is enough. Not uniformity.

 
At Thu Jul 14, 11:24:00 AM CDT, Blogger ioiio said...

I guess even the urbanization to an extent.. No longer do we have agrahaarams and cheris and soodhraa areas..

None of my neighbors were brahmins and I was born and brought in such an environment.. But I remain a brahmin inside my house but adapt to ppl of various kind and culture outside..

 
At Thu Jul 14, 11:54:00 AM CDT, Blogger Kasthuri said...

When we say "unity in diversity" we inherently mean unity and diversity are opposed. Learning to accept unity and diversity instead of "unity in diversity" is the crux of social harmonny, I guess.

 
At Thu Jul 14, 06:13:00 PM CDT, Blogger Miya said...

> "Even dangerous effects, so much so that persons born in the same country have turned to kill their own..."

Something that should be understood is that killing for religion is considered as a great thing in certain communities. Fanaticism is very hard to rationalize.

 
At Fri Jul 15, 10:53:00 AM CDT, Blogger TJ said...

As sathya said, the urbanization is one of the key factor of the socialization.

yes, i accept unity and diversity, is what i meant when i said unity in diversity.

And, fanaticsm and rationals are two words that cannot come in the same sentence even.[except in such ones!]. Hatred and mis information are the fuel for fanatism, i think.

 

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