CULTURAL IDENTIY IN THE EMERGING
WORLD
Personal
thoughts about IRAN INDIA MALAYSIA
The
idea to write this blog came when I was on a long distance flight reading FT of
October 3. 2015
There
was an interview with Daryush Shayegan, the Iranian Intellectual, who speaks
six languages including Turkish, Sanskrit and German and has published 17 books
mostly in French.
He
reminded me very much of his contemporary scholar of the History of Islam,
Bernard Lewis, a British Jew.
I
thought of India, and especially the only place I know in India is a small town
in the southwestern part. Hindus,
Muslims and Christians share the space but only grudgingly. Muslims are the
most aggressive and most disliked; the Christians the more sophisticated and
the Hindus possibly the more intellectual.
Then
there is poor Malaysia, where the majority culture is backtracking fast into
the past, the Chinese who are the engines of the society afraid of the Other
and the Indians, oh squeezed oranges of Malaysia, waiting for visas to
Australia or USA or Canada or any other country that would admit them and
recognize their academic qualifications usually gained in India while
maintaining a distance from the land of their ancestors.
Of
these three countries the most interesting from any point of view is Iran
despite a theocratic government but the people have managed to free themselves
into a post Islamic situation.
As Shayegan would say: the young generation has
plural identities. But in India and Malaysia, the identities are ethnic as well
as Western, but a poor photocopy of the Western civilization. A large
proportion of Iranian educated people especially women can assume their places
in the west without problem, in contrast to those from India or Malaysia. At a
recent International congress of my medical specialty, Endocrinology, there were
at least 80 Iranian young scholars, mostly women. They were self-poised and
confident and about to take on their path to a greater glory for themselves,
their families and perhaps for Iran itself. One of them said to me: I am glad
the theocracy forced Islam upon us, making it so easy for us to reject it. The
Indians at the congress who numbered a few, had a distinct cultural luggage
with them, they acted as if they were in disguise, hiding their culture to
which they are tethered. When it comes to intellectuals, Iran is way ahead of
India, which has about 20 times its population; Malaysia and Singapore are not
even on the screen. As a good Chinese friend of mine in Malaysia said, our
ancestors migrated here to survive and they inculcated the survival instinct which
is counterproductive to intellectual endeavours. How many of you can name a
single Malaysian or Singaporean writer or poet?
India because of its sheer size of humanity has produced a number of
excellent writers, my own favourites are Pankaj Mishra and Amitav Ghosh, both
of whom live abroad, but who has the depth of Shamloo?
But
what strikes you when you meet someone from Iran or Malaysia or Singapore (a
wasted Nation) or India is that HOW MUCH WESTERN THEY THINK THEY ARE?
Western
dress, frequenting bars with low class Europeans and eating Italian food does
not make you WESTERN! Why is this attraction to the WESTERNERS rather than the
WESTERN culture and philosophy? Iranians can stand up to Westerners as equals
whereas other Asians consider the European a superior beings, sad considering
the nature of Europeans in their midst.
I
found Sheyagan’s approach to dialogue of civilization very refreshing. To quote, Shayegan says his idea was not so
much an east-west dialogue but for Iran to initiate a dialogue between eastern
civilizations, through dedicated centres in Cairo, New Delhi and Tokyo.
Buddhism
went to China from India. It was an Indian prince, Dara by name who translated
Upanishads from Sanskrit to Persian.
Dara Shikoh (Urdu: دارا شِكوه), (Persian: دارا شكوه ) M 28 October 1615 – 30 August 1659 [Julian]/9 September 1659 [Gregorian]) was the eldest son and the heir-apparent of the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. His name دارا شكوه in Persian means "as magnificent as Dara". He was favoured as a successor by his father and his sister Princess Jahanara Begum Sahib, but was defeated by his younger brother Prince Muhiuddin (later the EmperorAurangzeb) in a bitter struggle for the imperial throne.
Did
you know that partition of India and the exodus of 1947 may not have happened
if the Moghul Prince Dara who took an enlightened view, rather than sectarian,
of Hinduism and Islam. His brother, Aurangazeb defeated him thus chartering
another destiny for the country later to be called India, which had known
nothing but foreign rule until 1948.
Tolerance
is what is necessary, absent in Malaysia, India and Singapore but preached by
all intellectuals in Iran.
I
have great faith in Iran, great faith in its future, since it has already gone
into the future, waiting for the ageing Theocrats to disappear. Living in a
country like Cuba, which is already living in the future, without sacrificing
the humanity of the individual, I can well understand it. India may send a rocket to the moon, but it
will be a long time before it can catch up with the humanity of a poor little
country like Cuba
What
I found in my travels in India, Malaysia and Singapore was INTOLERANCE of the
other, as if it has been woven into the fabric of the society and a total lack
of understanding of the western philosophy, because they were not tutored in
their longstanding and magnificent philosophies of India or China. Constructed
identities such as Malaysia and Singapore makes it easier to cut your
connections or pretend to be something new without connections to the past. A
soul with roots is an injustice, said the poet.
It
was interesting to learn that the court language of Delhi of Moghuls was
Persian and most of what we call “Indian food” manufactured by Bangladeshis
from Silhet province is actually Iranian in origin? Modified of course with
spices available locally. Any Iranian can walk in to an “Indian” restaurant in
the west and identify the dishes.
The
word Moghul itself is Persian, denoting a Mongol or a Barbarian, descendants of
Tamerlane. (Whose birthplace I visited in Uzbekistan)
So
I salute you, Iran without Mullahs, the Iran of Hafiz and Khayyam, the Iran of
Makhmalbouf and Panahi, the Iran of Shamloo and Shajarian!
And
Soheil Nafisi! And his haunting voice…
(you can watch Soheil Nafisi, Ahmad Shamloo at youtube)
And
to quote Shayegan for my friends in the East:
Tolerance
is accepting the other and taming your ego.
I
am a Jew, I look forward to visiting Iran
And
to my father, who spoke Persian.
