Culture shock #1
Look at the image above for a minute. Which emotion do you predominantly feel? If you live in a western country, most probably you would feel sadness and gloom becuase rain in western countries often means bitter cold and biting winds. If you are an Indian however, you would feel joyful and romantic because monsoon in India is synonymous with life itself. To this day, whenever I am watching a Hollywood movie and a sad scene with lots of rain comes on, I feel just the opposite. Most Indians are born pluviophiles (rain lovers). It’s hardwired and one day, I am sure they will find a gene for it.
Culture shock #2
While growing up, I was exposed to a lot of Indian music. No surprises there. Access to western music however, was seriously lacking. All we had were audio cassettes of Boney M, ABBA, and Non-stop Western Themes by Al Caiola & Leroy Holmes Orchestra. The last one makes me nostalgic for an America that I have never lived in. Studies show that the music you listen to during your teens defines your music taste. If I had access to heavy metal or acid rock, maybe I would have grown to love those genres.
When I watched The Martian, it was revelation to see that when Mark Watney (Matt Damon) gets stuck on Mars with disco music, he absolutely hates it. When I researched further, I realised that this is a common sentiment in the western world. Now if I tell tell someone from those parts that I love Boney M and ABBA, I would be immediately boxed into whatever prevalent stereotypes there are associated with that music and there is nothing I can do about it.
By the way, my favourite ABBA song is Fernando. Unlike most songs, this is not a girl-misses-boy-after-breakup type of song with a catchy tune. In fact, it’s not a love song at all. Instead, it is a sombre ballad about two aged soldier buddies who took part in the Mexican revolution and lost. It is sad, nostalgic and moving. Describing this song, writer-singer Björn Ulvaeus said,
I was lying outside one summer night, looking at the stars and it suddenly came to me. I knew that the title ‘Fernando’ had to be there, and after pondering a while, I had this vivid image in my mind of two old and scarred revolutionaries in Mexico sitting outside at night talking about old memories.
One of the best tributes to this masterpiece was this Youtube comment.
If a song can make someone smile on his deathbed, then it is imperative that we move past the stereotypes and recognise the musical genius when we see it.
By the way, internet comments are often derided for being trollish but I think it depends on the topic. You are bound to find garbage comments under conspiracy videos but there are plenty others that are thoughtful, like the one above. You may also notice that most of the commenters are Mexican, Russian, or from other non-English speaking countries, who, like me, probably heard these songs while growing up.
These two examples are a roundabout way of saying that different cultures can and often do have different and contradictory norms.
Now for the main course.
I came across this paper by Dr. Annelies Monseré titled Non-Western Art and the Concept of Art in Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics. And I must confess, the very first sentence had me completely flummoxed.
The question of whether or not much of what we call ‘non-Western art’ is in fact art continues to trouble philosophers, art historians, and anthropologists alike.
As I read on, more gems followed.
Some authors argue that only fine art, as it developed in post-Enlightenment Europe, truly qualifies as art.
Few disclaimers. I am not an art major, I have a PhD in Physics and I fully agree with Prof. Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene when he says,
Publishers should correct the misapprehension that a scholar’s distinction in one field implies authority in another. And as long as that misapprehension exists, distinguished scholars should resist the temptation to abuse it.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
So my policy when dealing with humanities is ‘I call it as I see it.’ Prove to me where my reasoning is faulty and I would render an unconditional apology. [Is render better or tender? Either one as long as it’s not meander. Imagine that. I would like to meander an apology. LOL! What in gods name are you doing? I am in the middle of a serious essay here. Nothing, just some stream of consciousness thing, you know. Well, you can’t just waltz in here any time you want. All right, all right. Jeez! Don’t keep me supressed, it’s bad for your cortisol levels.]
That said, my first reaction was this Nathan Fillion meme.
My second reaction was, “what in the name of a multi-dimensional Majorana fermion are you talking about?”
I used to be a referee for the American Physical Society.
If I were a referee here, I would ask, “Do you mean to say that the entire oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa is not art because he is not western? And what about Kazuo Ishiguro who was born in Japan but then moved to the UK and became a British citizen? Does that help his case? It better because HE WON THE FREAKING NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE!!!“
To be fair, the author does argue that non-western art is also art so she is one of the good guys. But that’s my problem with such papers. You read twenty pages of tedious arguments only to arrive at a truism. Makes you wonder why this needed to be argued in the first place.
And I admit my obvious bias here but I cannot help shake the feeling that behind all this theorizing is a basic tenet that the western culture and values are superior to other cultures. I have encountered variations of this theme many times, in one form or other. The worst case was when I was denied entry to a half-empty restaurant in Marseille, France. (Before the social media else it might have gone viral). Milder versions usually pertain to allusions to poverty, third world countries, or some perceived personal shortcoming (“Are you a real doctor?” “I am not a medical doctor, if that’s what you mean. Never claimed to be. Confusing nomenclature for PhD Degrees is not my problem.” Still have not understood why this is supposed to be demeaning.) I must stress here that 99% of the experiences were from decent, kind hearted people. It is a statistical inevitability that sooner or later, you will encounter someone whose world view was more aligned with those prevalent in the previous centuries.
The paper discusses difficulties in applying western theories of art to non-western art. And I agree that for the most part, it cannot be done. It’s comparing apples to oranges. Europe went through a great transformation, starting with the dark ages, followed by the great Renaissance, Baroque, enlightenment, romanticism, and so on. When Europe was struggling to survive the dark ages, India was thriving with great accomplishments in literature, architecture, mathematics. The Church put severe restrictions on music – no rhythm for instance because it makes the hips move. Indian music never had any restrictions – religious music (with rhythm) was on par with other forms of music.
The differences are too many to mention. My point is Europe’s journey was unique and so was the Indian continent’s journey. There is no point fitting them together. And yet, I have seen Indian authors do just that – trying to fit Indian history into blocks from the Western art movement – from Baroque to postmodernism.
Modernism is a good case in point. Tate Museum of Modern Art describes modernism as
[A] global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.
True, but there is an important caveat here that is not mentioned. It is now well established that CIA used modernism and modern art as a soft weapon against the Soviets during the Cold War era. The historical accounts are absolutely fascinating.
The US State Department in 1946 spent $49,000 to purchase seventy-nine paintings directly from American Modern artists and mounted them in a travelling exhibition in Europe and Latin America. This included works of Georgia O’keefe and Jacob Lawrence. This resulted in an outcry about taxpayer money being spent on such confusing art. When the exhibition was recalled, US government had to sell the O’Keeffe’s for fifty bucks a piece.
CIA was created in 1947. Eisenhower called Modern art a “pillar of liberty.” In 1950, the Agency created Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) in Paris. CCF was a CIA front to finance and promote Modern art projects. They worked in tandem with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to finance exhibitions, start art journals (the Partisan Review), and promote Abstract Expressionism with artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
At this point, some of you might yawn and say, “Paintings are not really my thing. I never go to art galleries to stare at them. What do I care?” Point taken. Modernism was benign that way. You leave it alone and it left you alone. Mostly.
Not so postmodernism. Postmodernism claims to be a theory of not just art but a philosophy of life. And one of its claims is that there is no objective truth. Truth is a construct that is determined by social and political contexts. Again, to be charitable, this may be true in art. By its very nature, art is subjective and hence open to multiple truths and interpretations.
I have a serious problem when you apply postmodernism to science. Amongst its headlines is the statement that “both ‘true’ and ‘false’ [scientific] theories should be treated equally, as both are the result of social factors or conditions.” This has caused serious problems in France where the committee to approve GMO crops was comprised of real scientists as well as non-experts (some of them presumably postmodernists). This would have been okay but the basic tenet on which the committee was founded was that the scientists cannot be trusted while the non-scientists can. Read Marcel Kuntz’s brilliant essay for full details.
Again, I invoke the quote by Prof. Dawkins. I am not an expert in art theories. So here’s my simple proposal. There is one theory that says that gravity works. Opposing theory would be that it is a construct and does not work. Postmodern theory says that all truths are equal and we have to treat both of these on equal footing. Okay, prove to me that gravity does not work (preferably from second floor of a building). If anyone does that I will publish an unconditional apology. Just show me an instance where you can jump from a bulding and float away. Also, you cannot be David Blaine.
We can discuss art till the cows come home, get milked, and sleep but the unspoken truth is this. How much a culture of a country is appreciated depends directly on the state of the economy of the country. And I am happy to say that India is doing exceptionally well in this regard.
Apart from being the fifth largest economy, the Indian stock market is the only one in the world that has a T + 1 settlement cycle. And by the end of 2024, the settlement will be instantaneous (T + 0).
I have not used my wallet – cash or cards – in a long time because I use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) that has revolutionised the Indian economy. From giant multinational company showrooms to the vegetable vendor on the street, all of India is covered in QR codes. All I need when I go out is my smartphone. UPI recorded 11.24 billion transactions worth ₹17.4 trillion in November 2023. Here’s the German minister of Digital Affairs and Transport, Mr. Volker Wissing, buying vegetables using UPI.
The most populous country of 1.42 billion is also the youngest for its size with a median age of 28.2 years. These young Indians are intelligent, knowledgeable, confident, and eager to venture into unexplored territories. In 2016, India registered just 450 startups; by 2023 the number has grown 100,000+.
I strongly feel that a new world order is on the horizon and India will play a crucial role in it.
Further Reading
Our musical tastes peak as teens, says study, Thuy Ong, The Verge, February 12, 2018.
Non-Western Art and the Concept of Art: Can Cluster Theories of Art Account for the Universality of Art?, Annelies Monseré, Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics, November 2012.
Was Modern Art Really a CIA Psy-Op?, Lucie Levine, JSTOR Daily, April 1, 2020 (and references therein.)
Modern art was CIA ‘weapon’, Frances Stonor Saunders, Independent, October 22, 1995.
The Postmodern Assault on Science, Marcel Kuntz, EMBO Rep, September 18, 2012.
