Friday, July 31, 2009

Is Tamil culture conservative?

This is the topic very nearer to my heart. As a tamilian myself, we are tend to view some of the topics as taboo. Not to forgot the uproar, when Kushboo talked about the premarital sex. Kushboo has vehemently talked about the safe sex and also youth of Tamil Nadu should be bold enough to accept a girl who is not virgin. As she quoted that premarital sex is increasing in urban areas in Tamil Nadu. I am not a staunch support of Kushboo’s views on the premarital sex.

Ancient Tamil Nadu is more an open society than what we currently have
because in ancient literatures like thirukkural, silapathikaram, etc, poets have talked about romantic relationships in elaborate manner. Take thirukkural has an example; “Kamathupal” has more obscenity than any other current tamil movies.It actually applies to almost all the ancient literature especially sangam ones. Unless a society is very open minded, thiruvallur wouldn’t have spoken about sex in most liberal manner. But our society has undergone lot of change and now it is lingering in liberal-conservative stage.

It is always true, whenever we hide something it leads to lot of problems. Tamil Nadu used to have highest rate of HIV infection before the most audacious advertisement “Pulli Raja” came into limelight. Tamil Nadu’s HIV infection by then has been drastically reduced after the more liberal views of media on AIDS campaign. When it comes to technological innovation or literature evolution, it is usually the liberal society tend to lead the race. For example, France is the country now leads the fashion and art industry. I personally believe our sangam literature is one of the best literatures in the world; they were able to produce something of that caliber mainly due to liberal society. What do you think are the drawbacks of a liberal society?

6 comments:

  1. @velan

    The heading would be more appropriate if asked "Is Indian culture more conservative". The reason is, the whole of india is conservative in talking about this!! even though some parts of the society are bold enough of talking about pre marital sex, most of them don't dare to talk on these topics. even in most of the places talking with gals itself is seen as a crime. so it is difficult for them to open up.

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  2. @Karthic Since I don't know much about the whole India, I can't wisely judge the rest. I think discussion and debates only solve burning problems in the society. Here is the awesome lifted lines from economist "someday life on our planet will end but it will not be because we did not do enough about climate change. It will be because we did not do enough to change the climate of hatred, bigotry, anger, mistrust, hopelessness, and despair".

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  3. Kalaivani KandesanAugust 2, 2009 at 9:39 AM

    Hi velan..NIce topic..

    I think a society should be liberal in thoughts not in actions.
    In thoughts we should be able to express whatever we want, think whatever want, for the betterment. As such, our tamil society had produced so much literature, sculptures, paintings without any restrictions to it.Esp love. It had thought of so much things that might seem like,''how could they even think of that''.

    But they were not liberal in actions. They expressed love openly within a boundary.

    We can be liberal in thoughts.but i think its good not to be liberal in actions...

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  4. @kalai I think that is the main drawback of being liberal because its thoughts which will be converted into actions.

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  5. @Kalai - although velan has said what I am about it say, it merits emphasis. One should not be liberal in thought but conservative in action. That would either lead to a trapped mind not allowed to act or double standard behavior. If you are liberal in thought, that only makes sense if put to action.

    @Velan: Nice post to talk about. I do not feel liberal societies cause any real "drawbacks". Are teen dating, experimenting with sex and sexual preferences "draw backs"? These have been around since the stone ages. Conservative societies suppress true emotions and restrict people to boundaries. Complete creativity and innovative thinking can come about only when the mind is free to think what it wants and put that into action.

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  6. @Jagdish Yes, liberal society is the one always leads in innovation, history has its credit.

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