This old article on E.P.Thompson came up on my feed. I like his works. Although I always saw him more as a historian and less as a Marxist.
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His books will definitely help Indians in general and Hindus in particular who are trying to form an opinion on the culture of this land and their past as well.
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I have been wanting to read more on this era of European/English history but haven't been able to find the right book(s) yet. This passage resonates with a lot of us who have read serious Indian thinking on this topic ..
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"Weaving communities — some in the West Country and the Pennines, with 300 and 400 years of continuous existence, some of much more recent date but with, none the less, their own cultural patterns and traditions — were literally extinguished . . . "
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In the Indian experience these cultural patterns and traditions aren't fully extinguished across many such groups. We have had such cultures with continuity of centuries and in some cases even beyond.
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Some Hindu(tva) thinkers get quite upset with this and they want everyone to embrace a national cultural consciousness immediately immaterial of these micro and still persisting cultures.
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But these "own cultural patterns and traditions" of the communities perform a function which a single all encompassing national cultural identity simply cannot.
Atleast not in its current shape as advocated by some of the Hindu(tva) ideologues.
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Atleast not in its current shape as advocated by some of the Hindu(tva) ideologues.
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"Until these final agonies, the older weaving communities offered a way of life which their members greatly preferred to the higher material standards of the factory town..."
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True of Indian experience as well. Many communities still lament the loss of intangible community life from their past. Our cities have simply not caught up in providing compelling substitutions. Ofcourse many like the city life in its current shape too. No denying.
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Thompson notes the “unique blend of social conservatism, local pride, and cultural attainment” that “made up the way of life of the Yorkshire or Lancashire weaving community.”
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This again applies to Hindu experience as well. At the heart a majority of the Hindu community is still conservative. And many aren't as guilty about their past as it is made out to be.
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Most communities have their own stories to narrate about local pride and cultural attainment. Latter more so and it persists to this day.
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Urbanisation seeks to kill these community identities or secularise or democratise them. That process brings in its own challenges. Lot of friction on cultural and socio-religious sphere today is due to deficiencies in this painful transition.
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The “closer we look at their way of life,” Thompson urges, “the more inadequate simple notions of economic progress and ‘backwardness’ appear..."
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"Moreover, there was certainly a leaven amongst the northern weavers of self-educated and articulate men of considerable attainments. Every weaving district had its weaver-poets, biologists, mathematicians, musicians, geologists, botanists,” and so on he says.
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This is very much valid for the Indian experience as well. Our own culture is replete with stories of individuals across communities who had considerable attainments.I have quoted this paragraph more than once in the past as well.Lot of meaning and contemporary relevance there
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“Any evaluation of the quality of life must entail an assessment of the total life-experience, the manifold satisfactions or deprivations, cultural as well as material, of the people concerned.”
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This line of thinking is dismissed by many Hindu(tva) thinkers today. It is almost like there is nothing to learn from that experience or perhaps it makes them too uncomfortable? I have a strong suspicion it is the latter.
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Given a magic wand some (not all!) of the Hindu(tva) thinkers would want to erase these memories altogether. Makes their job of forging a macro identity a lot easier!
Ref: jacobin.com
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Ref: jacobin.com
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