The world is full of symbols — religious, cultural, historical, archaeological, linguistic and nationalistic. Flags are a powerful symbol of a country. Their colors and shapes, stripes and stars represent the history and heritage of a country.
National anthems are other symbols of countries and at any special event such as the start of a parliamentary session or when a new judge of the Supreme Court is appointed, the anthem is sung with great enthusiasm and respect.
Most countries are represented not only by their flags or national anthems but also by some prominent site or building of that country. The White House is a well-recognized symbol of the US. So is the Kremlin of Russia. Eiffel Tower, Hyde Park, Cologne Cathedral, Angkor Wat, Taj Mahal are recognized symbols of France, England, Germany, Cambodia and India respectively. In academia there are some well-known universities or centers of excellence such as Harvard or Caltech of USA, Cambridge, Oxford and London School of Economics of UK, Sorbonne of France, IITs and IIMs of India etc. These are all recognized symbols of scholarship of the respective countries.
So when a person says, “I studied in Cambridge,” he/she feels proud and is claiming a certain distinction since this institution is recognized all over the world for its excellence, which it has maintained for more than seven centuries.
India also had two ancient universities — Taxila and Nalanda. These were deliberately destroyed over the centuries and partly decayed in a natural way. Since these were great academic symbols of ancient India, the latter is being revived again by the Indian government. Taxila is no longer in the present day India. There are now about 330 universities in India but the condition of most of them is rather deplorable. Except for a few institutes such as in Delhi, Mumbai. Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore, the others do not symbolize the academic excellence of India. Another well-known ancient university is Al Azhar, which is a fine academic symbol of Egypt. It earlier used to teach courses in Arabic language and religious studies but today has courses in science and mathematics.
Literary heritage forms another symbol for many countries. Every person would know about literary giants such as William Shakespeare, Jean Paul Sartre, Victor Hugo, Rabindranath Tagore, Leo Tolstoy, Gunter Grass, and Heinrich Boll among the many other poets and novelists. In ancient times some classical Indian writers such as Goswami Tulsidas who compiled Ramcharit Manasstand out for their originality and wisdom. Another great literary figure Kalidas was a writer in the Gupta period (320-550 BCE); he wrote in Sanskrit language and is known as a great dramatist and poet. The Gupta period is generally known as a golden period of India and was marked by excellent discoveries in various fields of knowledge and human endeavor.
What I have written above suggests positive aspects of symbolism be it in academics, music, art or nationalism. But there are many situations where symbols act as negative, repressive and brutal features. One example is the holocaust, which represents Nazism at its nadir. Other tragic events took place in the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China and India to name a few regions where brutality and killings occurred all in the name of some symbolic attachment to some ism or the other.
Today we are witnessing the extreme narrow-mindedness and murder by Boko Haram and lately by Daesh. They hold extreme views and do not want to compromise in any way with them. They shoot, kill, behead people whom they believe to be against their narrow and skewed interpretation of the religion. One should not call their ideology religion since Islam signifies peace and brotherhood. How can such extreme and narrow-minded symbolism be addressed? This is a difficult question but one needs to ponder over its consequences.
There are other less extreme forms of negative symbolism — smoking or drinking or large-scale consumerism that is rampant in today’s world. Consumerism, which is considered a symbol of modernity inevitably leads to excessive exploitation of our nature and of air, land and rivers. There are contrary perspectives about this issue. The state believes that development needs various infra projects. But for the local people it means displacement from their ancestral lands and becoming homeless. This is leading to a resistance movement called Naxalism (in eastern part of India), which is a struggle between the pro-development ideology and fighting for one’s homelands and lifestyles. Let us remember and fortify our good symbols, let us avoid the pitfall of extreme negative, repressive and harmful symbolism that is becoming an inevitable part of modern life.
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Transcend Media Service
National anthems are other symbols of countries and at any special event such as the start of a parliamentary session or when a new judge of the Supreme Court is appointed, the anthem is sung with great enthusiasm and respect.
Most countries are represented not only by their flags or national anthems but also by some prominent site or building of that country. The White House is a well-recognized symbol of the US. So is the Kremlin of Russia. Eiffel Tower, Hyde Park, Cologne Cathedral, Angkor Wat, Taj Mahal are recognized symbols of France, England, Germany, Cambodia and India respectively. In academia there are some well-known universities or centers of excellence such as Harvard or Caltech of USA, Cambridge, Oxford and London School of Economics of UK, Sorbonne of France, IITs and IIMs of India etc. These are all recognized symbols of scholarship of the respective countries.
So when a person says, “I studied in Cambridge,” he/she feels proud and is claiming a certain distinction since this institution is recognized all over the world for its excellence, which it has maintained for more than seven centuries.
India also had two ancient universities — Taxila and Nalanda. These were deliberately destroyed over the centuries and partly decayed in a natural way. Since these were great academic symbols of ancient India, the latter is being revived again by the Indian government. Taxila is no longer in the present day India. There are now about 330 universities in India but the condition of most of them is rather deplorable. Except for a few institutes such as in Delhi, Mumbai. Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore, the others do not symbolize the academic excellence of India. Another well-known ancient university is Al Azhar, which is a fine academic symbol of Egypt. It earlier used to teach courses in Arabic language and religious studies but today has courses in science and mathematics.
Literary heritage forms another symbol for many countries. Every person would know about literary giants such as William Shakespeare, Jean Paul Sartre, Victor Hugo, Rabindranath Tagore, Leo Tolstoy, Gunter Grass, and Heinrich Boll among the many other poets and novelists. In ancient times some classical Indian writers such as Goswami Tulsidas who compiled Ramcharit Manasstand out for their originality and wisdom. Another great literary figure Kalidas was a writer in the Gupta period (320-550 BCE); he wrote in Sanskrit language and is known as a great dramatist and poet. The Gupta period is generally known as a golden period of India and was marked by excellent discoveries in various fields of knowledge and human endeavor.
What I have written above suggests positive aspects of symbolism be it in academics, music, art or nationalism. But there are many situations where symbols act as negative, repressive and brutal features. One example is the holocaust, which represents Nazism at its nadir. Other tragic events took place in the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China and India to name a few regions where brutality and killings occurred all in the name of some symbolic attachment to some ism or the other.
Today we are witnessing the extreme narrow-mindedness and murder by Boko Haram and lately by Daesh. They hold extreme views and do not want to compromise in any way with them. They shoot, kill, behead people whom they believe to be against their narrow and skewed interpretation of the religion. One should not call their ideology religion since Islam signifies peace and brotherhood. How can such extreme and narrow-minded symbolism be addressed? This is a difficult question but one needs to ponder over its consequences.
There are other less extreme forms of negative symbolism — smoking or drinking or large-scale consumerism that is rampant in today’s world. Consumerism, which is considered a symbol of modernity inevitably leads to excessive exploitation of our nature and of air, land and rivers. There are contrary perspectives about this issue. The state believes that development needs various infra projects. But for the local people it means displacement from their ancestral lands and becoming homeless. This is leading to a resistance movement called Naxalism (in eastern part of India), which is a struggle between the pro-development ideology and fighting for one’s homelands and lifestyles. Let us remember and fortify our good symbols, let us avoid the pitfall of extreme negative, repressive and harmful symbolism that is becoming an inevitable part of modern life.
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Transcend Media Service
