Looking at Indian Culture and Aesthetics as Vital infrastructure

India is ranks 128th in UN report of Human Development Index which takes into account several objective indicators such as wealth, access to healthcare, sanitation, water, poverty, education. The ranking reflects the weakness of the Indian civilization to honor vital infrastructural in the past 500 years.

No one has done a ranking of Human Cultural Richness and Diversity ranking. Our hunch if that is done, the Indian Civilization would be up there with the leaders. Since there are no ways to measure subjective culture richness and deemed controversial, such studies are never conducted.

Our view is that the Indian Cultural and Aesthetics content that has evolved over 3000 years has much to offer the world. The importance of Art and Aesthetics among human has diminished over the past 300 year of scientific materialism and industrialization. In the post industrialized world and the information economy with increased digitization, we believe information, content and learning will be in demand much more than material goods. As masses of humanity address their material needs, they will search meaning in other avenues including arts and aesthetics. India with its rich repository of artistic aesthetic content is well positioned to service that need.

Our rich aesthetic heritage extends from folk traditions, classical dance forms, art music, devotional literature and music, textiles and fabrics, epics and myths that have come down centuries and continue to evolve.  And one of the reason our aesthetic heritage has endured is its inherent openness to absorb global currents from all over the world. Carnatic Music being played on the Violin, Rock Music in Bangalore and Indian film cinema incorporating Jazz, Beethoven.

The key challenge is the perceived lack of importance of art and aesthetics in our lives. That needs to change. In India, political leaders like Pandit Nehru and Rajagopalachari had a fine aesthetic sence which also reflected in the choices they made politically and in life. An appreciation of art forms and aesthetics allows a situation to be analyzed with another perspective. It also can move us beyond pure materiality.