Banning Kolams
A home owners association in South Riding, Virginia sent a notice to an Indian resident to remove their kolam decorations off their driveway. For those who don’t know, a kolam is a form of sand drawing practiced by Hindus in South India, usually drawn with rice flour, outdoors, at the entrance of a home (and gets blown away with elements of nature). The design patterns are a reflection of harmonious patterns present in nature, and is believed to bring in auspicious energy.
After an exchange of e-mails with the association, Balasubramanian organized an energetic appeal, polling 20 of his immediate neighbors to see whether they objected to the kolam. Nobody did.
He gathered signatures and appeared before the association’s board, made up of volunteer residents, in September. The board listened but ruled against him….
It’s about religious expression and sensitivity to other’s religious expression. If people want to ban kolams, they might as well ban Christmas lights (which is far more ostentatious than a kolam). Now that could get pretty ugly, and we’d be left with lifeless, plastic, intolerant mono-culture (with the illusion of pluralism).
I’d doubt they’d have raised such a commotion if this was an African American celebrating with Kwanzaa decorations on their driveway or a Jew with big inflatable menorah in front of his house (as was the case with one Jewish resident in that same neighbourhood – a friend living there tells me). So why is there this blind-sight in granting this same freedom of religious expression to Hindus?
There is really no telling if this is a case of sheer intolerance (to new cultures), insensitivity, prejudice, or a bit of each. These folks should be sent to India for sensitivity training — where they’ll see a door-to-door display of real diversity with strikingly varied religious expressions and customs: dazzling array of different languages, attires, traditions, and sub-cultures… ought to make any squabbles over a kolam seem really petty (and indeed backward). India is eons ahead in regard to pluralism. The USA, a country where even wearing turban or bindi solicits resentment (let alone wearing lungis or dhotis)… has a long way to go.
I remember a comment once from an American about why many Indians wear moustaches. Before I could rebut, a [female Muslim] colleague replied saying it’s just part of their culture. My retort should have been, we don’t ask you why Americans don’t wear moustaches, do we? The question seems innocent, but it reflects an air of presumptuousness. Especially so from folks from non-multicultural cities. The “white is right syndrome” (and by “white” I mean a psychology that seems to cut across whatever the color of your hide is), which tends to dictate the standards for what is “normal” and what is not.
I think Americans really need get out more (I’m talking about outside the country). But then, many have succumbed to the shock doctrine, that anywhere outside the country terrorists are out to get them. If I were to use the same reasoning, I’d say one shouldn’t go to New York for fear of getting shot or mugged.