India has hybrid behavioural patterns: Telgiri

PUNE, Oct 2: Vice-chancellor of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages Pramod Telgiri today opined that India could never base its identity on its glorious past, which was largely influenced by mythology.

Delivering the foundation day lecture on “Western values and the contemporary Indian society” organised by Saptahik Sakal here, Dr Telgiri said religion could never be the basis for formation of a state. India, he said, was a conglomerate of various nationalities and hence the concept of nationalism could not be cultivated in the true western sense.

India’s multicentricity, however, had given it three things — an assimilation of different influences, pluralistic tradition and an ability to absorb external influences, he said. Dr Telgiri explained that Europe of the 17th century underwent crucial changes with separation between religion, philosophy and science — a process which did not take place in India. As a result, the Indian contemporary society tried to adopt the concept of modernity, notion of identity and nationalism based on the idea of a nation state. Modernity in Europe essentially implies individuals as rational thinkers, severing any ties with religion and preferring to be a hedonist, he said.