By Dr. Sawraj Singh
It will be no exaggeration to say that the basic concepts of spirituality were developed in India and reached their climax in the Punjab region. Vedas, the first book in the world, were written in Punjab and Sri Guru Granth Sahib which I consider the climax of spirituality was also compiled in Punjab. However, the land of spirituality has now become bastion of consumerism. I have lived in America for forty years and have travelled to many parts of the world. In America, I was in the human rights movement which linked diversity to human rights. In other words, getting the multicultural reality of America accepted is a major issue of human rights. For that purpose, I interacted and worked with many (almost all) major ethnic and national communities. From this extensive interaction I have drawn this conclusion that the Indian community is the most dedicated and ardent follower of consumerism. The Punjabis certainly lead rest of the Indians in this field. I see the same thing in India, compared to the other countries; I see more tilt to material things in India. Punjab is leading rest of India in the quest for acquisition of material things. If we can record conversation of a casual and informal gathering of people of different communities, we will be amazed at the difference of the Indian from the other communities. In the Indian gatherings people will be focused on money and material things such as expensive houses and cars, costly vacations and cruises and how they got their children admitted to the medical schools. I often wonder if their love for the medical profession will last if it does not remain the highest earning profession anymore? A man who has recently migrated from Nigeria to America, asked my son that why the Indians like to talk so much about money and showing off their money. Few years ago I met a brilliant Bengali young man in Vancouver BC. He told me that his family thinks that he is the black sheep of the family because he does not want to be a doctor. He said that he wanted to make movies and had no interest in becoming a doctor. I was wondering if Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal would have taken similar advice from their parents and became doctors; the world would have been deprived of their brilliant talent. Such linear and unilateralist thinking has helped our community to achieve the status of the community with the highest per capita income and the highest ownership of homes in America. However, for this monetary success we have paid tremendous price by sacrificing our health, culture and value system. We are suffering from heart attacks in the US, Canada and the UK much more than the average rate there. There is a study going on there called Masala study which is trying to understand the reasons for this. So far it has been unable to pinpoint the exact cause for the prevalence of heart disease in our community. I feel that we are missing the obvious. I think if we come up with a Consumer Index that shows the tilt of a community towards consumer culture and losing its own culture and value system, we will make to the top. We can also find a co relationship between this Consumer Index and the prevalence of heart disease, high BP, diabetes and depression. Just like in North America and Europe, the middle class in India is suffering from these ailments. India is becoming the epicenter of these diseases. India has now the dubious distinction of having the largest number of patients of these diseases in the world. A just released study on depression showed that this condition is becoming very prevalent in India, again Punjab is leading. Punjab is leading the country in terms of consumer goods. However, the Punjabis have become the sickest people both physically and mentally. The reality is very different than what the Punjabis are generally perceived. The robust and jovial Punjabis doing Bhangra dance are now only seen in the films and television. Many Punjabi farmers are taking loans on their lands for buying consumer items like cars and building houses or spending on the expensive marriage ceremonies and eventually losing their land or worse, their life. Spirituality preached values like humility, moderation, equipoise and contentment where as consumerism has promoted exactly opposite values to these such as selfishness, greed, arrogance, extravagance and meandering. We can see a very big difference in the attitudes of the older and the younger generations. Generally, the older generation is very thrifty and in spite of making very good money, does not very comfortable spending it. However, they spend lavishly on their children who do not share any of the values which are dear to them. I was travelling with a cardio vascular surgeon. He was very much enjoying the food they were serving in the plane. We had a few hours stop at the Incheon airport. I wanted to have a cup of coffee. He did not feel comfortable spending the money. However, when his daughter wanted to buy an expensive meal, he bought the meal without mentioning that we just had a meal in the plane. At a medical meeting I saw another cardio vascular surgeon paying for only one plate for a buffet lunch. He said that he and his wife are going to share the plate because they are not very hungry.
Generally, the big houses, the expensive cars and the huge incomes have not made our people more secure. On the contrary, I have seen many of them to be very insecure and they become very impatient if you owe them some money. They want their money right away even if it is a trivial amount. Overall, consumerism has made us more selfish, greedier, more insecure and more impatient.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
