Vice President Venkaiah Naidu visits GITAM in Vizag

“Though we have come a long way from the ancient times, we have forgotten our culture in the process. Particularly, most of us have forgotten our language, our traditions and in the process our identity. It is only a matter of time before we completely lose our culture and traditions to modernisation,” said the Vice President of India M.Venkaiah Naidu on Friday at GITAM Deemed to be University campus in Vizag. He mentioned that Indians must come out from the colonial syndrome and think and act like the swadeshis.

He participated as Chief Guest in a function organised by GITAM School of Gandhian Studies in Vizag and released the book “Colonial Syndrome” written by GITAM Chancellor Prof.K.Ramakrishna Rao.

“We have forgotten our mother tongue; we failed to appreciate the richness and beauty of our own languages,” says the Vice President of India in his speech. Our culture is something we should take pride in and we should cherish and celebrate our culture rather than forgetting it completely particularly to protect our identity, protecting culture is a must, he added. He said that culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, customs, laws and other capabilities which are learned, shared by men as members of society, and transmitted from one generation to another.

He observed that the British influence has changed the way we look at ourselves and has stripped us of a confidence that comes naturally to a people belonging to an ancient and great civilisation. Venkaiah Naidu pointed out that the self-denigration that started with the ‘modern education’ has done us more harm than good. He said that the educational institutions must train the human resources in a traditional way to mold them a perfect intellectual.

GITAM Chancellor Prof.K.Ramakrishna Rao said that colonial syndrome goes on to analyse Gandhi’s concept of swadeshi, and attempts to make clear the difference between education in India and Indian education, Indian philosophy and philosophy in India, and psychology in India and Indian psychology. He observed that two centuries of British rule crystallised in the minds of English educated Indians a peculiar mindset that tended to undervalue their native ethos and moorings and make English culture more attractive which is called the colonial syndrome. He pointed out that this syndrome has infected the modern Indian elite, who abandon their cultural roots and imitate the western ways.

GITAM President Dr.MVVS Murthi presided over the function. GITAM Vice-President Prof.M.Gangadhara Rao, Member of Parliament Dr.K.Haribabu, District Collector Pravin Kumar, GITAM Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof.K.Sivarama Krishna and others participated in the program.