Cultural Pollution

The conservation of culture enriches a society and helps people appreciates its richness. In the sphere of cultural tourism also the main idea is to familiarise people with culture so that their efforts at selling at do not wrap its content. In the International tourism parlance India is being promoted as a major tourist destination by the planners and policy makers. It has everything to offer-mountains and seas, forests and wildlife, an ancient culture and modern facilities, a variety of festivals, fairs, dresses and costumes, original cave-age tribals and 21st century elite; we just name it and we have got it here. India is perceived as a cultural destination and the foreign tourists visiting India for the first time find it so fascinating that quite a few of them come again and again to enjoy the “Indian Experience”. No wonder India is one such destination in the world where International tourists spend maximum days once they arrive in the country.

India is replete with the heritage resources in the form of art, architecture and archaeology besides other cultural expressions like performing arts, dance, drama, fairs and the like. These cultural expressions constitute potential recreation resources. These resources, coupled with heritage, contribute to the richness of any landscape which can attract innumerable tourists looking for the ‘cultural experience’. It is also felt that the conservation of one area of heritage and culture cannot be achieved in isolation. It has to be a concerted effort. The most important aspect of conservation is the participation of the local population. The state with vast resources is definitely in a better position to help in conservation efforts. Besides non-governmental organisations, travel and tourism industry and other local bodies can also contribute in a positive ways.

The focus today is on the exotics cultures which figures as key attractions. The effort is to satisfy the touristic demand and in the process even contrive a cultural identity. This is continually proving to be quite troublesome for the relationship between ‘tourism’ and ‘culture’. While visitors are welcome to observe and understand and even participate in our celebrations but efforts should be made to prevent our heritage from getting ‘affected’ by ‘visitors’ lifestyles or thinking. Most of our fairs and festivals, extremely popular with international tourists, are now gradually being exposed to these fairs and festivals are already showing signs of change like the Pushkar Fair in Rajasthan. This cattle fair with religious passion has now almost become a tourist fair and there are negative impacts because of large number of tourists. Spread of the prohibited drugs is one of the negative features which has been noticed ever since it became so popular with tourists. Many local youths can be seen on the beach peddling drugs. The traditional occupations have declined and the land prices have increased phenomenonally. The only traditional occupation flourish under these circumstances is stone quarrying. Land that once provided a steady and continuous income from agriculture has been permanently lost to quarrying which gives quick and high returns. Deep, ugly pits scar the earth.

Another example of cultural pollution is misrepresenting the authentic Indian Styles of painting, music and dance to tailor- made it to suit the taste of the visitors. The poor artists fall prey to the lure of money and change the style of their presentation to suit the market needs rather than keeping in view the traditional artistic considerations. There has been an alarming increase in the number of beggars and lepers especially around tourist places. These elements not only conjure up a bad image of our country but also harass the visitors for the doles and their pestering at times spoils the moods of the tourists leading to avoidable unpleasant situations.

The cultural brokers have appropriated aspect of a life-style into the tourism package to help sales in the competitive market. This sets in motion a process of its own for which no one, not even planners, seems to feel in the least responsible. Treating culture as a natural resource or a commodity over which tourists have rights is not simply perverse. It is a violation of the peoples’ cultural rights. While some aspects of culture have wider consequences than others, what must be remembered is that culture in its very essence is something that people believe in implicitly. By making it part of the tourism package, it is turned into an explicit and paid performance and no longer can be believed in the way it was before. Thus, commodisation of culture in effect robs people of the very meanings by which they organize their lives.

Perhaps this is the final logic of the capitalist development of which tourism is an ideal example. The commoditisation process does not stop land. Labour, and capital but ultimately includes the history, ethnic identity and culture of the peoples of the world. Tourism simply packages the cultural realities of a people for sale along with their other resources. We know that no people anywhere can live without the meanings culture provides. Thus tourism is forcing unparalleled cultural change on people already reeling from the blows of industrialization, urbanization, and inflation. The loss of meaning through cultural commoditization is a problem atleast as serious as the unequal distribution of wealth that results from tourist development.

But human beings learn by experiences of their own and of others. So before unrestricted and unmanaged tourism is given green signal we must stop and critically examine its influences and repercussions, especially on our culture.

There is a great need to plough back for the preservation and development of our traditional art forms and our cultural heritage.