Culture is the most potent tool of neo-colonialism. It’s no longer about the use of brute force; neocolonialism in the 21st century involves the hyperactive commodification of culture and the legitimization of this commodification through the phenomenon of globalization. The resultant effect is the former colonies happily and willingly surrender their root culture and revel in the neocolonial cultural imagery of the imperialists. The Happy New Year syndrome is a prime example of that.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year hashtags probably trend in Bharat way more than Happy Diwali and Happy Holi hashtags. Many of us have had those 31st December late-night revelries at some point in our lives. For the Bharatiya youth, the 31st December night is packaged as some kind of a catastrophic metamorphosis into a new self and a new being as the clock strikes 12! Such is the hype of the Happy New Year Syndrome. The whole consumer economy of Bharat seems to be intrinsically linked to the Christmas and New Year period. Hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping malls, all these pillars of the consumer economy seem to be geared towards delivering the ultimate New Year experience.
Yet, how many of us have ever spared a thought to the origins of this so-called New Year? Is the celebration of 31st December at midnight as New Year connected to Bharatiya culture? Does it have anything to do with the history and civilization of Bharat? The answer is a resounding no. The New Year, as we know it is based on the Gregorian calendar widely followed in most of the world for all purposes practical. We have internalized the Gregorian calendar to such an extent that we even celebrate our birthdays based on it. Most of us are probably not even aware of the fact that the Gregorian Calendar is a Christian calendar. So the New Year that we happily celebrate is essentially a Christian New Year.
As we usher in A.D. 2024, little do we realize that A.D. signifies “anno Domini”, which is Latin for “in the year of our Lord”. An article carried by a publication called Milwaukee Independent points out this paradox of non-Christians celebrating a Christian New Year all over the world rather succinctly. “A.D. 2022: Why Years Are Counted With a Gregorian Calendar When Most of the World Is Not Christian” is the title of the article. The article explains how the birth of Jesus Christ is the reference point for the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, New Year 2024 celebrated on the 1st of January essentially means the marking of 2024 years since the purported birth of Jesus Christ.
The article makes you think why native cultures all over the world including in Bharat whose societies are being destroyed by Christian conversions feel so compelled to celebrate the Christian New Year. It further provides an insight into the marginalization of other indigenous cultures’ time systems while the Gregorian calendar became the norm. “Taken together, these ingredients helped A.D. time become the norm. While the Christian calendar is built on and infused with other cultures’ time systems, A.D.s popularization contributed to sidelining those calendars to the margins – what postcolonial scholars call “temporal colonization”. For example, the date Bede set for Easter in his work “The Reckoning of Time” is based on a polytheistic celebration of Eostre, a German Goddess. Eostre has, thus, disappeared into Easter”, says the article.
How many of us are aware of the Hindu Nav Varsh (New Year), let alone celebrating it? As the Happy New Year hype grows in leaps and bounds with every passing year, thanks to hyper-consumerism and globalization, most of us seem to have no clue about the timing of the Hindu New Year. The Hindu Nav Varsha falls on the first day of the month of Chaitra. This day known as Chaitra Shukla Pratipada usually falls in the months of March or April. The calendar on which Hindu Nav Varsha is based is known as the Vikram Samvat calendar. According to the Hindu calendar, currently, the year 2080 is going on.
How many of us remember sending or receiving greetings of the Hindu Nav Varsh? The whole popular culture ecosystem of Bharat is geared towards promoting the Christian New Year. While there is nothing wrong in celebrating a day to mark the end of a calendar year, it’s strange that one is not even acknowledging the existence of the New Year connected to their roots. This is precisely how colonization spreads through society like termites. Make people such slaves to a colonial mindset that instead of questioning the colonial legacy, they start questioning anyone who questions the same. The colonized thus become vehement defenders of the neocolonial system.
Talk about the Hindu New Year to any woke Bharatiya and they will immediately accuse of you being poisonous and running a vicious agenda. What is wrong with having a bit of fun one day in the whole year? Why are you unnecessarily politicizing a joyous occasion like New Year? Why are you being so bitter and negative? These are typical questions you will face. Never mind the fact that it’s actually the woke liberal machinery that is running an agenda and wiping the indigenous cultures and traditions of countries like Bharat in connivance with the missionary ecosystem. But if you dare to question that, you are the one who is branded as running an agenda!
Not all countries in the world observe the Gregorian Calendar New Year though. China is a prime example. The Chinese New Year is celebrated with the onset of Spring. It usually falls in February. Also known as the Spring Festival, Chinese New Year celebrations have become popular all over the world. It’s become a cultural brand of China. What prevents us from doing the same with Hindu Nav Varsh, one wonders? Why can’t we start popularizing Hindi Nav Varsh like the Chinese New Year starting from the level of government? Only when the government or corporates will take enough interest in the Hindu Nav Varsha to create some hype, will the public take notice. Unfortunately, that’s the harsh reality in times of globalization. Therefore, we need to repackage our own culture, of course, keeping the essence intact, but repackage it lucratively to enable to youth to connect with Hindu civilizational ethos. Why can’t we promote Hindu Nav Varsh like we promote Yoga and Ayurveda?
Apart from China, countries like Korea, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, etc celebrate their own Indigenous New Year. The Jewish people have their own New Year based on their own system. Similarly, many Islamic countries observe the Islamic New Year which is said to begin on the day of Muharram.
Creating an ecosystem around the Hindu Nav Varsha doesn’t mean we are doing some kind of propaganda against the Gregorian calendar New Year. It simply means we are asserting our own culture and identity and its high time we do that.
As Bharat undergoes a cultural renaissance and slowly gets out of the clutches of colonization, we certainly see a paradigm shift. Common people of Bharat are now questioning the vestiges of colonialism that have been deliberately thrust upon us. Many Bharatiyas on X are posting on the importance of the Hindu Nav Varsha. We leave you with these posts.
