Evolution. Reform. Novelty. Progress. These are but a few stellar words that characterise and are involved in the definition of culture which, in fact, consists of learned ways of acting, feeling and thinking rather than biologically determined ones.

It includes arts, beliefs, customs, inventions, language, technology, traditions and even religion. Some simple animals like the amoeba or the ant act uniquely on the basis of information carried in their genes which, for instance, determine their ways of obtaining food and shelter. In contrast, however, human beings can experiment, learn and work out their own ways of doing these things ? a process that never ends and that keeps on changing.

Culture is a set of simple extensions of various parts of the body and as Sigmund Freud very well put it, ?they are comparable to such devices as artificial limbs, eye-glasses and false teeth?. Like these devices, culture enables people to perform things that their muscles and senses alone would not allow them to do. In itself, culture is a ?positive and progressive process? and is usually born out of necessity and new opportunities: human beings do not need fangs if they have arrows; they need not run fast if they have tamed horses and they need not have recourse to horses if motor cars are available.

Without culture, the astronauts could not have reached the moon nor survived there: as the human body needs oxygen and a certain range of temperature to live, cultural devices have enabled these astronauts to overcome some of the limitations of their bodies and stay alive, even in the harshly adverse environments on the moon.

Many people in Mauritius and elsewhere tend to believe or make others believe that culture is uniquely a matter of the ancestral past, giving it even religious and other such ?sectorial? connotations. They ceaselessly remind you, through various specific, outdated celebrations, rites and rituals, of the remnants of the past or rather the remnants of poverty (as a close friend of mine so curtly observed).

<B>Why make life difficult? </B>

For really, it is out of poverty that we once ate on banana leaves; it is out of poverty that we walked barefoot along muddy tracks in dense woods to Grand Bassin and back, footsore for days afterwards. Now that we have clean, dainty little porcelain plates, forks and spoons, why continue eating on banana leaves? Why continue walking in sun and shower to Grand Bassin when we have comfortable motor vehicles and nicely constructed (and costly even) roads at our disposal? Does it really please the Gods or Deities to see us their little children, making such sacrifices? Are they so dogmatic and demanding?

Culture, moreover, is not to remind one, time and again, of the bitterness of ?Esclavage? or ?Colonialisme? or of the old-fashioned, poverty-stricken ways and means, rites and rituals of the Marathi, Tamil, Muslim, Chinese, Hindu or whatever race of people. Culture is not and should not be an exposure of our envenomed past wounds and ailments, nor should it be the glorification of our past short-comings and ill-fatedness, but rather it should be a projection of our achievements and realisations, a foretaste of our prospective aims and dreams.

At a time when ?Globalisation? is the key-word hanging on the lips of all those decison maker sin our society, why not promote Diffusion of Culture? Whether one likes it or not, in a small multiracial country like ours, where social and cultural interactions and intermingling are inevitable, this is all naturally bound to happen. In fact, it is happening!

For today, no Hindu can proclaim himself to be an absolute Hindu; or a Creole and absolute Creole; or a Muslim and absolute Muslim. One should not be surprised to find a Creole damsel, wearing sarwal and khameze, with long straightened hair, a phoolie on her nose practising yoga and Indian classical dance; or a Hindu or Muslim girl having a short Afro hair cut, wearing a short skirt or jeans dancing to the melodious tune of a beautiful sega by Linzy Bacbotte or Serge Lebrasse in a disco club.

Likewise, one should expect to find a Creole housewife cooking as good a briani as her Muslim counterpart can do or a Hindu woman?s fried rice equalling that of her Chinese friend. A close incursion into the day-to-day life of each and every Mauritian shall definitely reveal one striking fact: each of them lives practically the same way of life as his friend next door as far as eating, drinking, work and amenities are concerned. Mauritians, perhaps, differ only in the practice of their religions.

<B>Time to look forward</B>

But then, religion, which is, no doubt, of utmost importance in the spiritual development of the social human individual, is only one of the several determining aspects of culture. One should not focus one?s entire attention solely on religion and matters related to it when evoking culture.

So, in such a little country as ours, why construct so many separate cultural centres? Why not promote and struggle for a proper authentic secular Mauritian culture and make of the already existing Centre Culturel Mauricien the only cultural centre, which will house not only Mauritians of a certain category but all Mauritian, irrespective of race, creed or colour, enabling them to share and benefit from one another under the same roof? Why not continue striving, for the famous formula Enn sel lepep, enn sel nation which sounded so alluring in the nostalgic 1980?s, or as now, better still, Enn sel nation, enn sel destin?

The other day a friend of mine told me: ?what?s she use of forcing my child to learn Tamil at school? Where and how far can this lead him in his future life? He can do so, of course, if and when he feels like, in his spare time. But I find it imperative that I encourage him or force him even, to learn Computer Science rather than Tamil just to prevent him from being a ?misfit? in society in the years to come. Am I right or wrong?? I coud not but nod approvingly.

Culture is not to halt and all the time look back to where you have come from; either is it to entertain the same old stereotyped ways and means of eating, drinking, chanting religious songs and clamouring; better than that, culture is to shelve certain useless, outdated practices and create new ones; culture is to get moving in the natural direction of the goal you want to achieve by making full use of the ever-changing new, healthier ways and means and opportunities of living and survival.

Sooresh RAGO