Not only in culture but in every sphere India today is going through a period of tremendous turbulence. Today crisis in culture is owing to three main elements. Firstly, there is a continuous fragmentation of life, of Man and knowledge, undermining the unity of living. This process leads to confusion and loss of faith. Secondly, there is widening gap between thought and action and thirdly there is insufficient stress on the moral and ethical element in promoting peace and development. The peace of the world remains apparently fragile and threatened. Violence looms larger with the increase in self-centeredness; indifference and greed. So, the above situation calls for harmony and mutual adjustment in strengthening the cultural values.
The earlier hope of accelerating development and realizing the moral and material solidarity of mankind has vanished in thin air and developing countries can no longer rely on external aid for the solution of their problems. This may perhaps be good for developing countries themselves; but we cannot, both the developing nations and the economically advanced countries, afford to live without friendship and cooperation, without a deep concern in each other's welfare, for we share a common destiny now and indeed live from day-to-day in an interdependent world joined together by so many inescapable links which could be transmitted into powerful bonds of human solidarity and creativity.
These major elements of the prevailing crisis of our contemporary civilization are shared by all and confronted even more sharply by the affluent societies at present. Poverty and misery continue in the midst of material opulence and along with spectacular achievements of science and technology; man achieves his fantastic visit to the moon while remaining powerless to abolish slums on earth. The means and modes of destruction and violence multiply rapidly, threatening disaster on a global scale, while peace and disarmament remain as distant as ever. The explosion of knowledge has no counter-part in the increase of wisdom, and colossal power is not matched by even a modicum of discrimination. These paradoxes and others continue to infest life when the capacity to plan, direct and elevate its quality is now well within the grasp of man.
In short, the role of humanists, who believe in their mime of understanding and appreciating different cultures and promoting cultural values, is clear, they must do everything possible to create a new climate of peace and cooperation promote meaningful dialogues that are taken seriously by those who talk and communicate and exemplify their own faith by bold and sincere action.
