Multicultural Competence Danny Kaye Once

Multicultural Competence

Danny Kaye once said, "Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can." (the Quotations Page) Danny Kaye, of course, was probably referring to his individual life philosophy when he voiced this now famous sentiment. However, it has often occurred to me that India is probably the one country in the world, which actually appears to practice Kaye's philosophy on a collective level. Therefore, it is my personal belief that there is a great deal that one can learn from the kaleidoscopical nature of India's culture and way of life. Thus, I harbor the hope of meeting an Indian student in college who can teach me all about India, from the perspective and experience of a person who has been born and brought up on the Indian subcontinent.

I have consciously used the qualifier that my potential classmate should be a student who has grown up in India in order to delineate the person I have in mind from the large, resident, Indian population in this country. In my view, such a delineation is important since I hope to gain an in-depth understanding of India's culture and way of life. This is particularly so because I have often read that it is difficult to describe or understand India completely: "It is impossible to speak of any one Indian culture, although there are deep cultural continuities that tie its people together. English is the major language of trade and politics, but there are fourteen official languages in all." (Geographia) country with a population of over one billion people, constituting thereby the world's largest democracy. A country that manages to endlessly astonish the world by its ability to hold together its "dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues." (Geographia) Such a country, therefore, can probably teach the world a valuable lesson on how to achieve unity within diversity. for, after all, it appears that India is a country, which has developed multicultural competence. Thus, I would be interested in understanding how an Indian manages to strike a balance between a national Indian identity and an independent cultural identity.