How the world feels about "us"...
This blog is my outburst on several articles, books and movie reviews I have read in past few months. I am upset with only a few people and realize that there are many others who do not belong to the group of people I am going to talk about. I always think about: "What does the rest of the world feel about India?", and realized that its not about what they feel but what they read and want to read. First, I will tell you my review of the book 'White Tiger' written by 'an Indian brought up in Indonesia and studied in the UK'. The book is half rubbish. It talks about life of a "lower-caste" person from some village near Dhanbad, when is in the village, New Delhi and Bangalore. The book draws examples of about half of the things that according to me have been almost eradicated in India. Has the author actually gone to these under-developed areas and seen the reality? I am sure he has not. Now lets analyze why writers like him write these books, which btw win the Booker prize. I think many people in the developed countries want to read about poverty, casteism, life in slum, religious divide, untouchability, sati etc. in a book about India. This is how they have always thought about the country and they feel right if a book describes the things exactly as they have imagined before. They are not ready to believe that things change in developing countries!
My second comment is on a blog written by Matthew Harding (famous for 'Where is the hell is Matt?') on India. Man, can you believe this person's blog! I don't understand that if he hated India so much then why did he spend so much money on the airline tickets! People like this guy, who is BTW famous for his stupid dance, can only see poverty, slums and cheating in India. To them, outer beauty is everything and they live for that! They can't see how people are happy and how they draw happiness from small instances in life. And BTW, if you want to see beauty, please for god's sake don't go to a metropolitan city. I think there are many people who agree with me that there are better places to visit in the US than New York. Lets talk about cheating. They cry that people in India sell everything for 10 times more money to a Caucasian than to an Indian. You know what dude, you are happy to spend $100 in Europe/USA but spending $1 for the same thing in India makes you bankrupt?? I think there should officially be more tax for tourists in India. This is followed in many countries, for example according to my Bulgarian officemate, tourists are taxed more in Bulgaria.
My next target is the book 'Holy Cow', written by an Australian journalist, who lived in India for a few years. Well, you can see what the book is about from its front page. It has picture of the Hindu god 'Shiva' wearing goggles. I am sort of an atheist but this picture outraged me thinking how people can be so insensitive. Lets see if someone in US/Europe buys a book that has picture of Christ wearing goggles on the cover page. I am not delving into religion but the sole purpose of this Australian journalist seems to sell the book in developed countries and show this grim, religious and poor view of India.
Now, lets talk about the newly released movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', directed by an American director. Following is excerpt of a comment published on IMDB about the movie:
But the next hour and twenty minutes of the film were a disaster. Every clichéd and stereotype imaginable about India, Indian class struggle, Indian religious struggle was reinforced in the film in an even more exaggerated form. Every character in the film was either good or evil, black or white. Every system was either fair or unfair. There was no room for nuances and subtleties. The story telling was too much on the surface. For e.g. a scene from '92 riots, where a bunch of Hindu fanatics were attacking Muslims in their slums. That scene was a biggest turn off for me. I was in fact offended by the insensitivity and insensibility of the filmmaker who presented such a big historical tragedy in simplistic and stereotypical way. I have lived through those riots and I know exactly how it feels. It for sure wasn't as simplistic.
And the scene where the two brothers were pushed out of the train because they were stealing bread. Common! Give me a break! I have never seen such things happen in India in my entire lifetime. And I've lived in India for most of my life.
Also the kind Caucasian couple who graciously gives $100 to Jamal. I've never seen such kind tourists in India ever. I've seen Western tourists sometimes haggle for 10 cents. Forget India I've never seen such a gracious Caucasian exhibiting such kindness even in New York City.
And besides that Caucasian couple nobody from the higher economic strata of the society was kind and generous. Everyone was brutal, cruel, conniving...as if there were only two types of people in Mumbai.
This was yet another stereotypical Western view of a "third world country" gone wrong. I think this film is made purely for the Western audience, so that they feel good about themselves. The film does nothing else but reinforces the stereotypes. And after looking at all these favorable reviews I feel that there is a great divide between the way the West sees the world (or wants to see the world) and the way the world really is. One of the roles of media, in my opinion, is to challenge these stereotypes, whereas this film, to become popular, simply reinforces them. The film in my opinion is shallow, lame and absolutely insensible.
I haven't seen the movie but I can relate to what this person is talking about, though I don't totally agree with him. This comment has been labeled as "*** This comment may contain spoilers ***" on the website!!
Here is one more comment:
It has so many things going against it here in the States, the usage of south Asian characters, and... well I'll stop there.
Well, to be true, there are other comments, which say that this movie truly deserves Oscar. As already said, I haven't seen the movie but I hope I don't get disappointed watching only some "aspects" of Mumbai/India shown in the movie.
While writing this blog, I was afraid that my non-Indian friends might misunderstand me. I am not against or for any particular country. I just feel that people should shed the stereotypical views they have about India and treat things with broad mind. Majority of the blame goes to writers and directors who only show biased view of India.. why do they have to write about only slums in Mumbai/Delhi and not about the beautiful Himalayas!
This blog is my outburst on several articles, books and movie reviews I have read in past few months. I am upset with only a few people and realize that there are many others who do not belong to the group of people I am going to talk about. I always think about: "What does the rest of the world feel about India?", and realized that its not about what they feel but what they read and want to read. First, I will tell you my review of the book 'White Tiger' written by 'an Indian brought up in Indonesia and studied in the UK'. The book is half rubbish. It talks about life of a "lower-caste" person from some village near Dhanbad, when is in the village, New Delhi and Bangalore. The book draws examples of about half of the things that according to me have been almost eradicated in India. Has the author actually gone to these under-developed areas and seen the reality? I am sure he has not. Now lets analyze why writers like him write these books, which btw win the Booker prize. I think many people in the developed countries want to read about poverty, casteism, life in slum, religious divide, untouchability, sati etc. in a book about India. This is how they have always thought about the country and they feel right if a book describes the things exactly as they have imagined before. They are not ready to believe that things change in developing countries!
My second comment is on a blog written by Matthew Harding (famous for 'Where is the hell is Matt?') on India. Man, can you believe this person's blog! I don't understand that if he hated India so much then why did he spend so much money on the airline tickets! People like this guy, who is BTW famous for his stupid dance, can only see poverty, slums and cheating in India. To them, outer beauty is everything and they live for that! They can't see how people are happy and how they draw happiness from small instances in life. And BTW, if you want to see beauty, please for god's sake don't go to a metropolitan city. I think there are many people who agree with me that there are better places to visit in the US than New York. Lets talk about cheating. They cry that people in India sell everything for 10 times more money to a Caucasian than to an Indian. You know what dude, you are happy to spend $100 in Europe/USA but spending $1 for the same thing in India makes you bankrupt?? I think there should officially be more tax for tourists in India. This is followed in many countries, for example according to my Bulgarian officemate, tourists are taxed more in Bulgaria.
My next target is the book 'Holy Cow', written by an Australian journalist, who lived in India for a few years. Well, you can see what the book is about from its front page. It has picture of the Hindu god 'Shiva' wearing goggles. I am sort of an atheist but this picture outraged me thinking how people can be so insensitive. Lets see if someone in US/Europe buys a book that has picture of Christ wearing goggles on the cover page. I am not delving into religion but the sole purpose of this Australian journalist seems to sell the book in developed countries and show this grim, religious and poor view of India.
Now, lets talk about the newly released movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', directed by an American director. Following is excerpt of a comment published on IMDB about the movie:
But the next hour and twenty minutes of the film were a disaster. Every clichéd and stereotype imaginable about India, Indian class struggle, Indian religious struggle was reinforced in the film in an even more exaggerated form. Every character in the film was either good or evil, black or white. Every system was either fair or unfair. There was no room for nuances and subtleties. The story telling was too much on the surface. For e.g. a scene from '92 riots, where a bunch of Hindu fanatics were attacking Muslims in their slums. That scene was a biggest turn off for me. I was in fact offended by the insensitivity and insensibility of the filmmaker who presented such a big historical tragedy in simplistic and stereotypical way. I have lived through those riots and I know exactly how it feels. It for sure wasn't as simplistic.
And the scene where the two brothers were pushed out of the train because they were stealing bread. Common! Give me a break! I have never seen such things happen in India in my entire lifetime. And I've lived in India for most of my life.
Also the kind Caucasian couple who graciously gives $100 to Jamal. I've never seen such kind tourists in India ever. I've seen Western tourists sometimes haggle for 10 cents. Forget India I've never seen such a gracious Caucasian exhibiting such kindness even in New York City.
And besides that Caucasian couple nobody from the higher economic strata of the society was kind and generous. Everyone was brutal, cruel, conniving...as if there were only two types of people in Mumbai.
This was yet another stereotypical Western view of a "third world country" gone wrong. I think this film is made purely for the Western audience, so that they feel good about themselves. The film does nothing else but reinforces the stereotypes. And after looking at all these favorable reviews I feel that there is a great divide between the way the West sees the world (or wants to see the world) and the way the world really is. One of the roles of media, in my opinion, is to challenge these stereotypes, whereas this film, to become popular, simply reinforces them. The film in my opinion is shallow, lame and absolutely insensible.
I haven't seen the movie but I can relate to what this person is talking about, though I don't totally agree with him. This comment has been labeled as "*** This comment may contain spoilers ***" on the website!!
Here is one more comment:
It has so many things going against it here in the States, the usage of south Asian characters, and... well I'll stop there.
Well, to be true, there are other comments, which say that this movie truly deserves Oscar. As already said, I haven't seen the movie but I hope I don't get disappointed watching only some "aspects" of Mumbai/India shown in the movie.
While writing this blog, I was afraid that my non-Indian friends might misunderstand me. I am not against or for any particular country. I just feel that people should shed the stereotypical views they have about India and treat things with broad mind. Majority of the blame goes to writers and directors who only show biased view of India.. why do they have to write about only slums in Mumbai/Delhi and not about the beautiful Himalayas!
11 comments:
Nice views..... even I agree and I think everybody should because the people, the place and the world changes with time.... not being ready to accept changes is what is know as stagnation
really nice thoughts girl!! Even I get these once in a while. Perhaps you should structure them in a better and sound more politically correct and then send an article to some local newspaper or something to spread the awareness. But I was a bit skeptical about your ending. I think there are already a million books written on the beauty and serenity of india and many caucasians come to india to see precisely that. But the thing is that no writing is balanced. Either its all black or all white. What the world at large needs to know is that India is a developing country with huge divides in its huge population. No generalised statement can be made about the country. The best and the worst coexist in India. Also i liked that thing about the Mumbai blasts...that issues are not so simplistic...its much more subtle and multi layered...These are situations that have evolved over centuries of hindu muslim interaction, both being at fault at some or the other point of time, and things being aggravated by Brits to some extent.
@Pallavi
Yah I know there is no black or white for India, where all kinda things co-exist! But, have you seen a book written about beauty and serenity in India getting a Booker or other popular award? That's because there are some sections of people who enjoy reading grim things about India more than the good stuff!
Sonal,
I admire your sentiments for India, but I would like to put up another viewpoint. I agree there is some wrong literature, movies out there which give a bad impression but where does this not happen ? Do you think USA is less criticized.. There are a lot of books, videos, movies which talk about the bad things in USA... the iraq war, exploitation in Africa etc...A lot of things are messed up here too even though it is one of the most developed countries... Infact many of the writers of these are Americans themselves....
I think the same happens for any country .
Another side of the story is there is a lot of appreciation for some great indian culture like yoga, meditation.. There are so many centers in USA and many international organizations are acknowledging the benefits of yoga and the fact that it originated in India..You know the book "Autobiography of a yogi" is so famous...
In marathi their is a phrase
"Dusaryanchya dolyatale usal diste, Swatahchya dolya madhale Musal disat nahi"
It means people can see the faults of others but not realize the faults within themselves. And it is true everywhere. The American who assumes India is just a slum when every advice he gets on any 1-800 number is given by an Indian. And the Indian who ruthlessly comments that Americans have no culture. And I think now you can appreciate the saying by a wise man "Everything is grey" :)
n marathi their is a phrase
"Dusaryanchya dolyatale kusal diste, Swatahchya dolya madhale Musal disat nahi"
It means people can see the faults of others but not realize the faults within themselves. And it is true everywhere. The American who assumes India is just a slum when every advice he gets on any 1-800 number is given by an Indian. And the Indian who ruthlessly comments that Americans have no culture. And I think now you can appreciate the saying by a wise man "Everything is grey" :)
I totally agree with you. Its very hard to describe India with just one story or example, because India as is, is a very complex country with layers and layers of culture in it. But I think that the fault is with the readers of these books. If they feel they need to know the real India, there are books that show glimpses of it. If they feel that their preconceived view of India should be protected, they go for books that support that. Every writer's work is a piece of trash to others unless someone relates to it. And, sadly, a large number of readers can relate to these books! That explains their booker prizes! Good post!
Link to Matthew Harding's post?
A very good blog!!
Its true... There are many Indians(actually non-Indians) who have been undeservingly rewarded for writing things that are not particuarly existing anymore in India.
But again, one must agree that there are things in India like like illiteracy and corruption which definitely need proper attention and action!!
Excellent Article !! Even I can able to see in Discovery/Natgeo programs like, “How begging happening in Indian Citys ?” “How monkeys living within indian citys” like this only .. I am not able to understand one thing, why this people trying to demonstrate bad thing about India, even they have lot of bad thing with there country ?
Excellent Article !! Even I can able to see in Discovery/Natgeo programs like, “How begging happening in Indian Citys ?” “How monkeys living within indian citys” I am not able to understand one thing, why this people trying to demonstrate bad thing about India, even they have lot of bad thing with there country ?
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