India, You Have Been Bamboozled!
There has been so much controversy surrounding ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in India for carrying a title deemed derogatory and insensitive to the citizens of the slums. But there is a much deeper cause for this tantrum that so many in the country are throwing.
What Danny Boyle managed to do, no Indian has on an international screen. He went to the darkest corners of the cities that market themselves as the hubs of a country on the cusp of superpowerdom, and undermined the entire effort. India, over the past decade, has so painstakingly furthered this marketing agenda (Superpower 2020 they call it), that Boyle’s reality came at them like a slap on the face, a rude awakening to the harsh reality.
Now before I delve deeper, and perhaps to make my audience a little more receptive to my views, I have to say that India has indeed, despite all the problems it inherited sixty years ago, come a long way. It calls its own some of the brightest minds in the world and has achieved great feats on all fronts. However, during my three year stint in the country, I saw the impact this ‘Incredible India’ gimmick has had on the people, primarily (and perhaps only) on the educated class. I’ve probably mentioned this before because I find it so crucial to India’s future success. Over the three years, I’ve had so many discussions with so many of my peers about India’s reality, a reality they seemed to have conveniently turned a blind eye to. So many Indians are oblivious to the gravity of the country’s poverty, low literacy levels, political complexity because the glitz and glamour of India Inc has whitewashed it all. And you know this to be true, when a prominent Indian film-maker, Priyadarshan Nair, can say
“India is not Somalia. We are one of the foremost nuclear powers in the world, our satellites are roaming the universe. Our police commissioners' offices don't look like shacks and there are no blind children begging in the streets of Mumbai.”
When Hilary Clinton made a visit to India as First Lady, the Indian authorities had draped the streets with beautiful Indian cloth to showcase our culture. Fluttering in the wind, however, they revealed their true purpose – a cover for the slums that line the streets of India. Had the country read her autobiography, Living History, there may have been some furor over it. What Slumdog Millionaire did was screen India’s closely veiled secret to an international audience. And the country got defensive.
A point to note is that there was no international noise about this ‘revelation’. The rest of the world, it appears, is aware of this Indian reality. So, the only people this Incredible India story has managed to bamboozle then, are the very people who have to take the country forward. There’s a tad bit of irony for you, just to wrap things up.
What Danny Boyle managed to do, no Indian has on an international screen. He went to the darkest corners of the cities that market themselves as the hubs of a country on the cusp of superpowerdom, and undermined the entire effort. India, over the past decade, has so painstakingly furthered this marketing agenda (Superpower 2020 they call it), that Boyle’s reality came at them like a slap on the face, a rude awakening to the harsh reality.
Now before I delve deeper, and perhaps to make my audience a little more receptive to my views, I have to say that India has indeed, despite all the problems it inherited sixty years ago, come a long way. It calls its own some of the brightest minds in the world and has achieved great feats on all fronts. However, during my three year stint in the country, I saw the impact this ‘Incredible India’ gimmick has had on the people, primarily (and perhaps only) on the educated class. I’ve probably mentioned this before because I find it so crucial to India’s future success. Over the three years, I’ve had so many discussions with so many of my peers about India’s reality, a reality they seemed to have conveniently turned a blind eye to. So many Indians are oblivious to the gravity of the country’s poverty, low literacy levels, political complexity because the glitz and glamour of India Inc has whitewashed it all. And you know this to be true, when a prominent Indian film-maker, Priyadarshan Nair, can say
“India is not Somalia. We are one of the foremost nuclear powers in the world, our satellites are roaming the universe. Our police commissioners' offices don't look like shacks and there are no blind children begging in the streets of Mumbai.”
When Hilary Clinton made a visit to India as First Lady, the Indian authorities had draped the streets with beautiful Indian cloth to showcase our culture. Fluttering in the wind, however, they revealed their true purpose – a cover for the slums that line the streets of India. Had the country read her autobiography, Living History, there may have been some furor over it. What Slumdog Millionaire did was screen India’s closely veiled secret to an international audience. And the country got defensive.
A point to note is that there was no international noise about this ‘revelation’. The rest of the world, it appears, is aware of this Indian reality. So, the only people this Incredible India story has managed to bamboozle then, are the very people who have to take the country forward. There’s a tad bit of irony for you, just to wrap things up.
posted by Melanie at 7:48 PM
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