Author: François Gautier
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: March 16, 2009
URL: http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2009/03/16/ArticleHtmls/16_03_2009_011_002.shtml?Mode=1
The Americanisation of India is creating havoc
in the social and cultural fabric of the country. Slumdog is a recent attempt
Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted
at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem,
and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practice their religion freely
WHY did a film like Slumdog Millionaire, which
conveys an utterly negative image of India - slums, exploitation, poverty,
corruption, anti Muslim pogroms - create so many waves in the West, pre and
post Oscars? And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese
would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality?
There are several answers: When the missionaries
began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only
practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood
as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent. They therefore
decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its
faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows,
sati … Today, these exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths,
have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many
Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India's intelligentsia.
We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority
complex over the so called Third World in general and India in particular.
Sitting in front of our television sets during prime time news, with a hefty
steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly
flatters our ego and makes us proud of our so-called 'achievements'. That
is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the
impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire,
have such an impact.
In this film, India's foes have joined hands.
Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used
to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free
medical aid, schooling and loans. If you see the Tamil Nadu coast posttsunami,
there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are
taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one's
head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to
a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary
when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals -
so much for his impartiality).
Islamic fundamentalism also ruth lessly hounds
India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent
of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a
single act of savagery. Indian communists, in power in three states, are also
hard at work to dismantle India's cultural and spiritual inheritance. And
finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and
cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a
failure in the West. Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.
Many of the West's India-specialists are staunchly
anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate
the tradition of Max Mueller, the first 'Sankritist' who said: "The Vedas
is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low,
commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and
worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from
the depths of the soul".
This tradition is carried over by Indologists
such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of
the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting
across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty,
slums - and more than anything - their pet theories about 'Hindu fundamentalism'.
Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the
ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees,
Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all
to practise their religion freely.
And finally, it is true that Indians, because
they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism.
Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural
roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools,
such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess
infinite wisdom.
Slumdog literally defecates on India from
the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director
Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat,
on which the film is based. In the book, the hero of the film (who is not
Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend
his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal's mother
is not killed by "Hindu fanatics', but she abandons her baby, of unknown
religion, in a church. Jamal's torture is not an idea of the television presenter,
but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights
of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain
is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers
and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.
And finally, yes, there still exists in India
a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely
poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural
- much more than in the West as a matter of fact.
When will the West learn to look with less
prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as
the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists,
more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians
more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West.
(fgautier26@gmail.com)
