If you’ve read the ‘About Me’ part of the blog, you already know I’m not a galaxy. Good start. To be a bit more explicit, I’m human, male, grew up in Kolkata till end of college, went off to the US, lived in the West (USA and UK) for about 12 years, and came back to India for good (Yes ! Really !!).
It seems de riguer for an NRI, or ex-NRI, to write an angsty piece about their life in the West and make grand extrapolations to the experience of ‘all Indians’. (It’s generally considered totally uncool to just say, “Ya, life was/is very chilled out t/here”). So, here it comes.
Ok, to begin with, I didn’t feel I was abandoning my parents and cultural roots, I wasn’t appalled by the ‘lack of family/spiritual values’, I wasn’t in the least bothered by women in tank-tops or couples snogging in public. For all that, there’s Jhumpa Lahiri.
But here’s what did bother me.
I grew up on a pretty rich diet of English books and movies. Tintin and Asterix comics, Famous Five, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, you name it. Then there was Star Trek, Mickey Mouse and Spiderman on TV, and the big surge of Hollywood films during Christmas was always eagerly anticipated. Being a bit of a geek (just a bit?), I was heavily into science fiction and fantasy, which are genres of literature almost completely dominated by North American and British authors. Then there were all the great popular science authors, once again, mostly American or British.
So, to cut it short, I grew up absorbing, enjoying and admiring many of the products of western culture, and I believe my experience of quite typical of urban, middle-class Indian children (extrapolations have begun!).
It was a shock, therefore, to go to the West, and find that this feeling is absolutely not reciprocated.
To the average urban, middle-class westerner, India is invisible. Some people may have heard of Gandy (“what was that? Oh, Gandhi”), some New Age types have some curiosity about Indian religion (“chakra, chakra, not shakra”) and you get asked whether you like ‘curry’ (“curry is not a dish, idiots! Its like asking, Do you like soup?”). But apart from that, there’s just a very vague awareness of India as a land of starving people and cows, and nowadays, telemarketers and IT nerds. And there it ends.
Once, this sank in I re-read my beloved science and SF authors and realised with great disappointment that this was true of them as well. People like me were never part of their intended audience, and in fact, probably outside their mental horizon altogether. A very notable exception was Arthur C. Clarke, who often introduces Hindu and Buddhist names and themes into his novels. Carl Sagan dwells at some length on Indian cosmological speculations in Cosmos. But that’s about it.
And then I started seeing it in all the English books and movies I grew up with. Here I’d been thinking, like any eager reader, that the authors were ‘talking to me’, so to speak. But no, they weren’t. In fact, they had no idea that people like me might even read their work, just like all the ignoramuses I kept meeting in everyday life!
Now I’ll make a grand extrapolation and say that my experience is quite typical of Indians arriving in the West. And this is a problem. Most of us grow up with an awareness that our country has a vibrant culture with deep roots and this is a source of pride. To suddenly end up in a place where all of that is completely ignored or peripheralized, feels like, well, Arthur Dent looking up the Hitchhiker’s Guide and finding that the only entry under ‘Earth’ is ‘mostly harmless’! (If you didn’t get that reference, er..., let’s just have a chat sometime, ok?)
People react to this in different ways. Some decide that the best way to regain importance is by trying to act as ‘western’ as much as possible. Nowadays, their numbers are dropping and good riddance. Others embark on private crusades to raise India-awareness. As a result any unfortunate westerner in the vicinity is subject to long lectures on ‘glorious Indian culture and traditions’ (and subsequently avoids any Indian event like the plague.) Many get into an angry defensive crouch – “If they can’t be bothered about us, screw them! We can’t be bothered about them either”. Kind of difficult if you are living in their country, so what happens is a gradual tendency to segregate into rather claustrophobic all-Indian communities.
Of course, the circus really begins when the next generation comes along, but that’s a can of worms to be opened elsewhere.
It seems de riguer for an NRI, or ex-NRI, to write an angsty piece about their life in the West and make grand extrapolations to the experience of ‘all Indians’. (It’s generally considered totally uncool to just say, “Ya, life was/is very chilled out t/here”). So, here it comes.
Ok, to begin with, I didn’t feel I was abandoning my parents and cultural roots, I wasn’t appalled by the ‘lack of family/spiritual values’, I wasn’t in the least bothered by women in tank-tops or couples snogging in public. For all that, there’s Jhumpa Lahiri.
But here’s what did bother me.
I grew up on a pretty rich diet of English books and movies. Tintin and Asterix comics, Famous Five, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, you name it. Then there was Star Trek, Mickey Mouse and Spiderman on TV, and the big surge of Hollywood films during Christmas was always eagerly anticipated. Being a bit of a geek (just a bit?), I was heavily into science fiction and fantasy, which are genres of literature almost completely dominated by North American and British authors. Then there were all the great popular science authors, once again, mostly American or British.
So, to cut it short, I grew up absorbing, enjoying and admiring many of the products of western culture, and I believe my experience of quite typical of urban, middle-class Indian children (extrapolations have begun!).
It was a shock, therefore, to go to the West, and find that this feeling is absolutely not reciprocated.
To the average urban, middle-class westerner, India is invisible. Some people may have heard of Gandy (“what was that? Oh, Gandhi”), some New Age types have some curiosity about Indian religion (“chakra, chakra, not shakra”) and you get asked whether you like ‘curry’ (“curry is not a dish, idiots! Its like asking, Do you like soup?”). But apart from that, there’s just a very vague awareness of India as a land of starving people and cows, and nowadays, telemarketers and IT nerds. And there it ends.
Once, this sank in I re-read my beloved science and SF authors and realised with great disappointment that this was true of them as well. People like me were never part of their intended audience, and in fact, probably outside their mental horizon altogether. A very notable exception was Arthur C. Clarke, who often introduces Hindu and Buddhist names and themes into his novels. Carl Sagan dwells at some length on Indian cosmological speculations in Cosmos. But that’s about it.
And then I started seeing it in all the English books and movies I grew up with. Here I’d been thinking, like any eager reader, that the authors were ‘talking to me’, so to speak. But no, they weren’t. In fact, they had no idea that people like me might even read their work, just like all the ignoramuses I kept meeting in everyday life!
Now I’ll make a grand extrapolation and say that my experience is quite typical of Indians arriving in the West. And this is a problem. Most of us grow up with an awareness that our country has a vibrant culture with deep roots and this is a source of pride. To suddenly end up in a place where all of that is completely ignored or peripheralized, feels like, well, Arthur Dent looking up the Hitchhiker’s Guide and finding that the only entry under ‘Earth’ is ‘mostly harmless’! (If you didn’t get that reference, er..., let’s just have a chat sometime, ok?)
People react to this in different ways. Some decide that the best way to regain importance is by trying to act as ‘western’ as much as possible. Nowadays, their numbers are dropping and good riddance. Others embark on private crusades to raise India-awareness. As a result any unfortunate westerner in the vicinity is subject to long lectures on ‘glorious Indian culture and traditions’ (and subsequently avoids any Indian event like the plague.) Many get into an angry defensive crouch – “If they can’t be bothered about us, screw them! We can’t be bothered about them either”. Kind of difficult if you are living in their country, so what happens is a gradual tendency to segregate into rather claustrophobic all-Indian communities.
Of course, the circus really begins when the next generation comes along, but that’s a can of worms to be opened elsewhere.
I agree with you and you know that too, though I was hoping that you would mention someplace, ''Indians are the first to set foot on Magrathea (getting the mostly harmless reference here, I hope) and this is a country where more than 30% of the population lives on less than $2 a day''
ReplyDeleteJai Hind
hey i do agree to ur views.. but i believe why on earth should some westerner care of India...for ex do we really care about what happens in Bhutan or Myanmar..we only care abt US and Britain because we wish to become more like them..similarly these 2 countries look ahead to the future since that is what will benefit them the most..and for that matter ppl have started recognising the difference b/n India Pakistan and Bangladesh..say it Rehman's Jai Ho effect or Obama's Bangalore to Buffalo effect..
ReplyDeletewe only care abt US and Britain because we wish to become more like them..similarly these 2 countries look ahead to the future since that is what will benefit them the most
ReplyDelete--------
True. And this is what bugs me. When I look at the world, it seems that the West is pursuing its own goals, while the Rest keep looking towards it to see what to do next.
Maybe this is a colonial legacy, but too many countries (including India) seem to define themselves in terms of the western countries, either seeking to emulate them or compete with them or contrast themselves to western culture.
Why can't we look to our own future, led purely by internal motivations, rather than seeking to become 'more like them' (or 'less like them').
If nothing else, this approach would lead to a greater diversity of world culture, rather than the whole globe becoming an extension of the western world.
Oh well, let's see what happens as China rises.
Hi, I am sure you know of the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. I would put India at the transition stage of Safety and Esteem. While we havent yet successfully addressed the notion of safety among the citizens, a part of the nation is barging into the world scene and helping us gain the much needed self esteem. Only when the citizens of this country feel the kind of safety, which includes the basic education, food, electricity etc.., that the developed world has provided to its citizens (sans the threat of terrorism) and achieve the much needed self esteem ( wch incidentally the IT industry and the likes of Mittals has provided recently), can we start thinking in our own terms. Till then there is no harm in following the west since that way we can achieve the esteem in a much faster way, instead of trying to do something very new. Once we address the basic neccessities of all citizens can we do our Self-realisation bit so to say revive our Self transendence.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, do you really think the way China is proceeding is sustainable in the long run. I would say wait and c as India rises.
BTW just a bit of good news.. The new education bill makes Education a right for every child. Hope this transcends India into the new league
Regarding our 'reading diet', though, isn't that a direct product of British colonization ? Wonder whether kids in countries with no British colonization history would have any clue about Enid Blyton and so forth.....
ReplyDeleteOkay, now I am super-curious about what books South Korean immigrants to West read as kids !
Having been in the Netherlands for 18 months, I have had a different experience altogether.
ReplyDeleteThe Dutch are extremely curious about and willing to experiment with other cultures as long as the other nation does not threaten their core values.
Their main grudge against India is the caste system (one even knew the metaphor of the Brahman springing from the head, Kshatriya from the arms etc) given their egalitarian society. Being a small nation surrounded by the English, Germans and French (half of Belgium speaks French) - they also know what it is to be multi-lingual.
But then the Dutch have been voyagers for a long time with a tolerance that is tough to emulate.
We in the East should be careful of lumping the West - US and Britain are not the be all and end all of western civilisation
We'll stop lumping the West as soon as they stop lumping the East !
ReplyDeleteRight now, West = Anglophone world + epsilon. :)
:)
ReplyDeleteThe European Union has much more in common with India in terms of diversity, cultural ethos and pathos.
Note: UK is part of EU but not party to the Schengen Agreement. It also chooses to retain the unique identity of it's currency. It is still difficult to get a job in Continental Europe based on just a proficiency in English.