Loading

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Three, or is it four Indias?

I have been thinking about whether we have one country, or does it have images of itself in other dimensions ... socially speaking, we seem to be divided into four Indias. There is the India that we think India is ... an emerging superpower, a culturally rich country that inspires and attracts citizens from all over the world to it; then we have the India of the politicians and the rich class of citizens: they care a hoot for what the poor and the middle class are up to; they dress in Giorgio Armani, carry Louis Vuitton bags, spray themselves with Chanel 5, eat at 5-star restaurants and indulge in corruption and hoarding of money to such an extent that they consider themselves immune to any punishments or accountability; the third India we have is the one seen through the eyes of the poor: an India filled with opportunities for earning a decent livelihood, an India where one can be as educated, as literate, as learned as one wants to be, an India where there are heroes born daily - heroes who save others, heroes who salvage the environment, heroes who fight for the rights of women and children, and so on.

Finally, we have the India of media. If one watches Indian news channels from sunrise to moonrise for just one portion of one day, one may be forgiven for believing that nothing good ever happens, or will ever happen in this "rotten country". Ad nauseum they seem to go on about how this minister did this, and that bureaucrat did that. And, it's not just news reporting. They keep on showing the same clips over and over again, and the voice-over of the reporter is not the sane reporting of a seasoned journalist, but a sort of diatribe, a sort of shouting, if you will, and trying to badger anyone who has a view opposite to their own views.

Which India are you a part of? Do share your comments in the area provided at the bottom of this entry.

2 comments:

Rc said...

Belong to Part I and III. Part II and Part IV does not bother too much.

Part IV will rot your brain If you start believing your own(medias) lies.

Taher Kagalwala said...

Thanks for the comment, Rudra. Yes, most of us want to be a part of the growing, glowing India. At the same time, we don't want to be sidelined by the political mess and by the strident shouting of the media.