Contradiction, Diversity, Disparity
In my very first journal entry upon arriving in India, it was obvious to me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Or New Jersey, as it were. My first impressions of the country, based on a cab ride through Bombay, were that this country is the mother of all contradictions and dichotomies-- rich and poor, sacred and profane, East and West, Communism and Capitalism exist in an uncomfortable (for me to witness) but effortless unity. Having been here for over two months now, I'm gaining both confirmation and understanding of those initial impressions.
India has been Westernized to an almost troubling extent. Or at least Kerala has. In a conversation with a student yesterday, I was told, "You're in the wrong place if you really want to experience and learn about Indian culture." The basis of her comment is the fact that, among young people at least, there is a serious strain of Anglophilia. The more American you dress, act, and speak, the cooler you are. Students take a certain pride in not knowing their mother-tongue and in being ignorant of their history and traditions. But they can sing Western pop songs like it's their job. Understanding and appreciating the norms and culture of another, well, culture can be an important and valuable component of being a well-rounded person with a global perspective. Heck, that's probably a good portion of the reason I'm here. But when we abandon knowledge and appreciation of our traditions, history, and culture, we become trees without roots and we rob the world of one more set of valuable contributions and insights. And God knows global homogenization is happening quickly enough on its own. We don't need to help it along any.
But, like I said, India is a country where all sets of extremes nestle side by side. A.K. Ramanujan says, in the introduction to a book of Indian folktales, that "whatever you can truly say about India, you can also say the exact opposite with equal truthfulness." And even on the UC College campus, where students wear jeans and Nikes and proudly sing Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and Celine Dion (all of which they, very troublingly, condsider rock...) songs, students also practice traditional arts and keep alive their ancient and vibrant culture and traditions. One boy in the men's hostel is a very talented tabla player. A girl in the English department is a singer of Carnatic music. Many students, both male and female, are amazing traditional dancers. So while some students have definitely traded in their Indian-ness for the prestige of looking, talking, and acting like Americans, many others seem to embrace their identity as Indian. And the majority, I'll assert, fall somewhere in between, possessed of a healthy balance of modernity and tradition.
Not quite so healthy is the economic disparity on display everywhere one looks in India. Before I came here, I was deluged with information about India's booming economy and unprecedented financial growth. But, as is the case anywhere in the world where a butt load of new wealth is generated, only a very small percentage of people in India benefit from this economic surge while the rest are plunged even deeper into poverty.
An editorial in yesterday's Hindu addressses precisely this topic. "India now ranks 8th in the world in the number of billionaires," the article tells us, "but clocks in at 127th in human development." In the last year, India "has added more newly hungry people [to the world] than the rest of the world put together." Child mortality due to easily preventable causes has actually increased since the 1990's. Millions of Indian children do not get any education whatsoever, and millions more are not having their nutritional needs met. And forget about medical care. "More than a fifth of [Indians] no longer seek health care of any kind. They just can't afford it." And it's not like people aren't working- "labour productivity in India shot up 84% between 1990 and 2002. But real wages in manufacturing fell 22 per cent in the same period." Forty per cent of India's population lives in a state of deprivation worse than that of sub-Saharan Africa. And yet the combined wealth of India's billionaires is second only to that of the US.
Something doesn't add up here.
I wish I could, at this point, say what we need to do to fix this. But I can't pretend to have the answers. I have ideas, and I know that there are people who are doing amazing things to both help the poor and suffering and try to change the structures that institutionalize this kind of inequity. But I hope this information can at least make us pause and examine our lives and the roles our consumptive habits and everyday choices may make in propagating and supporting this global inequality. Because they do play a role. Every choice that we make has global ramifications, and every change that we make can also create a change in the world.
Peace.
In my very first journal entry upon arriving in India, it was obvious to me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Or New Jersey, as it were. My first impressions of the country, based on a cab ride through Bombay, were that this country is the mother of all contradictions and dichotomies-- rich and poor, sacred and profane, East and West, Communism and Capitalism exist in an uncomfortable (for me to witness) but effortless unity. Having been here for over two months now, I'm gaining both confirmation and understanding of those initial impressions.
India has been Westernized to an almost troubling extent. Or at least Kerala has. In a conversation with a student yesterday, I was told, "You're in the wrong place if you really want to experience and learn about Indian culture." The basis of her comment is the fact that, among young people at least, there is a serious strain of Anglophilia. The more American you dress, act, and speak, the cooler you are. Students take a certain pride in not knowing their mother-tongue and in being ignorant of their history and traditions. But they can sing Western pop songs like it's their job. Understanding and appreciating the norms and culture of another, well, culture can be an important and valuable component of being a well-rounded person with a global perspective. Heck, that's probably a good portion of the reason I'm here. But when we abandon knowledge and appreciation of our traditions, history, and culture, we become trees without roots and we rob the world of one more set of valuable contributions and insights. And God knows global homogenization is happening quickly enough on its own. We don't need to help it along any.
But, like I said, India is a country where all sets of extremes nestle side by side. A.K. Ramanujan says, in the introduction to a book of Indian folktales, that "whatever you can truly say about India, you can also say the exact opposite with equal truthfulness." And even on the UC College campus, where students wear jeans and Nikes and proudly sing Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and Celine Dion (all of which they, very troublingly, condsider rock...) songs, students also practice traditional arts and keep alive their ancient and vibrant culture and traditions. One boy in the men's hostel is a very talented tabla player. A girl in the English department is a singer of Carnatic music. Many students, both male and female, are amazing traditional dancers. So while some students have definitely traded in their Indian-ness for the prestige of looking, talking, and acting like Americans, many others seem to embrace their identity as Indian. And the majority, I'll assert, fall somewhere in between, possessed of a healthy balance of modernity and tradition.
Not quite so healthy is the economic disparity on display everywhere one looks in India. Before I came here, I was deluged with information about India's booming economy and unprecedented financial growth. But, as is the case anywhere in the world where a butt load of new wealth is generated, only a very small percentage of people in India benefit from this economic surge while the rest are plunged even deeper into poverty.
An editorial in yesterday's Hindu addressses precisely this topic. "India now ranks 8th in the world in the number of billionaires," the article tells us, "but clocks in at 127th in human development." In the last year, India "has added more newly hungry people [to the world] than the rest of the world put together." Child mortality due to easily preventable causes has actually increased since the 1990's. Millions of Indian children do not get any education whatsoever, and millions more are not having their nutritional needs met. And forget about medical care. "More than a fifth of [Indians] no longer seek health care of any kind. They just can't afford it." And it's not like people aren't working- "labour productivity in India shot up 84% between 1990 and 2002. But real wages in manufacturing fell 22 per cent in the same period." Forty per cent of India's population lives in a state of deprivation worse than that of sub-Saharan Africa. And yet the combined wealth of India's billionaires is second only to that of the US.
Something doesn't add up here.
I wish I could, at this point, say what we need to do to fix this. But I can't pretend to have the answers. I have ideas, and I know that there are people who are doing amazing things to both help the poor and suffering and try to change the structures that institutionalize this kind of inequity. But I hope this information can at least make us pause and examine our lives and the roles our consumptive habits and everyday choices may make in propagating and supporting this global inequality. Because they do play a role. Every choice that we make has global ramifications, and every change that we make can also create a change in the world.
Peace.
posted by Andy at 1:47 PM
1 Comments:
Amen to that last paragraph. Amen.
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