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| Oprah in Mumbai. Photo courtesy: www.essence.com |
I had been itching to write this, but bided my time hoping some sane voice will catch my thoughts and do the needful. Wishful thinking....so here it is:
Last month, India registered an unexpected rise in number of people eating with their hands and gesticulating at TV screens. Soon, they were everywhere (please note, everywhere in urban India means on facebook, twitter, news websites and guest columns of newspapers and magazines). Riled by
Oprah Winfrey's dumbness (as if that means the world to them) at the way people live and eat in India, they were telling her not to be demeaning.
Eating with hands as the whole world does, living with parents and having an LCD in a cramped slum dwelling were just the right tools to beat her with, not knowing the television queen was only holding up a mirror to us. The way Oprah offended us is how we net-savvy, mall trotting, GDP-licking people of India keep offending our fellow countrymen all the time. The only difference: We know how to make our voice against Oprah heard. While she might be panned for her dumbness, the density of our own countrymen is celebrated. A perfect example of our 'Oprah moment' was last Sunday.
Times of India carried a
'beautiful' piece on 'click activism.' It glorified an online petition which 'helped' a village in Rajasthan 'tackle' caste discrimination. According to a custom, the Dalit women of Dangariya village were made to remove their footwear and carry them in their hands while crossing the houses of upper caste families. A video was posted online by an NGO which triggered an online petition gathering 5,000 signatures. This petition was presented to the district magistrate who visited the village, apprised them of law and left. The Dalits are now much more scared to talk about the custom (make note that they did not officially object to it at the first go). While the writer claims it was “a click in the right direction”, the villagers are still confused and rightly so. They don't know the power of Internet. They don't know that people who have never visited their village and never known them are ready to play self-appointed fairy godmothers just by pressing some strokes on their keyboards. But they do know that in longer run this will make no real difference.
It all fits well into the schemes of things: Signatories feel good for having “made a difference,” the NGO gets a “success story” for foreign funds and the newspaper a 'good read' for its readers, many of whom might have been the original petitioners.
The idea of 'we will bring the change' has taken deep roots, especially with Internet promoting armchair activism. We have forgotten that the real change comes only with involvement of the community. Instead of working with the people, we are happy playing the do-gooders since that's an easier task and brings instant camera clicks. The swarm of NGOs have only worsened the situation by promoting the idea of giving, not on making the community realise its own potential.
Another
write up, again in Times of India (Im a self-confessed TOI basher) on April 22, 2012 laments the fact that tribals in a village of Karnataka are living in tree houses. The writer agrees that living on trees makes sense since they live in forest area known for marauding elephants, but that does not stop him for vouching for 'basic minimum facilities' for the tribals. Now the basic minimum facilities for a city may be a private vehicle while for a tribal it is enough fruit and animals to hunt in the jungle. An NGO member comes to his rescue. “They have been living this way for the past 65 years, but nobody seems to be bothered about it, be it local administration or the government," said a secretary of the Coorg Organization for Rural Development. With media and NGOs, everything starts 65 years or whatever number of years it has been since independence as if the whole world came into existence only then. The tribals might have been living in their tree houses for generations but their history must start from 1947 (It's become easier to blame the present government that ways). Also, it never crosses the mind of 'civilised' people that since the people have been living like this for so long, this means they have come to the conclusion that this is the most harmonious way to live with their surroundings.
The Times View (a personal opinion of the paper appended to the story as if whatever written previously was objective) depicts it as shameful that people have to live on trees and goes on to fire the usual suspects: bureaucrats and elected representatives. It feels that they should “wake up and provide basic living conditions to this hapless community.” Hapless? A community, which has thrived for years in a forest area where no one will tread, is hapless?
This feeling of pity is reflected in our daily conversations as well. A friend of mine was recently bugged by an urge to create awareness among villagers, a favourite among several NGOs. “They shit on the road, they don't know how to manage the garbage....” went her complaints.
I asked: “Do you manage your shit and garbage?”
“I pay for others to mange it.”
“And how well they do it?”
“That's not my headache.”
“You want the same set up to be in villages which has not worked for you.”
“But don't you think we should teach them something.”
“Don't you think you can learn something from them?”
“Like what?”
“Like how you can do the crap in fields so that it's naturally used as manure...like how you should have a tree or two near your house as defence against the summer heat instead of installing ACs..... and how not to impose your ideas on others. By the way, you are late....most villages have been “made aware” by the government and NGOs.”
The discussion went on and she has now given up the idea of 'creating awareness', mainly because she got her hands full with other things. I dread the day her passion for service will return. Right now, she is happy bashing up Oprah.
