The article, “Time we grew up…” by Sridhar Krishnaswami (Open Page, July 29, 2012), hit the nail on the head. Although the white sahibs have left us long ago, we still desire a pat on the back from them for almost everything we do. We are still caught in the slavish, warped mindset.
This is evident even from the everyday words we use. In the same issue, another article is titled “Roadblocks to rights in ‘Detroit of the South’.” This refers to Chennai as Detroit. Such sobriquets are well known to us. ‘Manchester of India’ (Ahmedabad), ‘Switzerland of India (Kulu-Manali, Dalhousie and Coorg), ‘Silicon Valley of India’ (Bangalore),‘Venice of the East’ (Alappuzha), and ‘Paris of India’ (Jaipur) improve the identities of the Indian counterparts.
A Disneyland-like theme park is coming up in Bangalore. Is there anything like Bangalore of the U.S. or Mumbai of England? The media is very much party to this promotion of westernism. Even our newspapers are named Times, Express, Telegraph and Chronicle, after the famed western ones with an apologetic ‘of India’ or ‘Indian’ appendage. The magazines are copycats of Time, Newsweek and the like. The electronic media bends over backwards to air a royal wedding or the American presidential elections to improve its TRP ratings.
Another case in point is the word ‘Bollywood’. The Indian tinsel world needs a western imprimatur for recognition. What is a film world without a resemblance to ‘Hollywood’? So the Bombay film world is called Bollywood. Should it now be ‘Mullywood’ after Mumbai? Not to be left out, we also have ‘Kollywood’ (Chennai) and ‘Mollywood’ (Malayalam). Then we have ‘Ollywood’ (Odia), Punjwood (Punjabi), Sandalwood (Kannada) and ‘Sollywood’ (Sindhi). There are two languages vying for ‘Tollywood’ (Bengali and Telugu). An Indian film star was referred to as the Julia Roberts of India! Is there a Katrina Kaif of the U.S.? If Hollywood has such an impact on our lives, could other things be far behind?
Even in crime we cannot give up our craze for a western touch. We had an Indian ‘ripper’ after the famed Jack the Ripper. Then we have terrorist attacks named 26/11 after the 9/11 attacks. We have the foddergate, coalgate, DIAL gate, IPL gate, etc., named after the Watergate scandal. The scandal led to the resignation of President Nixon. Our scams with the ‘gate’ suffix have only the name but no outcomes! And the Mumbai police are the ‘Scotland Yard’ of India!
We tend to glamourise people who have done well for themselves in the West, little realising they have denounced India and taken another citizenship. Aren’t we going overboard by idolising them as ‘Indians?’ And, hats off to Zubin Mehta and Amartya Sen — they are still retaining Indian citizenship. They deserve all our honour.
Clones in business too
In business, western clones are a plenty. If there is Kmart in the U.S., we have Vmart, Gmart and the like. And a brand name like John, Peter, Richard or England would sell better than Junaid, Pankaj, Ravindran or Kerala. Add a St. (Saint) and get full value addition. I am waiting to wear a Pankaj Ernakulam shirt! We have several ‘fried chickens’ and food ‘huts’ named after the famed western brands. Dalal Street goes after Wall Street. Why don’t they call their financial district Wall Marg? If there is an English premier League, we should definitely have an Indian Premier League.
In politics, too, we to imitate the West to improve our status. 7 Race Course Road is akin to 10 Downing Street. Couldn’t we retain the beautiful word ‘Panchavati’? Not to be left out, if the American President flies Air Force One, we have Air India One. I can only conclude with what Sridhar said, “Grow up India, grow up”!
(The writer’s email is gthomas@doctor.com)
Keywords: western influence
It is true that we gained independence 65 years ago and came in a long way in establishing a social system and nurturing democracy which has now deeply rooted in our system.In 1990 embarked upon economic reform under the stewardship of Late P V Narasinha Rao,and Manmohan singh.Our economy responded to the steps taken and grew faster than expected.Indians quickly adopted to the reforms pattern and became one with it. All said and done, India is still not independent in regard to western culture and expect the country to adopt to the name and form which camaflauge our own idendity and culture.this trend should be arrested and media should be told not to encourage such actvities. If any country wants to adopt names and forms of other countries, let them do so.Promoting our cultural idendity should be our foremost priority so that it will sustain over some period of time. I agree with Dr george
Thomas
The reason why we constantly want the approval and the appreciation of
the foreigner is because we are not CONFIDENT about ourselves...
But how can an Indian be confident...We lag behind all areas when
compared to the west.. It not a joke when they are called 'developed'
while we are still 'developing'
Take any field... Economy, healthcare, education, sanitation, public
infrastructure, safety, standard of living, freedom of speech,
sports,scientific innovation...etc...etc... We are nowhere near the
Top..
Yes, we can be proud of our 'Ancient Indian culture'..But the sad fact
is that the Indus valley civilization 3000 years ago had a better
public infrastructure and planning than any present Indian
city...
Yes, Its easy to say.. lets not compare.. Lets be proud..
But the simple fact is , we can only be really proud of ourselves if
the present generation actually deserves it...
Excellent article. The craze for everything western reflects in how
residential properties are named too. You have properties that are
named Woodlands, Cupertino, Silicon Valley, Springfields, Mayflower,
etc. Residential layouts are promoted with advertisements that
promise spanish type villas, victorian style homes, etc. What
happened to our Chettinad architecture, Kerala style tharavadus, etc?
Why cannot we name an apartment complex as Vedanthangal instead of
Springfields?
The fault lies with the consumers - "we"!! We fall for these
marketing techniques because we associate western notions and
concepts as modern while Indian notions and concepts are outdated and
archaic unless of course someone wants to "go retro."
Sometimes a comparison is the easiest way to explain something especially to an audience not very familiar with India. I don't think you should read too much into it. @Revathi- Why remain so rigid on what is 'Indian'? The world is getting smaller and people are free to pick and choose what they are comfortable with. To each one his/her own.
Why write this article in English? Write it in your mother tongue. Don't criticize others for adopting Western ways when you are writing in English, the language of the people who colonized us. Otherwise you are just another hypocrite, making yourself feel "more Indian" while enjoying all the privileges that come with a Western lifestyle and education.
Well, the usual anti- western diatribe, as the mean all and end all, and no value add. Almost everything we use in our daily life (from the humble tooth brush, to the bus, the train, the aircraft, the motor car, the TV, the VCR, the phone, the mobile, ships, light bulb, antibiotics, harnessing nature for energy etc etc etc ) was invented by a westerner. Is the writer suggesting we give up all this to retain our proud Indianness ? I am guessing not!! Write ups like these only betray once inferiority complex and lack of self worth, more than anything else.
Well said. Its time to think what are we actually doing. Aping the west,
and hoping to be respected as a culturally rich country. If we wont
respect ourselves, how will the world do?
The British Raj instilled in the hearts of public that they were the
saviours, the intelligentsia understood this policy, enlightened the
public against Raj, fought for independence and achieved it, but 65
years hence, that feeling of them being superior to us is still eating
the originality of OUR culture like a termite.
Very good explanation, General people mentality is, expecting approval
from higher authority and to do that, people do the same what higher
authority person doing, so that he/she will be liked by higher
authority person. If there are more innovation in any country, that
country no need to follow any one, all aspect of the country will grow
automatically and others will follow automatically.Good example here
is, we are forgetting our mother tongue and following English, because
most of the inventions are made in English speaking country.I could
see, because Earlier India completely followed religious approach and
the same time western countries followed scientific approach and they
invented many things and we are following now. So where there are any
inventions, there are followers. Be Creative, Innovative
An excellent article. It clearly makes a good point with good examples.
I also feel exasperated by this hoopla over foreign recognition. The
worse aspect of this is when Indian movie stars get the tiniest of
roles in Hollywood films, it is completely blown up by the media as if
they are the lead roles in the film. I don't understand why their
acting skills will be valuable only when they star in foreign films.
good work. the key to living in india is craze for western touch.our self esteem never rises to give thought to our originality.however you may call it apeing the west is the in thing always.bob hair, wearing pants,listening to rock music etc. are the traits for a girl to be modern.the groom wearing a suit for the wedding reception,buffet dinner etc are imported ideas.consuming drinks and socialiasing in the defence is blindly following the western tradition.it may suit the west;just because the british ruled 65 years ago we do not have to hold on to it and use it as a benchmark to label people.wining in and wining out is not the indian tradition for welcome or farewell.high time we shed all this and devise ways to use our indian ways.
Well written article but the problem doesn't lies in the copying syndrome. The major problem lies in the language,'ENGLISH'. Whatever is in the English,people regard it as a superior thing. May be the reason is same that we are still in the shackles of slavish mentality or the other reason could be that English is a global Lingua Franca.
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