[lbo-talk] more news from the motherland...

ravi listmail at kreise.org
Mon Nov 21 22:33:32 PST 2005


Sujeet Bhatt wrote:
>
> 2. Notwithstanding the above, the idea implicit in Ravi's post that
> young people in urban India blindly imitate the West is only partly
> true - the very large number of nuances are impossible to grasp on a
> cursory glance. If Cockburn was guilty of Occidental "parachute"
> journalism, Ravi is open to the charge of NRI (non-resident Indian)
> parachute impressionism.
>

Sujeet,

Does your being immersed (perhaps in the slums of Madras or rural expanses of Punjab?) in India, lead to the posts you forward about corporate and Bollywood goings on? Surely you will admit they provide only another impression, another nuance, a partial truth?

We can trade charges about persons till we are blue in the face, but the content deserves better attention. The upshot (as seen in the previous thread) is this: that multiple views exist and are needed to understand reality (politics, culture in India, in this case) is the very reason why Cockburn's [overall correct] opinion needs space for expression and deserves attention, especially in a left mailing list.

The idea implicit in my post is this: At a time when the image of India being promoted (and the opinion available) both internally and abroad is one of a neo-capitalist economic boom (an image that serves Western conservatives quite well), alternate viewpoints and data provide a more nuanced picture. Who provides such views and data is irrelevant and we should not be reduced to trading credentials.

There is also another point of interest I wished to raise with my post: the use of Western symbols in India and what they may mean in a sociological sense...

--ravi



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