mazum@iitcs.UUCP (Pinaki Mazumder) (03/20/85)
INDIA AND THE US MEDIA - A SUGGESTION
=====================================
Over the last two months, we have been discussing over
some issues, like "India and the Media", "Jewel in the
Crown", etc. These issues are good pretexts to access the
net and display our profound knowledge/blissful ignorance,
fervent patriotism/irresponsible cynicism, etc., particu-
larly when it does not cost anything to think aloud.
Personally, I shall agree that India is definitely not
the cynosure of US media and at times SHE has been very
poorly represented to pander the warped taste of certain US
people. Sometime back when I was in Canada, I saw the movie
"Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom" and another show in
Ripley's "Believe IT or NOT". In both the cases, the Godess
Kali has been portrayed as an idol of Evil, who can be pro-
pitiated by sacrificing the human being at Her altar. To
appease the wrath of the Godess, her disciples in a demented
spree would ritually behead the innocent men and offer the
heads to the Godess and finally in a spirit of triumph, they
would celebrate the act with bacchanial cry. I was hurt to
see these shows, because they present our religion and our
Gods and Godesses with diabolical overtones. But recently
after Indira Gandhi was felled down by a glut of bullets
fired by her bigoted Sikh bodyguards, the way their fellow
brethren at abroad have publicly expressed their satiated
pleasure with champagne, sweets, religious sword fights and
pledge for more heads, it became quite apparent that those
shows were not over exaggerating or grossly misrepresenting
our religious propensities.
It is true that the western media look for sensational-
ism as an ingredient for their news item. And no wonder that
three mishaps in India had prominently figured out in the
last year's Top Ten Events in the World (posted sometime
back in the net by me). But what I would like to point out
that why to carp about that and show accusing finger to the
western media people. What are we doing to uplift our image
to the impartial western viewers? Waiting for Attenborrough,
Lean, Rook, Ivory to exhibit the magnanimity of our Nation?
It's true that an Indian production will not be such a box
office success as their productions. But did we at least
venture to produce them as feature films and display them
during the weekly TV slots for Indian programme? Or shall
we have to for ever appreciate the buxom beauties of Bombay
films and the associated croonings? It's time that we under-
stand those film songs and dances do not serve any purpose
to instill any amount of Indian-ness in our youngsters who
have been born and brought up over here, nor it appeals to
many others who came from India. Those who need them to
maintain their Indian-ness by means of Indian movies, they
can go to any Indian store and borrow the videoes for
viewing. If we would like to educate our youngsters over
here and the Western viewers about the new India and the old
Indian heritage, we should utilize the TV time slots for
that purpose and stop carping about the role of American
media. Afterall, we don't have the culinary expertise of the
Chinese to entice the Americans, by and large, to turn to
India. If we want to build up a good public opinion, it's
time that we step out to do SOMETHING ourselves and stop
EXPECTING from others.
ihnp4/iitcs/mazum
Date: March 19, 1985.
Pinaki Mazumder
Department Of Computer Science
Illinois Inst of Technology,
Chicago
P.S. Anyone in the net who studied in Indian Institute Of
Science during 1973-1976?
9
9raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghunath Ramakrishnan) (03/21/85)
In article <125@iitcs.UUCP> mazum@iitcs.UUCP (Pinaki Mazumder) writes: > > appease the wrath of the Godess, her disciples in a demented > spree would ritually behead the innocent men and offer the > heads to the Godess and finally in a spirit of triumph, they > would celebrate the act with bacchanial cry. I was hurt to > see these shows, because they present our religion and our > Gods and Godesses with diabolical overtones. But recently > after Indira Gandhi was felled down by a glut of bullets > fired by her bigoted Sikh bodyguards, the way their fellow > brethren at abroad have publicly expressed their satiated > pleasure with champagne, sweets, religious sword fights and > pledge for more heads, it became quite apparent that those > shows were not over exaggerating or grossly misrepresenting > our religious propensities. > 'indiana jones' was an exercise in tasteless, inaccurate and irresponsible titillation. some sikhs displayed an equal lack of taste and responsibility. i'd like to point out that many non-sikhs behaved in an equally crass and disgusting fashion. to judge a nation's 'religious propensities' by the asinine behaviour of some bigots is neither fair nor accurate. an historically egregious parallel is the persecution of jews because some of them killed christ. our country has a history of religious tolerance, despite several violent and misguided exceptions. given our religious diversity, this tolerance is crucial if we are to survive as a nation. so let us remember the sikhs who regretted gandhi's violent death (inspite of the fact that they might have disliked her policies), and the non-sikhs who helped their sikh friends and neighbors during the riots. i don't know how many of them there were, but for all our sakes i hope there were many.
hector@alberta.UUCP (Hector Hernandez) (03/22/85)
> > > INDIA AND THE US MEDIA - A SUGGESTION > ===================================== NONSENSE and personal "glorification" should be banned from your net; otherwise lots of "Pinaki"'s will spring up making your net very little more than a gossip-like electronic magazine. H. Hernandez/ Grad. Student./ U. of Alberta (alberta!hector)
rajeev@sftri.UUCP (S.Rajeev) (03/26/85)
> > > > > > INDIA AND THE US MEDIA - A SUGGESTION > > > ===================================== > > NONSENSE and personal "glorification" should be banned > from your net; otherwise lots of "Pinaki"'s will > spring up making your net very little more than a gossip-like > electronic magazine. > > H. Hernandez/ Grad. Student./ U. of Alberta (alberta!hector) Just out of curiosity, what specifically do you find objectionable about the referenced message, as opposed to any other in this newsgroup? -- ...ihnp4!attunix!rajeev -- usenet ihnp4!attunix!rajeev@BERKELEY -- arpanet Sri Rajeev, SF 1-342, Bell Labs, Summit, NJ 07901. (201)-522-6330.
sohan@ut-ngp.UUCP (Ramakrishna Pillai, Sohan C) (03/28/85)
>> >> >> INDIA AND THE US MEDIA - A SUGGESTION >> ===================================== >NONSENSE and personal "glorification" should be banned >from your net; otherwise lots of "Pinaki"'s will >spring up making your net very little more than a gossip-like >electronic magazine. >H. Hernandez/ Grad. Student./ U. of Alberta (alberta!hector) Whom is this self-righteous *i__ot* referring to in "your net" ?