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Thought Provoking Points of View
Jun 15 2007 | Views 229 |
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Tags: Immigration Emigration Indian Diaspora Social commentry
Tags: Immigration Emigration Indian Diaspora Social commentry
Two distinct viewpoints quoted by a friend in Germany, and my resonse:
An article was written by Madhu Trehan. She writes regularly for "Outlook" and in this she is replying to a letter by a reader. Both the letters are given below.
An article was written by Madhu Trehan. She writes regularly for "Outlook" and in this she is replying to a letter by a reader. Both the letters are given below.
Hi Madhu,
I have read your articles ever since I was a kid and you were at India Today. You have often come across as a balanced person not prone to Gandhi nonsense, until now. I live in a White Nation (the
like Vajpayee who is too old to walk, too much of a coward to protect his people. Maybe, just maybe, the day people like us (the English educated hence smarter) start feeling ashamed enough we will start making changes in
Chet (Chaitanya)
Madhu Trehan's response was:
Hello Chet,
I will answer your letter point by point. Your name. You can be Chet or Jet, stay away from the sun, fake an American accent, but you will never be able to run away from Chaitanya. He will always be there even though you hate him today. Gandhi, whom you hold in such contempt, despite all his controversial behaviour, is largely responsible for the fact that there is no white boot on a part of your anatomy today. You live in a white nation but you are not white and never will be. You can fool yourself to believe that you are not treated as a second class citizen. You choose to forget the Dot Busters, the Sikh who was killed because he looked foreign, and rampant racism. How many times a week do you have to explain where you are from and spend your time EXPLAINING
The
and the list goes on. The rest of the world does not view
Regards,
Madhu Trehan
,
My response to the friend in Germany:
Thank you for sharing the two (undated) points of view. Here is my two bits worth:
I cannot help but feel that the two articulate, impassioned writers have a huge chip on their shoulder, which is not uncommon among many of the Indian (and not necessarily Indian) Diaspora, who happen to carry the garbage of history and its attendant biases and prejudices, wherever they go.
There was similar walloping of India and the USA in the books of Katherine Mayo (Mother India 1929) and K. L. Gauba (Uncle Sham 1932) with the probable difference that neither of them had ever made a home in each other's country, and only one of them was Indian, unlike Chet and Madhu.
Apparently little has changed in all these years; the prejudices remain. Why? Because with all the advancement in education, cross cultures and globalisation since those days, we have still refused to learn how to transcend our cultures and shed the need of constant comparisons: to defend or attack to make ourselves look good at all times. But, transcendence is an individual process, and it simply cannot be achieved as a mass movement despite the good attempts of swamis and yogis. Sadly, the importance and science of it is not taught in schools or colleges of the world. And, even when it occurs to one at a later age, it is not pursued with conviction by most. So, we remain in the world of Mayos and Gaubas, and Chets and Madhus: a thoughtful world; an articulate, debating world with cogent arguments, but of camp dwellers, ever shifting from or remaining in one camp or another, never rising above all camps and seeing much wider horizons.
Transcendence is like stepping into another dimension with the assistance of ones mind freed and uncluttered by the colours, tools and sciences of all the prevelant times, without the need of justifying ones being.
-- Ronnie
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