>From The Times February 24, 2009 Aren't our slum people the world's best? India's euphoria at Slumdog Millionaire's Oscars reveals much about its national character Tunku Varadarajan
Search every corner of the globe, I say, and you will not find a people more complex - and complexed - than Indians. Quite without irony, a nation, many of whose citizens had just been heaping abuse and lawsuits on Slumdog Millionaire for showing India in a bad light, and for using the intolerable word “dog” to describe those poor little slum-wallahs, is now in a state of euphoric bhangra over its winning eight statuettes conferred by an “academy” that regards a bunch of Scientologists (not to mention Mickey Rourke) as icons. Maybe it's a result of 200 years of colonialism, but Indians are world champions at caring - really caring! - about what foreigners (more accurately, Westerners) think or say about them. They will live blithely with impressively foetid slums in their midst, thinking nothing of the juxtaposition of Victorian-era poverty and world-class, 21st-century living standards. But the national outrage stirred when a Western film-maker uses “slumdog” in the title of his film is an incandescent sight to behold. That foreigner's neologism (“slumdog” doesn't exist in real parlance in India, although gali ka kutta, or alley-dog, comes close) is thought to heap more shame on the land than the slums themselves. And yet when that same film, with that same neo-imperialist title, is fêted by tuxedoed Americans at an awards ceremony watched across the globe, Indians burst with pride. Eight Oscars, yaah! Isn't that a record? Isn't A.R. Rahman the best composer in the world? Isn't Bollywood bloody wonderful? And aren't our slums a lesson in how to overcome adversity and cruelty? Aren't our slum people stoical, resilient, self-reliant, courageous, fraternal, resolute and inventive? Aren't our slum people the world's best slum people? Largely lost in this euphoria-come-lately is the sense that in the real Mumbai - big, bad, brutal, bolshy, bad-ass Bombay - Jamal Malik, the gali ka kutta of purest pedigree, wouldn't have come within five miles of a TV game show. Of course the film was fantasy, but the fantasy had an ugly core that Indians are blind to. Jamal would not have survived his torture in a real Mumbai police station. There are no Oscars for “best adaptation of police practices”. But to end on a positive note: the film has had so much attention that it will shine a global light on everyday torture in Indian police stations. Westerners are quite ignorant of such matters, and if they think ill of India now because of them, maybe the Indians, too, will start to care. *Tunku Varadarajan is a professor at New York University Stern Business School and opinions editor at Forbes* On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 5:12 AM, Anivar Aravind <ani...@movingrepublic.org>wrote: > > "Slumdog Millionaire": A Hollow Message of Social Justice > > By Mitu Sengupta, AlterNet. Posted February 23, 2009. > > Despite all the hype, "Slumdog" delivers a patronizing and ultimately > sham statement on social justice. > > Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire", perhaps one of the most > celebrated films in recent times, tells the rags-to-rajah story of a > love-struck Indian boy, Jamal, who, with a little help from "destiny," > triumphs over his wretched beginnings in Mumbai's squalid slums. > Riding on a wave of rave reviews, "Slumdog" has now won Hollywood's > highest tribute, the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with seven > more Oscars, including one for Best Director. > > These honors will probably add some $100 million to "Slumdog's" > box-office takings, as Oscar wins usually do. They will also further > enhance the film's fast-growing reputation as an authentic > representation of the lives of India's urban poor. So far, most of the > awards collected by the film have been accepted in the name of "the > children," suggesting that its own cast and crew regard it (and have > relentlessly promoted it) not as a cinematically spectacular, > musically rich and entertaining work of fiction, which it is, but as a > powerful tool of advocacy. Nothing could be more worrying, as > "Slumdog", despite all the hype to the contrary, delivers a deeply > disempowering narrative about the poor that thoroughly undermines, if > not totally negates, its seeming message of social justice. > > "Slumdog" has angered many Indians because it tarnishes their > perception of their country as a rising economic power and a beacon of > democracy. India's English-language papers, read mainly by its middle > classes, have carried many bristling reviews of the film that convey > an acute sense of wounded national pride. While understandable, the > sentiment is not defensible. Though at times embarrassingly contrived, > most of the film's heartrending scenarios are inspired by a sad, but > well-documented reality. > > Corruption is certainly rampant among the police, and many will gladly > use torture, though none is probably dim enough to target an > articulate, English-speaking man who is already a rising media > phenomenon. Beggar-makers do round-up abandoned children and mutilate > them in order to make them more sympathetic, though it is highly > improbable that any such child will ever chance upon a $100 bill, much > less be capable of identifying it by touch and scent alone. > > Indeed, if anything, Boyle's magical tale, with its unconvincing > one-dimensional characters and absurd plot devices, greatly > understates the depth of suffering among India's poor. It is > near-impossible, for example, that Jamal would emerge from his ravaged > life with a dewy complexion and an upper-class accent. But the real > problem with "Slumdog" is neither its characterization of India as > just another Third World country, nor, within this, its shallow and > largely impressionistic portrayal of poverty. > > The film's real problem is that it grossly minimizes the capabilities > and even the basic humanity of those it so piously claims to speak > for. It is no secret that much of "Slumdog" is meant to reflect life > in Dharavi, the 213-hectare spread of slums at the heart of Mumbai. > The film's depiction of the legendary Dharavi, which is home to some > one million people, is that of a feral wasteland, with little evidence > of order, community or compassion. Other than the children, the > "slumdogs," no-one is even remotely well-intentioned. Hustlers, > thieves, and petty warlords run amok, and even Jamal's schoolteacher, > a thin, bespectacled man who introduces him to the Three Musketeers, > is inexplicably callous. This is a place of evil and decay; of a raw, > chaotic tribalism. > > Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Dharavi teems with > dynamism and creativity, and is a hub of entrepreneurial activity, in > industries such as garment manufacturing, embroidery, pottery, and > leather, plastics and food processing. It is estimated that the annual > turnover from Dharavi's small businesses is between US$50 to $100 > million. Dharavi's lanes are lined with cell-phone retailers and > cybercafés, and according to surveys by Microsoft Research India, the > slum's residents exhibit a remarkably high absorption of new > technologies. > > Governing structures and productive social relations also flourish. > The slum's residents have nurtured strong collaborative networks, > often across potentially volatile lines of caste and religion. Many > cooperative societies work together with grassroots associations to > provide residents with essential services such as basic healthcare, > schooling and waste disposal, and tackle difficult issues such as > child abuse and violence against women. In fact, they often compensate > for the formal government's woeful inadequacy in meeting the needs of > the poor. > > Although it is true that these severely under-resourced self-help > organizations have touched only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, it > is important to acknowledge their efforts and agency, along with the > simple fact that these communities, despite their grinding poverty, > have valuable lives, warmth, generosity, and a resourcefulness that > stretches far beyond the haphazard and purely individualistic, > Darwinian sort portrayed in the film. > > Indeed, the failure to recognize this fact has already led to a great > deal of damage. Government bureaucrats have concocted many ham-handed, > top-down plans for "developing" the slums based on the dangerous > assumption that these are worthless spaces. The most recent is the > "Dharavi Redevelopment Project" (DRP), which proposes to convert the > slums into blocks of residential and commercial high rises. The DRP > requires private developers to provide small flats (of about 250 sq. > ft. each) to families that can prove they settled in Dharavi before > the year 2000. In return for re-housing residents, the developers > obtain construction rights in Dharavi. > > The DRP is being fiercely resisted by slum residents' organizations > and human rights activists, who see it an undemocratically conceived > and environmentally harmful land-grab scheme (real-estate prices in > Mumbai are comparable to Manhattan's). > > Though perhaps better than razing the slums with bulldozers -- which > is not, incidentally, an unpopular option among the city's rich – the > DRP is far from a people-friendly plan. It will potentially evict some > 500,000 residents who cannot legally prove that they settled in > Dharavi prior to 2000, and may destroy thousands of livelihoods by > rendering unviable countless household-centered businesses. If forced > to move into congested high-rises, for example, the slum's potters and > papad-makers, large numbers of who are women, will lose the space they > need to dry their wares. For the government, however, that the DRP > will "rehabilitate" Dharavi by erasing the eyesore and integrating its > "problem-population" into modern, middle-class Mumbai. > > It is ironic that "Slumdog", for all its righteousness of tone, shares > with many Indian political and social elites a profoundly dehumanizing > view of those who live and work within the country's slums. The > troubling policy implications of this perspective are unmistakeably > mirrored by the film. Since there are no internal resources, and none > capable of constructive voice or action, all "solutions" must arrive > externally. > > After a harrowing life in an anarchic wilderness, salvation finally > comes to Jamal, a Christ-like figure, in the form of an imported > quiz-show, which he succeeds in thanks to sheer, dumb luck, or rather, > because "it is written." Is it also "written," then, that the other > children depicted in the film must continue to suffer? Or must they, > like the stone-faced Jamal, stoically await their own "destiny" of > rescue by a foreign hand? > > Indeed, while this self-billed "feel good movie of the year" may help > us "feel good" that we are among the lucky ones on earth, it delivers > a patronizing, colonial and ultimately sham statement on social > justice for those who are not. > > A version of this article appeared in the Toronto Star. > > http://www.alternet.org/movies/127845/ > "slumdog_millionaire":_a_hollow_message_of_social_justice/?page=entire > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
