As Callous As It Gets
In the past few days, I have come across many people who found Slumdog Millionare objectionable. They all feel the movie was a very poor representation of India in the eyes of the world. They think it is objectionable that the West should view us as a country of slums and poverty. And they strongly believe the West will have this image of India after seeing the movie.
My question is – Is this portrayal more objectionable, or the fact that these circumstances exist in our country more unacceptable and objectionable? Does it matter more that the West will think of us as a poor country or there are so many poor, who live in such filth and under such inhumane conditions?
About 60% of Mumbai’s population lives in slums. That is about 8 million people. Approximately 40% of Pune’s population lives in slums, that is about 2 million people. The average number of people living in urban Indian slums is 20% of the urban population. One fifth of the urban population lives in slums! Over 60 million Indians live in these unclean, unhygienic, dirty, fetid slums and people are worried about India’s right or wrong world depiction!
Millions of rural peoples are compelled to leave their land, homes, villages each year in search of a livelihood. These people come to big cities looking for jobs, a decent life, but end up living in filthy holes, striving for bread, struggling to survive each day.
Everyday, young children are forced into becoming beggars. Their eyes are scooped out, their limbs severed, they are abused, starved and made to beg at various traffic signals of big glamorous cities. Every local train, multiplex, shopping area…. Every nook and corner is flowing with these children, but we do not care to take notice of them. Young girls, carrying rented infants in their arms, beg at our air-conditioned car windows, but they just do not exist for us. If they exist, only to spoil the view and image of the city, or the country. We are oblivious to all other harsh realities.
Every year, millions of people are forced into prostitution. They are sold, raped, kidnapped and thrown into this despicable trade. 20% of these prostitutes are children. Young boys and girls are housed in cages, beaten and burnt and forced to sleep with up to 30 customers a day. You can get a fine fuck in Mumbai for less than Rs.10/-. But this does not seem objectionable to us. We conveniently call them angels of our society, guarding and protecting us from the vultures out there. We prefer it for someone else to pay the price for our security and safety. But the sight of these angels is obnoxious. These facts being displayed, disagreeable.
Thousand of young boys and men become thieves and criminals because of their harsh circumstances. They begin with stealing bread and end up doing ‘supari’ jobs for big developers and politicians. We notice the increasing crime rates but not the milieu which lead to pushing individuals into these nasty professions.
Each one of us, living comfortable lives in big cities, notice these people, professions and circumstances everyday in our lives. But we conveniently choose to ignore these realities. Every day, the rise in number of slums is evident, the widening social divide is visible, the differences in society obvious, but we choose to turn a blind eye. Each day we see those pot bellies and crutches, those teary eyes and innocent faces….. but nothing seems to register or hurt. Are we so lost in our world of shopping malls and fine dining, that we just don’t care? Have we as a society become so callous to find movies objectionable and realities acceptable?
My question is – Is this portrayal more objectionable, or the fact that these circumstances exist in our country more unacceptable and objectionable? Does it matter more that the West will think of us as a poor country or there are so many poor, who live in such filth and under such inhumane conditions?
About 60% of Mumbai’s population lives in slums. That is about 8 million people. Approximately 40% of Pune’s population lives in slums, that is about 2 million people. The average number of people living in urban Indian slums is 20% of the urban population. One fifth of the urban population lives in slums! Over 60 million Indians live in these unclean, unhygienic, dirty, fetid slums and people are worried about India’s right or wrong world depiction!
Millions of rural peoples are compelled to leave their land, homes, villages each year in search of a livelihood. These people come to big cities looking for jobs, a decent life, but end up living in filthy holes, striving for bread, struggling to survive each day.
Everyday, young children are forced into becoming beggars. Their eyes are scooped out, their limbs severed, they are abused, starved and made to beg at various traffic signals of big glamorous cities. Every local train, multiplex, shopping area…. Every nook and corner is flowing with these children, but we do not care to take notice of them. Young girls, carrying rented infants in their arms, beg at our air-conditioned car windows, but they just do not exist for us. If they exist, only to spoil the view and image of the city, or the country. We are oblivious to all other harsh realities.
Every year, millions of people are forced into prostitution. They are sold, raped, kidnapped and thrown into this despicable trade. 20% of these prostitutes are children. Young boys and girls are housed in cages, beaten and burnt and forced to sleep with up to 30 customers a day. You can get a fine fuck in Mumbai for less than Rs.10/-. But this does not seem objectionable to us. We conveniently call them angels of our society, guarding and protecting us from the vultures out there. We prefer it for someone else to pay the price for our security and safety. But the sight of these angels is obnoxious. These facts being displayed, disagreeable.
Thousand of young boys and men become thieves and criminals because of their harsh circumstances. They begin with stealing bread and end up doing ‘supari’ jobs for big developers and politicians. We notice the increasing crime rates but not the milieu which lead to pushing individuals into these nasty professions.
Each one of us, living comfortable lives in big cities, notice these people, professions and circumstances everyday in our lives. But we conveniently choose to ignore these realities. Every day, the rise in number of slums is evident, the widening social divide is visible, the differences in society obvious, but we choose to turn a blind eye. Each day we see those pot bellies and crutches, those teary eyes and innocent faces….. but nothing seems to register or hurt. Are we so lost in our world of shopping malls and fine dining, that we just don’t care? Have we as a society become so callous to find movies objectionable and realities acceptable?
My problem is that it took a Brit to come and make a movie like this and how we then "adopt" its success as our own - the same vicarious, second-hand joy that was evident with Kalpana Chawla or Shikha Oberoi or Bobby Jindal.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really wrapped my head around the controversy and why the movie is objectionable. On the other hand, I formed a rather strong opinion about White Tiger - a book written by an educated India to "show" the West the "real India" and appeal to their prejudices. That sort of pretentiousness is disgusting. Not sure I feel that way about Slumdog though. It's a good movie.
Nice post though.