I’m not sure whether the very writing of this post invalidates its basic point that this is a non-issue transformed into a matter of international consideration by bored and opportunistic politicians (catering to a bored and opportunistic Indian middle class, both in India and in Britain)…you decide.
It has been my experience (and perhaps your's) that white people can be occasionally racist, and in this age of reality TV, sometimes white people are caught on camera being racist, offending the politically correct (who like to pretend that racism doesn’t exist) on either end of the political spectrum. This level of shock is usually limited to a few articles, rarely requiring the comment of senior government ministers or concerned brown MPs.
But what happens when you throw an erstwhile Bollywood starlet into the mix? A news story that leads the headlines of two major Indian dailies, BBC South Asia and requires discussion between Chancellor Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh! Just to put your mind at ease, the leader of the world’s largest democracy and the chancellor of the UK both agree that India and Britain are against “racism and intolerance.” Here according to the BBC is the type of abuse Ms. Shetty had to endure:
So basically someone made a retarded comment grounded in a parallel universe in which Indians don’t cook their food (um, what???), while another person accurately perceived (I’m making a pretty careless assumption here) that Bollywood stars generally want to be fairer. This is followed by Mr. Sharma’s predictable assertion that here in India we reject racism and discrimination. Perhaps Shilpa Shetty should have forgone her Rs. 3.5 crore ($795,000) and stayed home where she (and apparently anybody else) would not be subject to such harassment. However, she apparently has recourse, as the Indian Express noted today while reporting the statements of Indian I&B Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi:
I am glad to know that the government only intervenes in the welfare of individuals abroad when Bollywood tells it to. I am further elated because as a result of the Big Brother scandal Indian embassies will now protect high profile Indian women from having their (and by extension my) dignity sullied. The biggest problem faced by Indian women abroad is that they (as the traditional storehouse of the nation’s honour) may be shamed by the ignorant barbs of white people. Labour politics??? Voting rights for NRIs, particularly in countries unwilling to afford them citizenship??? No, none of that is important as long as Bollywood stars don’t embarrass the nation by being the butt of racist jokes on tasteless British reality TV. Sounds like Dasmunsi’s concerns are more along the lines of Pardes (i.e., nationalist fantasy), than the reality of Indian diasporics.
I realize this post seems rather insensitive, it is not entirely written in that spirit. It must suck for Ms. Shetty to be stuck in a house full of cameras with a bunch of racists, she is probably not used to facing a great deal of racism on day-to-day basis (again a possibly unfair assumption). But her experience in not unique, it is a daily reality for a great many people, many of them Indian. What makes her experience unique is the exceptional controversy surrounding this particular incidence of racism, provoked by misogynistic national insecurities it reveals and the peculiar mix of class, celebrity and race. It is for this reason only that the event is of any remote interest, and for this reason only should the episodes be shown (not to beat a dead horse, but racism doesn’t go away if you pretend it doesn’t exist). I just wish it didn’t take TV cameras and Bollywood stars to make the Indian government care about what happens to Indians (at least those not granted H-1B visas) abroad.
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How is the premise of this show shocking to anyone? Throw in an elite, wealthy Indian woman with some ignorant tarts and woah! Racist comments! No way! How could this be? Hai hai.
Boggles the mind. Any dainty Bollywood starlet would have faced the same thing (Ash included).
And hear hear, I also love the Indian government springing into action. "Izaat before anything else!" as always. But why not throw in an Indian girl FROM the UK in that house? Considering she's probably heard a comment or 100 while growing up, I'm sure she'd be able to come up with some zingers in rebuttal. Bonus points if she whips her neck.
i love the title of this post. oh the urgency!!! :)
"Bonus points if she whips her neck."
teehee :D so ghettofab!
Wanna get attention get yourself racially discriminated on Big Brother... I guess that's the only way we'll get all the other issues that are obviously not half as important as Shilpa Shetty addressed by the politician.
ms. shetty's experiences simply go to show that the perceptions britons have of indians has not changed one bit in the last three hundred years. in britain, life is tough for indian women of any national background; they have to straddle the stereotypes of successful minority and sexualized nautch girl regularly.
at least this controversy brought to international attention that yes, even if you are a successful, English-speaking, well-educated woman of color, you are still a threat to the egos of many white, majority world citizens.
Or even that because you are a "successful, English-speaking, well-educated woman of colour, you are a threat to the egos to the egos of many white, majority world citizens."
Not touched on in my rather hasty and snide post are the critically important class insecurities of both middle class white Britons and the Indian middle class that the whole Shetty affair reveals. What the initial uproar in India over the comments directed at Shetty (contrasted with the relative indifference toward her win) suggest is that the Indian middle class is deeply insecure about issues of race, development etc.(vis-a-vis the developed west) and is actually in a place to effect its will on those issues. The question then becomes, a) why does it effect its will on shit so banal as Shilpa Shetty, and b) does it actually have the power to influence more important things, like treatment of labour etc...
The fact that the indian middle class only causes such an uproar of issues of race when it comes to bollywood starlets is what prompted the frustration and condescension of my post. Im not sure that that is the most productive response to have. But at the same time, I have serious trouble taking the perceived slights of the 'nation' seriously, as they are framed around issues so insignificant as Shilpa Shetty and reflective of several deeply fucked situations (structures of patriarchy, class etc.) So i guess i dont really know what more to say.
Though I took a very different take on the Shetty situation (i.e. it hit 'home' as a diasporic Indian) - I REALLY appreciate your comments here Aatish. Where indeed is the Indian govt when it comes to everyday 'racism' experienced by South Asians abroad, or the trade agreements/labour exchanges that happen between nations?
Also the response of Indian middle class highlights the assumption and beliefs that 'unlike' lower class/lesser educated/lower caste people's - they are actually "worthier" of better treatment.
Like an acquaintance of mine once said 'the problem with Canada is that they just let so many illiterate - lower-caste Punjabis into the country these days who then give all the REST of us a bad name'.
Which can be translated as they deserve it if they are treated badly - we don't because 'we're better Indians'. So the only measuring stick that we end up being 'valued' by is the white supremacist's stick, an incident such as this doesn't really end up 'bursting people's bubbles' - it's read as an 'anomaly' not as a continuum in a struggle against racism...
Just random thoughts..... PS thanks for adding me to the blogroll.