Why "India Outside India"?

Since I came to NYC I have been trying to capture for the benefit of my international friends what is ‘India’ or ‘Indianness’. We have discussed various facets of Indian people, culture, ways of meaning making and what it means to live as an Indian. It was also interesting when my international friends shared what they thought being Indian was/must be like for me. I have been capturing visuals that I thought express non-Indians’ perceptions about India and also the expressions/visuals shared by the Indian community in US that must be shaping this perception. After a year of gathering images and talking in my head about it I thought why not put it all down in a blog.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Swastika again ...

It was Diwali week last week. A lot of people from home updated their facebook profile photos with images related to their Diwali celebrations. One of it was of a rangoli in the doorway with swastika in the center. I was wondering what people outside of India (Western countries) will associate it with.

I wrote a couple of blog posts some time (years?) back about Indian Swastika and Hitler's Hakenkreuz, after the swastika controversy in TC. I talked with people wherever I went, about the Indian Swastika and the meaning of the word itself (Swasti = wellbeing). I tried to unpack my feelings about how I feel when it is misrepresented as a symbol of hate. Talked with the office of diversity in Teachers College and told them I will help with the lecture they were planning about symbols and their meanings in different cultures, in the hope that I can talk about the difference between the Indian Swastika, the meaning of the word and how it differs from Hitler's symbol of SS. 

Nothing much has changed after that. In the Diwali packet I got a sticker imitating Rangoli design. At both ends of the colorful strip are two swastikas. Rangoli designs are drawn for various reasons. The ones in the doorway like my sister sent, are to bring happiness, prosperity and feeling of festivity. The ausipicious symbol of a swastika, the name of which itself means 'wellbeing' is generally a given in such drawings. I obviously would not be putting it in my doorway in US for the fear that people will label me fascist, anti-Semite. I don't know how I feel about this. I am not a big fan of Rangoli stickers (I rather draw whatever I feel like everyday) but the matter of am I free to draw or stick a swastika on my door (in the context of a rangoli) without being labeled anti-Semite still remains.

As I said nothing has changed.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Obama’s visit to India: Images perceived and portrayed

Some points that came up in the media coverage about perceived and redefined image of India

- Obama rejects view of India as "land of call centers"

- The United States sees Asia, especially India, as the market of the future

- India the land of cold-start (the Loch Ness monster that most of the Indians don’t know they have)

- India the victim of 2008 Mumbai attacks. (Just so that US can proclaim ‘India and US were united against terrorism’)

- On the other hand it is a giant ogling Pakistan on which US needs to put pressure so as to placate Pakistan and get its support in the ‘war against terrorism’