If I had to venture a guess I would say whole thing looks like a typical racist overreaction from US marshalls. Anyone who has flown in and out of India knows how our desi brothers and sisters behave on a flight typically so its not difficult to see how that could be "misconstrued" as unusual behavior.
I remember there was a similar incident in the US some years back. Desi brothers and sisters started prancing around in excitement as the plane neared NYC, they changed seats amongst themselves so everyone could photograph the "view from above" and a passenger is thought to have told the air crew that one of them was pointing "suspiciously" at something below and yelling "Statue of Liberty, Statue of Liberty" .... seems they were questioned after arriving at the airport or something like that. On a more serious note I do wish someone would bring out a booklet for our Desi folk on how not to appear suspicious. Nothing racist is meant here (I am Desi afterall). A lot of times I have myself been rather embarrassed at the childishness of Desi bretheren in planes.
This interview and article are worth reading. I am not quite sure what to make of Naipaul. The guy has one thing going for him - he does not have the certitude that brain-washing movements like Communism et al. instill in their followers. The interview brings out in sharp contrast, the flawed thinking about the secular camp in India (Padgaonkar is one of it's greatest votaries!). You need to read it again and again. Notice how superficial the secularist thinking is (the crap about how the Ayodhya temple issue is a reaction to the collapse of communism, Salman Rushdie et al; how the folks that broke the "mosque" were wearing jeans etc.) This against a guy who has actually read the history of that age and conducted his own analysis, to arrive at his own conclusion. Another thing it will bring out is how the intellectual elite are bullied, how they are cowed-down into swallowing wholesale the popular theory. It is not because they are not intelligent (Padgaonkar has a Phd. from somewhere in France). The truth is that they engage in gross calumny because they are afraid. Afraid to be called "communal", "revanchist" etc; afraid that speaking the truth will mean a call for their sacking; afraid that the system will overwhelm and crush them (remember how Girilal Jain was sacked from The Times of India many years ago). This is the existential reality of the English-style liberal in India.
3 comments:
If I had to venture a guess I would say whole thing looks like a typical racist overreaction from US marshalls.
Anyone who has flown in and out of India knows how our desi brothers and sisters behave on a flight typically so its not difficult to see how that could be "misconstrued" as unusual behavior.
I remember there was a similar incident in the US some years back. Desi brothers and sisters started prancing around in excitement as the plane neared NYC, they changed seats amongst themselves so everyone could photograph the "view from above" and a passenger is thought to have told the air crew that one of them was pointing "suspiciously" at something below and yelling "Statue of Liberty, Statue of Liberty" .... seems they were questioned after arriving at the airport or something like that.
On a more serious note I do wish someone would bring out a booklet for our Desi folk on how not to appear suspicious. Nothing racist is meant here (I am Desi afterall). A lot of times I have myself been rather embarrassed at the childishness of Desi bretheren in planes.
This interview and article are worth reading. I am not quite sure what to make of Naipaul. The guy has one thing going for him - he does not have the certitude that brain-washing movements like Communism et al. instill in their followers.
The interview brings out in sharp contrast, the flawed thinking about the secular camp in India (Padgaonkar is one of it's greatest votaries!). You need to read it again and again.
Notice how superficial the secularist thinking is (the crap about how the Ayodhya temple issue is a reaction to the collapse of communism, Salman Rushdie et al; how the folks that broke the "mosque" were wearing jeans etc.) This against a guy who has actually read the history of that age and conducted his own analysis, to arrive at his own conclusion. Another thing it will bring out is how the intellectual elite are bullied, how they are cowed-down into swallowing wholesale the popular theory. It is not because they are not intelligent (Padgaonkar has a Phd. from somewhere in France). The truth is that they engage in gross calumny because they are afraid. Afraid to be called "communal", "revanchist" etc; afraid that speaking the truth will mean a call for their sacking; afraid that the system will overwhelm and crush them (remember how Girilal Jain was sacked from The Times of India many years ago). This is the existential reality of the English-style liberal in India.
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