the indian moral police: richard gere, m.f. hussain, chandramohan

[thewildwest]

you know, when that richard gere thing happened with shilpa shetty, i was pretty irked by the media [mainstream indian and western] coverage. they acted like it was so strange and backwards for people to be offended by gere's obnoxious behavior. i am not saying that i support him being sued etc. but he should have been more culturally sensitive

Comments

[reformedvesper]

i read that article yesterday. made me so sad. and determined to buy contemporary indian and pakistani and afghani art the moment i have some dough.

as for the other, i rolled my eyes at the gere/shetty thing. much worse occurs at filmfare awards and on bollywood/mtv india screens on a regular basis. i think the wigging out was because its a white man and shilpa shetty has gone from being a quasi-failed actress to being some sort of oriental possession of the desi psyche since big brother. what he did was perfectly acceptable on a bombay stage, but it was a case discussed in a rajasthani court? its like montana suing for what happens on broadway. many resident indians saw it as backward.

honestly, the bit that irks me the most is how these idiotic little controversies shift attention away from the uneven development and alarming environmental deaths in the sub continent.

[thewildwest]

i am sure many resident indians saw it as backwards, esp the more westernized ones living in big cities like bombay, delhi, and bangalore. but i am sure many people actually were offended. anyway, this is not what my point is and i am certainly not defending the suit against him. i was just annoyed that no one really talked about gere's obnoxious insensitivity and complete lack of respect for shetty and instead focused on "crazy" indians protesting. if you watch the video you can see she is clearly uncomfortable, and he continues for quite some time

[thewildwest]

* i meant developing world.

[reformedvesper]

she did seem uncomfortable. the whole set-up was off, with off-key sound cues and an inebriated seeming gere. although shetty defended him incessantly in interviews. i'm not sure wtheck was going on there..

yes, it's true all over the world g. here, in india, everywhere. bread and circus so that you can creep from republic to empire and no one bats an eye. as old as rome. i'm still irritated by it though. i should meditate =)

[lipsewn]

send a young art student to jail for a final-exam project deemed offensive
that's pretty appalling.

some of my parents' very grown up, very educated indian friends hold peculiar views about Khajuraho & karma sutra et all - they seem to think that it's the product of 'crazy' ancient time "fringe" elements.

[thewildwest]

yeah, that generation was educated to think in that way. sad, really.