What is your impression of India? Is it flying cakes and mutton curry, or is it a musical with singing and dancing? It's "Dangal!" The flying dust in "Dad" or the absurdity in "3 Idiots"?
Is everyone in India good at singing and dancing? Is it unsafe for girls to travel to India? Do Indians wipe their butts with their hands? Do Indians eat with their hands? Our curiosity about India has increased with the increasing people-to-people exchanges between China and India, and we are no longer satisfied with videos on Douyin and Bollywood blockbusters in theaters.
Whenever India is mentioned, many female friends are full of yearning for this mysterious and charming country. "It would be great to have a chance to go there!" This is a sentence that many female friends talk about, often followed by another sentence: "Is India safe?" The subtext of this question is, As a woman going to India, will she be at risk of being sexually assaulted at any time as advertised in the media?
Without a doubt, yes. The documentary "India's Daughter" released on March 8, 2015 shocked the world. This documentary, based on the bus gang rape that occurred in Delhi, India on December 16, 2012, realistically and cruelly portrays the potential dangers of women in Indian society.
In India, a country with a population of more than one billion, a rape case occurs every 20 minutes; in the 2018 "Top 10 Most Dangerous Countries for Women" survey report, India even ranked "top of the list" "Topping the list. There have been numerous reports in the media about the vile sexual violence committed by Indian men.
Initially, as a foreigner assigned to work in India, the author also secretly asked some Indian male colleagues around me for advice. Obviously, almost all male colleagues seem to be very secretive about this issue that hurts national and gender self-esteem. This mentality of "national ugliness should not be publicized" can also be understood. However, when the question was transferred to some Indian female colleagues, everyone seemed very indignant.
In the local office in India where the author is assigned, there has always been a rule: female employees must not get off work later than 9 p.m. This provision is purely for their safety.
A female colleague named Aditi drives to and from get off work every day for the convenience and safety of commuting. This little girl came home a little late from get off work one day. She encountered a traffic jam on the road, and her car was stuck in the traffic flow. At this time, the men passing by all cast strange looks at her. Some began to whistle at her, and some even began to slap her car windows and hood, yelling at her loudly, as if to Curse her. Aditi, who was hiding in the driver's seat, later recalled that she was shaking with fear.
The situation Aditi faced at that time was actually very similar to Joyti, the heroine of the Delhi bus gang rape case. In the eyes of many Indian men, women who wander around at eight or nine o'clock in the evening are slutty, obscene, and unruly women. Such women must be "taught" a lesson.
This common male mentality also reflects the difficulties faced by Indian women: gender discrimination, the laziness of the judiciary, the prevalence of pornographic concepts, etc. are all direct causes of the continuous rape cases in India, and the root cause is still The reason lies in the lack of women's rights in Indian society - property rights and labor rights are not protected, and it is difficult for women to change their weak and dependent status.
In India, which suffers from "late-stage son preference", the most cruel words to curse people are not greetings to eighteen generations of ancestors, but "you will definitely give birth to a daughter." Many Indian men will be furious when they hear this sentence, and they will have to fight to the death.
When many women get married as adults, their natal family must pay a large dowry, otherwise no man will be willing to marry this woman. After all, this is a "loss-making business"; for wealthy families, For girls from ordinary families, getting married with a luxury car, a villa, etc. is a trivial matter, but for the majority of girls from ordinary families or even poor families, getting married sometimes means a nightmare.
Because Indian women have not been able to receive adequate respect and protection for a long time, this kind of discrimination and prejudice against women has become unabashed and blatant. And when this kind of discrimination against women reaches a certain level, it will evolve into extreme disrespect: sexual violence.
When it comes to India’s most successful external export, it must be Bollywood musicals.
When mentioning Indian movies, the first thing that comes to mind must be a group of Indian beauties wearing saris dancing in uniform steps, using passionate and unrestrained dance moves to interpret the plot of the movie. Dancing whenever they disagree has become a standard feature of traditional Indian song and dance movies. Why do Indian movies love singing and dancing so much? Is this the way Indians live their daily lives?
Indeed. Indians, who grew up in the monsoon climate of the South Asian subcontinent, are a passionate and unrestrained ethnic group. They like to express their inner rich emotions, and singing and dancing itself is the most expressive form. Whether you believe in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Islam, or Christianity, Indians of diverse faiths are keen to express their happiness, anger, and sorrow in the form of singing and dancing.
A Muslim female colleague once told the author that even when cooking at home, she must turn on the music and follow the cheerful rhythm, while twisting her waist happily and using a flat bottom The pan is throwing flying cakes. Thinking about this scene, it seems extremely difficult.
Another winter, Chinese and Indian colleagues from the department organization team went to the suburbs of Delhi for team building. On the way to the destination, several female colleagues who weighed more than 140 kilograms were dancing enthusiastically in the aisle between the seats of the minibus to the driver's amplifier music. I saw this small bus constantly "bouncing" on the bumpy roads in India. Our "Indian girl group" danced with the ups and downs of the rhythm on the bus without any sense of disobedience; in the loud noise of India In the folk-style music, my ears seem to be reminded of teacher Yu Hewei’s classic line: Then play music, then dance!
Since we are talking about Indian singing and dancing, we have to mention India’s “national hobbies”, or India’s ABCD: Astrology, Bollywood, Cricket ), Devotion (religious worship). To a certain extent, the love of dancing and watching musicals is itself a continuation of the Indian national ABCD. This ABCD combines elements of India's diverse religions, myths and legends, the nation's own culture and foreign cultures.
The first is Astrology. The older generation of Chinese people like to talk about zodiac signs and birth dates, while Indians have always believed in zodiac signs and astrology-related theories.
Similar to Chinese fortune tellers, India also has astrologers; the difference is that Chinese fortune tellers have long lost their market due to materialistic values, while astrologers still carry their astrolabes and towers. Luo cards are highly revered in India. An organization once estimated that the market size of astrology in India is about 10 billion U.S. dollars. Together with surrounding spiritual practices, healing and rituals, it can reach 30 billion U.S. dollars per year.
According to public reports, there are currently at least 2 million astrologers and 10,000 astrology training schools in India. In addition, astrology also has a "professional" path: under the promotion of former Science Minister Murali Manohar Joshi, more than 30 universities have offered undergraduate and master's degrees in astrology. It’s incredible to think about these numbers.
Then there is Bollywood (Bollywood movies). This mature, high-quality and huge industry can already serve as India’s external business card in terms of external communication and projection. The "Three Khans" of the Indian film industry are becoming familiar in China.
To be honest, after getting over the initial discomfort with musicals as a form of expression, the author feels that Indian movies are comparable to American Hollywood in terms of technical means of production and stage presence of actors. movie level. The musicals and dances in Bollywood movies make the audience feel a sense of harmony between power and beauty, and fully demonstrate the passion, unrestrained and vitality of this nation.
Then there is Cricket. From the perspective of influence, Indian cricket should rank first in ABCD. This sports game brought by British colonists took root and flourished in the South Asian subcontinent. It has now become the most profitable economic sport alongside football, F1, and golf.
For the annual Indian Premier League (IPL), the naming rights alone have been sold for billions of yuan.
The first sport in the South Asian subcontinent has created a long list of cricket superstars who rival Bollywood stars and Indian politicians, and has also evolved into a wrestling field between subcontinental countries that is related to national dignity. Every time there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan, from a warm-up match to a World Cup, there will be a spectacular scene of empty houses in India. If you win, the whole world will celebrate with singing and dancing; if you lose, it will be like mourning an heir, and the whole country will be furious.
The last one is Devotion (religious worship). Judging from the formation and history of the country of India, there are too many skin colors, languages, religions, legends and cultural habits mixed here. All the world's religions can find followers in India, which makes India known as the "Museum of Religions".
The current mainstream religions include Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and other religions. Combined with the complex and colorful astrology, Indians, who do not ask about the common people or ghosts and gods, have implemented this belief in gods into every aspect of their daily lives.
I remember going to a bar to drink with some Indian male colleagues. One of them happened to catch up with the fasting day of his religion. The good guy didn't touch anything except drinking water all night. The piety shown by this usually alcoholic Indian man on his own religious festival is really impressive.
To this day, the author still has a particularly vivid memory of one detail during his work in India. One day, an Indian colleague in the team had a birthday, and everyone bought a cake to celebrate together. Indian birthday party cakes are not for eating, but for fun. At that time, an Indian female colleague tried to smear cake on the face of a Chinese male colleague as a joke, but before long, the male colleague dodged the "attack" of the female colleague and then left the party as if he was running away. conference room. Afterwards, the male colleague said: "Imagine that her left hand has been used to pick shit."
The left hand is used to wipe the butt, and the right hand is used to eat. This ethnic label of Indians can be said to be "famous" ". Regarding this issue, the author once tentatively asked an Indian colleague for advice. At that time, everyone was having a good time with wine and dinner, and the mood was high. When they heard this question, several Indian colleagues didn't take it seriously, and some even said proudly that wiping their buttocks with water in their left hand was a sign of hygiene.
According to Indians, when toilet paper is used to wipe the buttocks, the hardness of the paper itself will cause damage to the anus, and the bacteria attached to the paper will also cause bacterial damage to the anus. Although this statement is a bit hypocritical, according to a data from the World Health Organization, India has the lowest incidence of hemorrhoids in the world. It has to be said that this is closely related to the fact that Indians use their left hand with water instead of toilet paper to clean their anus.
Following this topic, a scholarly colleague who was present at the time told the author seriously that in some ancient religious legends in India, there is an inherent difference between good and evil between the left and the right. The right side belongs to Buddha, the lying side belongs to Asura, and the left side belongs to demons. Under this standard of distinction between left and right, the left and right hands themselves have a distinction between unclean and holy. The dirty left hand is used to deal with some dirty things, such as wiping buttocks and killing animals; while the holy right hand is used to deal with some holy things, such as touching magical objects during religious ceremonies, such as eating and shaking hands with others.
Of course, if you look at some of the opinions on Indian social media, you may find more hilarious reasons. On the famous Q&A website Quora, many Indians gave various "incredibly valid" reasons for wiping their buttocks with their left hand: "Without using paper, you can save paper and reduce tree felling, how environmentally friendly it is", "We There is no shortage of water, so why not use water?" and all this. Although these reasons sound good, they look like hindsight, forcing you to find reasons to rationalize a behavior.
In view of this, when shaking hands with an Indian in the future, you must see clearly whether he is extending his left hand or his right hand.
In recent years, the competition and comparison between Chinese Americans and Indian Americans in the world's mainstream stages such as Silicon Valley and Wall Street has been a hot topic on Chinese social media. What we often hear and see is that when Indians arrive in the United States, they obviously do better than the Chinese who went with them. The supporting cases are also very convincing: Google CEO Pichai, Microsoft CEO Nadella; Among the top 500 companies, there are 75 foreign CEOs, 10 of whom are of Indian origin.
As for why Indians do better than Chinese in the United States, many people also gave some reasons "in hindsight": natural English language advantage; Indians love to study MBA and are good at upward management; Indians are more united and like to support each other; Indians are very talkative.
Correspondingly, when it comes to Chinese people who go to the United States or local Chinese, they are always "obedient and good students", "question writers", "good at internal fighting", "poor English", etc. , it is said that he is Su Mingzhe in "Everything is Good". This label is becoming deeply rooted.
But if we look at this question from another direction, we may have a new understanding: Why do such outstanding Indians stay in the United States instead of returning to their motherland? The brain drain from India is so serious, shouldn’t it be a problem that should be reflected on from the perspective of the Indian country and society?
Regarding this issue, the author has also asked several Indian colleagues from well-off families for advice. One of the female colleagues, her brother stayed in the United States after graduating from college and has now obtained a green card in the United States. She also yearns for the United States and goes to her brother's house in the United States every year for vacation. From the perspective of this Indian girl from an upper-class family, going to the United States means better employment opportunities, better development prospects, better medical, sanitation and educational environments, as well as more equal and free marriage and love relationships.
Another male colleague whose father is an engineering contractor also believes that the domestic environment in India is too bad. Good job opportunities are too concentrated in state-owned enterprises and government systems, and the business environment in the private sector is poor. Very nasty.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, there is no problem in making ends meet, but for outstanding students who graduated from Delhi University and Indian Institute of Technology, such a social environment is simply impossible. Let them exert their full strength and give full play to their intelligence and talents. Therefore, almost all Indian families above the middle class tend to let their children study in Europe and the United States. It would be better if they can stay and settle in Europe and the United States.
From this perspective, Indian talents who understand technology, can manage, are ambitious, and have online emotional intelligence are very much in line with the definition of elites in European and American countries. However, the poor domestic environment makes many Indians instinctively choose " Forgot your roots." In comparison, as China's comprehensive national strength becomes stronger and its attraction to top talents continues to increase, the Chinese who return to China and those who stay in the United States are essentially not on the same level.
Of course, India continues to become stronger. Someone once said that India today is China 10 to 20 years ago, and China today is India 10 to 20 years from now. With the same vast territory and the same population, coupled with Modi, an ambitious politician, India seems to be running full steam towards this goal. However, India's complex national conditions and political system, its heavy historical and cultural baggage, and its changing international environment have raised questions about whether India can copy China's model and path. The impact and damage of the epidemic on India is even more obvious. In the absence of a better solution from the current Modi government, India's development prospects will inevitably be cast into a shadow.
Author | Care for senior media people
Editor | Xie Yiqiu
Typesetting | GINNY