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Sati
and Other Crimes Don't ask why Charanshah died. Ask why her husband did.
Sati has been unlawful in India for a century and a half. Irrespective of whether or not some arcane text sanctions it, the burning of a widow with her dead husband is reprehensible. In a nation with such high levels of illiteracy there may well be some people who believe otherwise -- but by and large a combination of education, socialisation, law enforcement and a plain sense of right and wrong has rendered sati obsolete. The focus of the Indian establishment -- and to residents of a chronically-poor hamlet, the press, the government and NGOs are part of the same urban axis -- should not be why Charanshah died but why her husband did. In this day and age for a man to succumb to tuberculosis is ridiculous. The battle against orthodoxy and obscurantism cannot be fought in a vacuum. Did anybody do enough to equip Satpura with the schools and hospitals that such a crusade requires? Today people worry about the location of Charanshah's death becoming a sati temple. Perhaps the Government should commandeer it for a health centre. That may not be the ideal solution -- but it is certainly better than the problem. Hollywood as Villain Indian cinema's protectionist voices exaggerate their fears?
The theory of a Hollywood invasion can only be proved or disproved by ticket sales. The relative success of Indian films -- Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, Bhojpuri, you name it -- over their imported counterparts is there for all to see. While dubbed versions of blockbusters such as Jurassic Park have done roaring business, they form the exception that proves the rule. Much has been made of big American cine-corporations wanting to build production studios in India. Surely the films they churn out will have to cater to local tastes? It is not inconceivable that, say, Sony/Columbia Tristar may in the near future produce a masala movie starring a Shah Rukh Khan or a Sobhana. In the process, qualitative standards will be raised and professionalism injected into this country's filmdom. True, some local producers may find themselves at a dead end -- but how will India be the poorer? |
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As
has now been established, the death of Charanshah in Satpura village of
Uttar Pradesh's Mahoba district was an act of suicide by a distraught
widow. The real villain it would seem is the media, with its voyeuristic
treatment of the incident -- interviews with obscure local mahants who
apparently justified sati, vox pops from every roadside urchin who had a
story to tell, colourful if unconfirmed accounts of how Charanshah's
family was out to exploit the tragedy, presentation of bazaar rumour as
prevailing wisdom. Why, even cases of policemen thrashing villagers who
frequented the "sati" site were gleefully reported by newspapers
who would, in any other situation, run a campaign for civil liberties. The
premise behind the entire exercise was simple enough -- the idiocy of the
Indian village had to be established, no matter how.
Later
this month, member-countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meet in
Seattle to decide whether or not there should be another round of
multilateral trade negotiations and, if so, what this new round's agenda
should be. An unlikely participant in the pre-Seattle consternation is the
Indian film industry. With Hollywood exports to India touching $30 million
(Rs 129 crore) a year, the "threat of cultural imperialism" is
back in circulation. As such, the argument goes, free trade in cultural
products -- such as films -- should not form part of any future WTO
regime. Similar voices can be heard in Canada and France, where the
votaries of native "high culture" have run a longstanding
campaign against the "Coca Colonisation" of France by lowbrow
Yankee arrivals. Given that the Indian film industry is disorganised at
the best of times -- financiers in Mumbai sometimes make fly by night
operators look respectable -- it appears most vulnerable.