The Observer Issue 25 by IIJNM Bangalore

4 THE OBSERVER

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

OUTLOOK Does the Coldplay music video stereotype Indian culture?

The world still looks down upon India Akshaya NA

Outrage shows denial of what India is Tanay Sukumar

Video grabs from Coldplay video

British band Coldplay’s music video Hymn For The Weekend has created much debate online for its portrayal of India. Capturing Indian culture through a western perspective, scenes in the video are an example of cultural appropriation. The video clearly distinguishes between the band members and their surroundings. They dress and carry themselves like men of contemporary times, while the locals are portrayed as people from the colonial era: sadhus clad in saffron, a turbaned child holding a bioscope, a man spitting fire and children smeared in colours somersaulting. With peacocks dancing in the backdrop and Beyonce appearing as the exotic Bollywood actress, the video certainly propagates cul-

tural stereotypes about unclear. While the lyrics such representation of India. call for a higher power India in music videos. A The video fails to cap- and giving the singer 2015 video for the song ture the true essence s t r e n g t h to hold on, Lean On showcases viof today’s India. Young suals of majestic places men and women going and dancers dancing on to work are nowhere top of a bus in India. In As India to be seen. Instead, another video of Ausa Bollywood actralian pop star, Iggy tries to break tress is portrayed Azelea, dressed in away from the as a young Ina golden suit apdian princess shackles of its colonial pears on top of an throwing away elephant. past, to portray itself flowers from Art, literature her dreamy and films play as a modern upcoming balcony. As a crucial role in nation, these vivid porIndia tries to shaping the ethbreak away nic and national trayals in the video only from the shackidentity. Hollyreinstate the long les of its colonial wood movies are past and portray a clear example of existing stereoitself as a modern perpetuating stereotypes. upcoming nation, types manifold. In a these vivid portrayals 1984 movie released, in the video only reinIndiana Jones and the state the long existing Temple of Doom, Instereotypes. the video shows dians are seen eating Moreover, this clichéd the band members snakes and frozen monpicturization seems no- wandering through the key brains and insects. where related to the streets of Mumbai, However, as the dawn lyrics of the song, and amused by the sights of the new century arthe message the video they see. rived, the savage and is trying to convey is This is not the first uncivilised representa-

tion turned into that of cab drivers, terrorists and nerdy scientists. Be it Raj in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, the heavily accented Apu in The Simpsons, the West seems to still carry its stereotypical notions subtly. Last month, The Australian published a caricature showing poverty stricken and emaciated Indian men and a woman with a child trying to eat solar panel with ‘mango chutney’. In 2014, New York Times ran a cartoon after the Chandrayaan Mission, featuring an Indian man holding a cow knocking at the door of elite space club. What is quite striking in both these cartoons isthe depiction of an Indian as wearing dhoti and a turban. This stands testimony to the fact that the world still looks down upon India.

Saffron-clad sadhus, glamorous dusky beauties, colourful temples and larger-than-life Bollywood movie posters: Coldplay’s “Hymn for the Weekend” has all that India is perceived to be. A good number of Indians, mainly via Twitter, seem annoyed by the video and feel this is cultural appropriation; that the portrayal comes at the cost of what “real India” is. They feel our diverse culture has been stereotyped and narrowed down to a few traditional markers. But what is the real India? For a clueless Twitter user angry at all things on earth, real India could mean a highly liberal democracy which raises software and tech wizards with no space for disparity.

Or, probably, a counIt’s true that any cul- of art, whether it be try which either lacks tural identity has much Spain’s bull-fighting or a culture or has a cul- more to offer than half Africa’s tribes. ture based inside Twit- a dozen clichéd attriAnd when art does so, ter, without tradition. A butes. But we cannot it depicts, not mocks; it Facebook world without shows what the confestivals, rich cosmosumers love, it does not politan colonies withclaim in any way that Our distinct out villages, temples, art is academia – the holy babas and eletotal picture. cultural aspects gant dance forms. We earn nearly pull tourists in and we $20 billion in forThe outrage, unfortunately, eign exchange are proud of it. reflects either from our toura state of deism industry We leverage the very nial or disannually. Our same clichéd cultural comfort about distinct culturthe embedded markers to earn 3 per cent al aspects pull truths of India tourists in and of our GDP: the same or a total lack of we are proud of awareness. it. We leverage clichés that we do not The hypocrithe very same want Chris Martin to clichéd cultural sy lies in the fact that while discussmarkers to earn 3 leverage. ing these “Indianisms”, per cent of our GDP: pride is the dominatthe same clichés that ing feeling, but it turns we do not want Chris to anger when a white help it; each culture has Martin to leverage. person on “poverty its own idiosyncrasies, Young and urban Intourism” points out the which are historically dia is changing fast, same things. best captured in works and it is fair for us to

want the world to know this and depict that in art, music and cinema. But it takes time for the world to shift mindsets formed long before Jules Verne talked of elephants, princes and processions in Around The World In Eighty Days. Stereotypes have existed as long as diverse human settlements have. If Indians command a certain stereotype, we cannot really help it, except by breaking it. And a stereotype about a culture can be broken only when the whole country works towards it. We inspire certain stereotypes because we have reflected that in the past, and it is essential to accept that uniformly and take it in good humour, not only when it suits us.