Shilpa Shetty And Her Sisters Of A Lesser God

[Guest guest]

[Finally! An Indian sociology professor has offered what is by far the

most serious, thoughtful and powerful analysis I've seen of this

sensationalistic " Celebrity Big Brother " racism uproar of a month or

so back -- focusing in particular on its relationship (if any) to the

indignities suffered by the masses of anonymous women across India

(that, I believe, was at the heart of Nora's objection to the

tremendous media focus on the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty). Please

read it if you have a chance! BTW, for those who missed the original

flap, I've connected this post to the original thread in this group;

just scroll to the bottom to catch up on older posts. - DB]

 

SHILPA SHETTY AND HER SISTERS OF A LESSER GOD

 

MUMBAI (March 14, 2007): The issue racism in the " Celebrity Big

Brother " show on BBC Channel Four created uproar in media the world

over. The insulting and racist treatment given to Indian film actress

Shilpa Shetty by her co-celebrities on the show once again raised the

concern over racism in the western world. Some members of British

Parliament, even Prime Minister Tony Blair, viewed the events with

serious concern. The organisers of the show received thousands of

letters by the British people that condemned the growing intolerance

in what is essentially multicultural Britain.

 

Back home in India Ms. Shetty's experiences of harassment -- fellow

celebrities calling her as " the Paki, " raising questions about her

language competence, and suggesting that she should " go back to the

slums " — were seen very seriously. Both the vocal Indians and

important people in the government felt angry and insulted. Minister

of State for Foreign Affairs and the Commerce Minister took serious

note of the incidence and promised to take appropriate measures.

 

This was perhaps understandable: When India is emerging as a growing

world power in knowledge economy, when India is shining with

ever-rising growth rates, how can Indians be treated in this manner?

Thus, with massive publicity through electronic and print media, Ms.

Shetty became a symbol of wounded Indian pride.

 

Of course, at the end of the day everything came to be alright. Ms.

Shetty turned out to be the winner of the much-hyped show. With a

million pounds, and many more to come in terms of future contracts,

she occupied prominent position among the rich and famous in the

world. And so was the recognition in otherwise serious business of

politics too. Members of the British parliament, including the Prime

Minister Tony Blair, received her with honour in the corridors of

power. Back home the BJP, the right wing nationalist party, was quick

to invite the celebrity to its band of stars.

 

On her part, Ms. Shetty had forgiven her colleagues for racist

remarks; rather, had declared that, no, she was not subjected any

racist discrimination. And so, everything was alright at the end of

day, much like the fairy tale of the wronged Cinderella turning out to

be the winning princess.

 

Indeed with Shetty's harrassed face, her appealing, pleading gestures

to be treated respectfully, and eventual smile after winning of the

show title with the usual — " Oh, I cannot believe this! " — expression

of frenzied emotions, made us Indians feel both disturbed and proud.

 

SHETTY'S SISTERS?

 

And yet amidst this " reality show " drama, and the frenzied

celebrations that followed, we the fellow humans blissfully ignored

the real reality of the oppression and discrimination millions of Ms.

Shetty's sisters (though one does not really know whether she

considers them as her sisters, or is even bothered about them) who are

discriminated, harassed, insulted, cheated, being robbed of dignity by

being stripped and paraded naked through the village streets,

gang-raped and, many a times, killed as matter of everyday life

reality in India.

 

Indeed we are the nation of contradictions. Some might like to call it

" diversity. " Yes we celebrate success of Indian women or women of

Indian origin abroad both in the world of glamour and in the hard

world of business and science. And yet we are the society that kills

its women even before they are born. The Nobel Prize winner in

economics Professor Amartya Sen (of whom we are so proud too) has

brought to fore the disturbing issue of what he referred to as

" missing " women in India. The practice of female infanticide has

become a common reality, more so in the developed regions of India.

 

Thus India's image as growing world power co-exists, conveniently,

with its ever-growing record of murder of girl children before they

are even born. Not to mention the female child mortality and

subsequent neglect of girl child, which kill them if they " miss " the

killers' nets.

 

CRUDE EXPLOITATION

 

A large number of women in India are toiling for bare minimum

survival. They do not have the " luxury " to be subjugated, subordinated

only by the patriarchal home. They experience discrimination and

oppression both inside the private domain of home and in the outside

world dominated by ideologies of patriarchy, caste and class. They are

discriminated, wounded and harassed when they work as rag pickers in

ever expanding cities, as maid servants in households of " respectable "

men, as migrant construction workers who contribute to making of

evermore glittering happening cities, and as agricultural labourers in

farms of dominant landowning masters.

 

These locations are structures of crude exploitation and of multiple

violence—insults, physical and sexual abuse, and harassment. Yet it is

not they who become the " global " face of our wounded nationhood. Nor

do they become the centres of discussions on discrimination and

harassment at work places, which are being discussed and debated in

many seminars and workshops frequently organized by the concerned

activists, academics and policy formulators.

 

It is the lower-caste women in India, the Dalit women, who have been

and are victims of worst forms of insults and discrimination, have

been subjected to most inhuman forms of torture and oppression and

exploitation. Their lives are marred by multiple structures of

oppression emanating from caste, class and gender.

 

NOWHERE TO TURN

 

Just to cite the government's sources: in the year 2005, Dalit women

suffered 1,172 cases of rape at the hands of dominant castes. There

were 3,847 cases of injury and 669 cases of murder (according to the

National Crime Record Bureau, Ministry of Home, p. 297). Of course,

despite the most stringent laws, very few cases of atrocities get

registered. The structures of power and dominance work in many ways.

Either police do not register the cases or under the influence of the

dominant groups reduce the severity of the crimes, leading to easy

acquittal of the culprits.

 

Hence, many cases do not actually come to the fore. Or even if they

were to get registered and see the courts, the acquittal rates --

because of the lack of " adequate evidence " -- are very high. What is

more, these women live are under the perennial fear of violence and

torture, and they are always at risk if they try to assert their

humanity and dignity. The insults, discrimination, harassment they

suffer are matters of everyday life.

 

This harassment is not only overlooked but also taken for granted by

respected Indians who get agitated over Shetty's pained face or feel

elated when she bags riches and fame. Thus, the uproar about Shetty's

case does not help in making these women's lives, violence and

discrimination they suffer in their lives, visible to both vocal

Indians and those in the government.

 

A GRUESOME CASE STUDY

 

Let me illustrate this with a recent case involving the gruesome

murders of a Dalit woman and her three children by mob of caste Hindus.

 

On 29th September 2006, in the village of Khairlanji, in the Bhandara

district of the Maharashtra State of India, a woman named Surekha

Bhotmange -- along with her teenage daughter Priyanka and her sons,

Sudhir and Roshan -- were brutally murdered by the caste Hindus of the

village. Surekha and her daughter were parading naked throughout the

village and gang-raped before being killed in broad daylight.

 

This incidence came to light only after a month, when Dalit

(lower-castes) organizations protested about the apathy and serious

intentional neglect of the local administration. Even the media --

which has proliferated in India along with globalisation and the

market -- took note of the incident only after Dalits protested

against the state administration.

 

But despite Dalit protests, both the state and civil society actors

viewed this brutal atrocity as the Dalits' problem. Though both the

electronic and print media subsequently and repeatedly discussed the

case (though it has now disappeared from the media), it was growing

Dalit dissent -- and not the gross violation of right to live and life

with dignity, as suffered by the most vulnerable groups of Indian

women -- that was the central moving cause behind this visibility.

 

What is more, the ever-more-concerned opinion makers -- and, through

them, the more vocal Indian " people " -- have accorded more visibility

to Shetty's experiences of discrimination than they did to the brutal

atrocity suffered by a lower-caste woman and her children at the hands

of caste Hindus. An often-repeated, familiar " reality " is orchestrated

here too: the State machinery showed its usual callous attitude,

attempting to destroy the evidence' and the culprits were not booked

until pressure was exerted by a people's movement.

 

A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

 

Hence the question is, when we Indians feel our pride is trampled

upon; when we feel wounded -- whose pride and harassment are we

concerned with? With Shetty's? Who, after that pained face, has been

successful in bagging both quick publicity and huge financial booty?

Or are we concerned with -- and do we wish to show to the world that,

yes, we are pained at -- the subjugation and oppression of millions of

Dalit and marginalized women; with the denial of their right to exist

with dignity?

 

The pride of India rests on making the lives of these million women --

who toil day and night to somehow make life possible -- free from

subjugation and harassment. It is only when these common, toiling

women share in the fruits of empowerment -- only when they have a

share in the ever-growing successes of India -- that we can rightfully

assume our claim to feel concerned about treatment meted out to

Indians by the world community.

 

Thus this entire episode -- of pain and forgiveness and eventual

smiles of winning -- has been, as suggested earlier, hugely beneficial

to both Ms. Shetty and the organizers of the Celebrity Big Brother

show. Ms. Shetty achieved both quick publicity and huge money.

 

But the marginalized women of India -- and, for that matter, of the

world -- seek neither publicity nor money. They seek only recognition

and action -- from both the Indian and the world community -- against

the violence, harassment and discrimination that they suffer in their

everyday, *really* " real " lives. It is only when we recognize and feel

concerned about this violence encountered by these sisters of a lesser

God, that we can legitimately feel concerned about harassment Indians

encounter globally.

 

What is more, India's global face is reflected not only in women of

Indian origin who achieve heights in the fields of science and

technology -- or, for that matter, in the world of glamour. It is also

reflected in Surekha Bhotmange and her many sisters, who are

humiliated, tortured, raped and brutally killed for simply asserting

their right to live with dignity.

 

Thus, the process of globalisation should not be seen merely as

harbinger of growth and prosperity -- but also of a renewed concern

for justice, dignity and respect toward the other.

 

Ramesh Kamble

Senior Lecturer

Department of Sociology

University of Mumbai

Mumbai-4000098. INDIA

Email: kambleramesh

 

SOURCE: Countercurrents.org, KERALA, INDIA. Ms. Shilpa Shetty And Her

Sisters Of A Lesser God. By Ramesh Kamble. 14 March, 2007

URL: http://www.countercurrents.org/gen-kamble140307.htm