Western Gaze: Country Of Contrast

The first thing an American notices upon stepping off the plane is the distinct nature of India’s roads. On any given highway, one sees a freestyle pattern of traffic that gives the impression of mass chaos. Cars, trucks, motorcycles and rickshaws crowd the streets, coming within inches of one another at every turn. Despite the presence of street signs and painted lines, the roads have a defacto absence of designated lanes and are filled instead with a mass of weaving traffic. Inside tiny rickshaws, six or seven people are squeezed in.  Add to the mix the astounding presence of car horns, used more for announcing location than expressing anger. All of this can be quite overwhelming for someone experiencing India for the first time.

In America, the dominant culture emphasizes consistency and organization. Cars drive in lanes regardless of traffic. This orderly structure is something we accept as a given, so we tend to conclude that any divergent system is mayhem. The sight of clustering traffic and the sounds of relentless horns seems catastrophic. Not surprisingly, many Americans are appalled by the chaos they while riding a taxicab in India. For the drivers who must navigate the streets everyday, however, the frantically weaving traffic and people hanging out of trucks is normal. Could it be that our sense of order is designed to control us, while in India, everyone takes account of the other and traffic flows easily, even amidst chaos.

Traveling in India means coming to grips with the chaos not just on the roads, but in the vast discrepancies in wealth and poverty. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the contrast between the slums of Dharavi and the surrounding city of Mumbai. Walking through Dharavi can be disturbing to an outsider. Many of the tiny shacks in which people live are little more than collections of scrap metal pieced together, and the unbearably narrow alleyways outside are lined with litter and goat droppings.  Even more striking than these conditions is the knowledge that, within blocks of the slums, there is a skyline filled with elegant skyscrapers and billboards advertising designer clothes. For an American, it is hard not to wonder whether there is any excuse for allowing the conditions of Dharavi to exist amidst the excess of Mumbai.

The divisions of wealth and poverty in our economic system are evident even in the United States, but for the most part Americans are spared the sights of poverty, as the poor are segregated into separate and distant neighborhoods. To see the effects of a global capitalist market on the villages of Dharavi is to witness a contrast of rich and poor on an entirely different scale. Yet those who live in the slums, unarguably the greatest victims, seem to take the contradiction in stride. They go about their work, tend to their children and carry on much the way of people in any community. What’s more, the vast majority of them don’t even appear to be unhappy. Perhaps the contrasts around them are too overwhelming to do anything about or perhaps they simply accept lives.  Is it that only Americans are sensitive to contrasts and contradictions, or is it just the “foreigner” in us? Here, the sight of slums next door to expensive condominiums merely reflects a fact of life.

A visit to Khajuraho challenges our concepts of divinity. While viewing the beautiful ancient temples on this site, visitors will undoubtedly come across naked and erotic images for which it is best known in the United States. Someone unprepared for these images is disoriented by sculptures of both gods and erotic scenes. Many may even find inappropriate as Americans are educated in a Western religious tradition that skirts sexuality, going to great lengths to hide the details of intercourse and the physical organs involved in the act.

I found the contrasts I observed in India confusing, chaotic and contradictory. Over time, however, I began to recognize that these perceived contrasts existed only in my mind and those of my fellow travelers. While we marveled at the cows on the road, those who drove or dodged around them didn’t seem to even notice their presence. For an American visiting India for the first time, the reaction to the cows on the road might be a good metaphor for how well they have tuned in to the charms of the country.