This is really funny, as are many of the others in the series of epic history rap battles.
Category Archives: Culture
EDITORIAL: Let Selena Gomez wear her darn bhindi
Mahanth S. Joishy is Editor of usindiamonitor.
On April 16, a young Latin American singer/actress named Selena Gomez created some waves with her live performance at the MTV movie awards- a rendition of the song “Come and Get it” featuring a prominent bindi on her face. A number of Indians and particularly Hindus were upset by this 20-year old American girl wearing the traditional female forehead accessory during a suggestive pop song and dance number. As you may know, many believe the bindi or “red dot” is supposed to be worn by married Hindu women only as a “third eye of wisdom.”
People emerged to publicly chastise the pop star and defend the honor of Indian women. A Hindu leader named Rajan Zed whined to the media, “(The bindi) is not meant to be thrown around loosely for seductive effects or as a fashion accessory aiming at mercantile greed. Selena should apologize and then she should get acquainted with the basics of world religion.”
We are going to dive into some sensitive and controversial waters here, so it is probably worth getting a few things out of the way up front. I know little to nothing about Miss Gomez, have never heard her music or watched her on film before, and I honestly never cared about her. I am certainly not a fan. But then I read about this silly controversy she caused, and decided that someone needed to forcefully and rationally defend her right to wear a bindi, even though I don’t think it looked particularly good or tasteful on her. Secondly, I am a practicing Hindu, though I have never worn it on my sleeve or proselytized about my beliefs as some do. I also don’t intend to do so here. However, my understanding of Hinduism is going to shape what I’m about to say. Finally, I have spent a great deal of time in both India and the United States, and this gives me a certain perspective on the situation as well.
Responses such as Zed’s are ABSOLUTE NONSENSE. Nobody religious or otherwise has the right to demand that one cannot wear a particular fashion accessory, demand an apology for it, or shame someone into learning about their religion, or any for that matter. I’m no stranger to bindis or what they are supposed to mean; my mother has worn one every day that I have ever known her while living in multiple countries- carrying its meaning wherever we went. So here’s why this so-called moral outrage outrages me so much:
Hinduism is meant for all. Some of the critics need to learn more about their own religion first. Hinduism is considered the world’s oldest existing organized religion, and by no accident it has some of the most liberal views on lifestyles and society. Anyone can be a Hindu. A person who knows nothing about Hinduism can be a Hindu. Even an atheist can be a Hindu- something that clearly separates it from other major religions at its core. It’s not a special, exclusive club with traditions that cannot be shared. Anyone can enter a Hindu temple anywhere. Anyone can wear a bindi, sari, dhoti, or OM symbol without needing to convert formally or getting the equivalent of a “baptism.” One could wear it for the simple reason that they think it looks cool. The only exception here is for particular advanced traditions of the swamis or brahmin priests, such as wearing the sacred thread, and this requires passing through some proverbial gates as I have done. These involve a status bestowed by others, and are not being questioned here.
Selena thinks she knows something about Hinduism, though her interview answer makes me think she might be confusing my Indians with the “other” Indians: “I think the song has that Hindu, tribal feel and I wanted to translate that,” Selena explained. “I’ve been learning about my chakra and bindis and the culture … It’s beautiful.” However much or little she knows is not the point though; she should be accepted by all Hindus without judgment or questioning of motives.
So what is the point? Unfortunately, I know all too well what all this is 
really about. Many Indians and Hindus are exceedingly insecure when it comes to their history and culture. They are deathly afraid of the onset of modern culture at home and abroad, especially because young people are choosing it over their own in droves. They are threatened by a Hispanic girl sporting it. How dare a non-Indian girl wear a bindi seductively to make money off of it!!! This controversy is really about Selena’s skin color.
Have you ever seen a Bollywood movie? Indian pop tarts make piles of money strutting around seductively every single day with various bindis on, and just as tastelessly as Miss Gomez if not more. So why single out this poor girl for it? Are we so sure all those good little brown girls know the religion? Why aren’t they being asked to apologize? This is about racism, pure and simple.
We’ve seen this movie before, folks. When Liz Hurley got marr
ied in India, a court case was opened against her by religious zealots for drinking alcohol and wearing shoes (heinous crimes, I know). The subcontinental moral majority also came out of the woodwork in full force when Gwen Stefani and Madonna decided to put on the bindi years before Selena even had her first menstrual cycle. What’s the common thread here? Yes, the prejudice extends beyond skin color; there is sexism going on too. Perhaps Hindus are a little afraid of bindi-wearing foreign women because they might be rakshasis- roughly translated as demons in female form? They are going to swoop in, steal away good Indian men and also ancient Hindu traditions!
You can’t speak for all of us. This is America. Like India, there is freedom of the press and speech in general. This also includes freedom of expression, such as wearing whatever the hell you want. By the same token, I respect the right of people to criticize Selena’s or Gwen’s little bindi experiments. But fortunately for us, there are no popes in Hinduism, no grand leader that everyone has to listen to and conform to. It’s a disparate sort of system, with millions of gods and over a billion adherents following various traditions. When I claim to speak for Hindus by saying it’s OK for Selena Gomez to wear her bindi, I can say it with just as much authority and probably more adherents than those who would denounce her for it. Keep doing it, Selena!
I look forward to a debate about this in the comments section; I’m quite certain some of you reading this would disagree. I’ll be here. If you want it, come and get it.
Indians Enter the American Comedy Scene
All I want for Christmas is to be taken seriously as a comedian and a politician too
There is a renaissance of sorts going on in American comedy for Indian and Indian-American actors. We have come a long way from the time when the only Indian characters found in American film and TV were deep-accented and exaggeratedly clownish minstrels whose entire purpose was to entertain audiences by mercilessly mocking Indian culture.
Even worse, the characters were sometimes played by white actors wearing heavy brown makeup, such as Peter Sellers in the (admittedly entertaining) 1968 film The Party. This was in form with Hollywood’s penchant in decades gone by for casting white actors into Chinese roles such as Charlie Chan or the Native American Tonto. Those days are now over, and the characters played by today’s Indian stars such as Kal Penn, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari, Russell Peters, and Jay Chadrasekhar sport American accents and mainstream western behavior completely in line with their white or black castmates. This transition says more about how America has changed than it does about the actors themselves. Read the rest of this entry
ANALYSIS: Tragedy in the Temple
courtesy The New Yorker
Mahanth S. Joishy is Editor of usindiamonitor.com
The fatal shooting of innocent people at the Sikh temple (Gurdwara) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin brought to the surface deep underlying tensions in American society. They may normally simmer below the surface, but last week we saw the worst of what can happen in modern America when latent hatred comes to a boil. The incident also brought out the best in people, as evidenced by the heroism displayed by some of the victims and the local police.
The shootout resulted in the death of gunman Wade Michael Page. With him perish hopes of ascertaining exactly what motivated his murderous mind, and whether he was sane or not. We are left to debate and conjecture, but his life does offer up some clues. We can be sure of the following: (1) It was a simple, lone act of terrorism (political killing of innocent people). (2) It was motivated by some combination of racism and religious bigotry. (3) Holmes had military training, and (4) known Ne0-Nazi leanings, including his role in a skinhead rock band.
It is early yet, and much evidence is to emerge, but below are the critical issues that will be in the news and part of political discourse in the weeks to come. Read the rest of this entry
This Picture is Worth a Million Words in Six Languages
Check out this picture I took at the Bharath Big Cinemas movie theater inside a mall in Mangalore, India in May 2012. This multiplex was showing movies in a whopping SIX LANGUAGES simultaneously: English (Avengers), Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Tulu, and Malayalam.
This is one of the things I love about South India. For thousands of years it’s been a fantastic and mostly peaceful blend of languages, cultures, and religions. Nowadays that includes American culture too. You probably noticed the Pepsi and popcorn ad right in the center and top profiling the “tickets and morning combo” to help you “wake up!”
Now that’s a breakfast of champions.
Cheerleaders and Cheer Queens of the Indian Premier League: A Controversial History
Cheerleader diplomacy!
Ready or not, cheeerleaders are now a common sight in India and a class of American import in a league of its own.
If you attend virtually any U.S. junior high school, high school, college, or professional basketball or football game, you are likely to find cheerleaders, pep bands, or marching bands in action, working hard to energize the athletes and entertain the crowds. These are a deep-rooted part of Americana, a tradition woven into the very fabric of many thousands of communities nationwide over the course of a century and half of a sports-crazed country’s history. Female cheerleaders and majorettes are sometimes known for their skimpy clothing and semi-suggestive dance moves, yet they fit snugly into the wholesome tapestry of deep-rooted American culture. Parents and parochial institutions in fact often encourage their daughters to join cheerleading squads.
Interview with Bollywood Actor Prashaant Kumar of… New York City
Captain America Lands
in Mumbai
As a New Yorker, I was pretty excited to meet Prashaant Kumar, an up-and-coming Bollywood actor who was entirely raised in the New York metro area. Prashaant was born in Booth Memorial Hospital of Flushing, Queens and lived in locales such as Forest Hills and Manhasset on Long Island while growing up. Prashaant decided to leave the United States behind for good four and a half years ago to try and make it in Mumbai’s legendary film industry. His previous role was in India’s first-ever creature-based horror film called Kaalo released in 2010, about an evil old desert-witch. The 29 year old Kumar’s next film called Issaq will be out in July.
This man’s personal story arc intrigued me for several reasons. How and why would an Indian-American actor- who was getting some acting experience Stateside, who had family and friends there- head to India to find his destiny? How does an American adjust to the pollution, traffic, chaos and craziness that is Mumbai, or the dramatic ins and outs of Bollywood life and its infamously dark side, with no contacts in the industry? My goal for this face-to-face interview was to find out these things. Read the rest of this entry
Interview with Author and Journalist Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran
Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is an award-winning global correspondent for the Economist magazine and author of the new book, “NEED, SPEED, AND GREED: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness, and Tame the World’s Most Wicked Problems” (HarperBusiness, March 2012).
The book claims to debunk the following myths:
- Invention, intellectual property rights, and cutting-edge technology are the key to innovation.
- The rise of China and India as innovation powerhouses will inevitably come at the West’s expense.
- Resource wars, be they over petroleum or fresh water, are unavoidable.
- Global trends point to a “population bomb” that will make sustainable development impossible.
- Free markets would solve even difficult global problems such as climate change if only meddling politicians kept out of the way.
- Western health firms and systems are so well financed and technologically superior that they have nothing to fear or learn from poor-world upstarts.
- Innovation is always good for society.
