India - Some reflections

My Visit to India: Preliminary reflections

By Raphael Cohen-Almagor

I spent the major part of January teaching and lecturing in India. 14 lectures. 8 cities. Dozens of meetings with colleagues and students. It was a fascinating and challenging trip.

Three cultures, with long traditions and much accumulated wisdom, have been my fascination for many years: Judaism, Chinese and Indian. These three cultures have shaped the world in which we live and have inspired thinking, creativity, scholarship, religion, art, architecture and much more. For the past decade I have been yearning to visit India and China. I was thus delighted that an opportunity presented for me to visit India.

 

Out of my comfort zone into a non-Western society, with different values and norms; different sounds, tastes and smells. Eastern art and philosophy. Different standards of hygiene and aesthetics. Different scale of poverty. Poor infrastructure. Palaces and castles. Temples and mosques. Celebration of colours. Animals on the streets and roads. Different understanding of law and order. Different appreciation of the concept of time. Different respect to promises and pledges. Generous hospitality. Attack on senses and sensibilities. Overwhelming number of people and crazy traffic that I have never seen anywhere in the world. Complete chaos.

The famous Indian hospitality, the celebration of colours, the rich culture, spirituality and beautiful places make India a special place. One cannot remain indifferent to its charm and contrasts.

The Indians I met love and appreciate the USA, appreciate Israel, have mixed feelings about the United Kingdom, and hold resentment and even hatred to Pakistan. 

India is a joy for the eyes as many people dress in colourful dresses. Group of ladies, all in colourful dresses make a lovely celebration of colours.

Time

Time is a flexible concept of India. People say: We will start at 10:00 and at 12:00 you wonder when this 10:00 will take place, if at all.

My lecture is scheduled to start at 11:00. At 10:57 my host invites me for tea. I arrive in class at 11:20. The students were sitting there, waiting. I felt very uncomfortable but it seems I was the only one who cared.

India time. Flight is scheduled to depart at 08:00. At 7:45 I am still told to sit and not to worry. The ground steward has a limited vocabulary: “Five minutes” and “Not to worry”. Which made me very worried. I wondered whether issuing a boarding pass, checking luggage and going through security check can be done in 15 minutes. If this is possible, then surely a new world record would have been set.

New world record was not set. The flight was delayed by 25 minutes. Still, not as bad as I thought the case might be. The entire process took 40 minutes.

Advantages

Rich heritage

Natural resources

Democracy

Gandhi non-violence heritage

Hard working people

Innovative minds

Hospitable and kind people

Cultural diversity

Problems

Cast system

Muslim community

Tribal community

Status of women

Free speech

Corruption

Water

Poverty

Infrastructure

Gap between rich and poor

Natural resources do not reach the people

Lack of law and order

No private space, manifested on the roads. Lack of mutual respect. Chaos.

Free Press

At Nirma University Institute of Law I shared a panel with Chief Editor of The Times of India Ajay Umat, and journalist and human rights activist Salil Tripathi. The panel was held under the apt title “Baptism by Fire: Trial of Speech, Democracy and Media in India”.

It was a fascinating and provocative free press panel, providing much food for thoughts for both students and academics. At one point, the moderator looked increasingly agitated and worried. She passed me a note saying that she is afraid of the consequences of the speech made by one of the speakers who criticized the government. Later she ordered to delete the video of the event.

Muslim Hatred

Muslims are pushed to the periphery of society. They hold very few power positions. They have negligible voice and hardly any representation.

The hatred expressed against Muslims reminded me of slogans and statements I heard in Israel against Arabs. The vitriol language, the mistrust, the damning generalisations. Disgusting. The major difference that in Israel such expressions usually come from uneducated, uncultivated and unrefined people. In India, these expressions are made by upper cast, so-called educated and refined people. Racism is racism. Ugly and appalling.

I spent much of my time in Gujarat and Rajasthan, two states that are both under the spell of Hindu ideology. Views about Muslims might be different in other parts of India.

Jews

“I admire the Jews”.

My immediate question: “Why?”

I received different answers. Because of our tradition, history, positive influence on the world. But also because “The Jews control everything: Wall Street is controlled by Jews. Media is controlled by Jews. Governments are controlled by Jews. High Teach. You control the world”.

To this my response is: “I wish”.

Ahmedabad Synagogue

In each and every city I visit throughout the world I always inquire: Is there a synagogue in the city? My hosts in Ahmedabad answered in the negative. Later I met a Jew who told me that there is one. On Friday I went to visit the synagogue and the lady who opened the gates for me insisted that I take a photo with the policeman who guards the place. I invited my student-guide to join.

I returned to the evening prayer with two of my hosts, a Muslim and a Hindu. For both of them, this was the first time they ever set foot in a synagogue. For both, it was the first time they heard and understood the word “synagogue”. My small contribution to knowledge and Jewish hospitality.

 

Israel

In Udaipur my three hosts took me to a coffee shop that is frequented by Israelis and which serves food that Israelis like. Indeed, upon arrival we met a young Israeli. I knew he was an Israeli by the third English word he uttered. I approached him in Hebrew and Eddie responded in Hebrew.

Eddie invited himself to our table, joined in our conversation, showed us pictures from his trips in India and shared card tricks. Upon departing the coffee shop, we hugged Eddie one after the other. I told my hosts: This is one of the many reasons why I love Israel.

Netanyahu Visit

I was happy that PM Netanyahu visited the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. I was invited to be there and in the following hi-tech event but could not make it. I served on the abovementioned free speech panel and later that day travelled to deliver another lecture in Baroda. The long road celebrated the visit with photos of the two PMs, Modi and Netanyahu, and flags of the two countries. Warmed my heart.

Conspiracy Theories

In India, more than anywhere else, I noticed the prominence of conspiracy theories. Many young people do not read books. They get their information from the Internet, and there are many dubious sources on the Internet. Thus people asked my opinion about all kind of nonsense. Jews control the USA. Jews are behind Donald Trump policies. Jews control Britain. Jewish government of the world. “The Elders of Zion” seems to be very much alive in India, thank you very much. Plus Holocaust denial. No evidence that the Holocaust exists. No evidence of gas in Auschwitz. There is evidence for swimming pools.

Cuisine

Indian food in India is totally different from Indian food in Britain and Israel. I asked for dishes I know. No one recognized the names. Very misleading.

Engagement Party

In Jaipur I was invited to a colourful engagement party. Met the groom. Looked for the bride. Could not find her. She is not around. In Rajasthan, engagement parties include the groom, relatives and friends. The bride is free to do shopping...

Traffic

The traffic in India is something else. Israel is notorious for its drivers and their reckless driving habits; Italy is quite bad; but compared to India, the Israeli and Italian drivers are respectful, kind and careful. In every minute I witnessed dozens of driving violations and near accidents. The Global status report on road safety 2013 estimates that more than 231,000 people are killed in road traffic crashes in India every year. Approximately half of all deaths on the country's roads are among vulnerable road users - motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists. When you see how people drive, you understand the tragedy. Just imagine a busy junction where cars and motorcycles are driven simultaneously in four different directions, ignoring traffic lights, and a truck full of policemen at the side of the road, doing nothing (well, chatting and sleeping).

Honking in India is a strong habit. Drivers honk all the time. In many rickshaws, there is a request at the back: “Please honk”. And they do.

Cows and Stray Dogs

India is the first country where I saw a staggering number of stray dogs on the streets. Strange phenomenon. I expected cows. I did not expect to see so many street dogs.

Priorities of Indian Politics

These should be:

Drinking tap water

Electricity in every home and institution

Improving infrastructure

Poverty

I wish to see candidates putting these high on their agenda.

Gem of the Month – Gandhi Ashram

My list of all-time heroes, people I admire, is short. It includes one Indian: Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi.

I was privileged to visit Gandhi Ashram, Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, a place of tranquility, peace and reflection. 

While at the Ashram, Gandhi formed a school that focused on manual labour, agriculture and literacy to promote self-sufficiency. It was from here that on 12 March 1930 Gandhi embarked on the Dandi march, 241 miles from the Ashram, in protest of the British Salt Law, which taxed Indian salt in an effort to promote sales of British salt in India. This mass awakening led to the arrest of some 60,000 freedom fighter protestors.

Gem of the Month – Taj Mahal

Visiting the Taj was one of my dreams. Taj Mahal means Crown Palace. In Hebrew, mahal means a group of tents. The Taj is certainly not a group of tents. It is a magnificent building, breath taking piece of architecture that manifests megalomania, aesthetics, ambition, foresight, creativity and imagination. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan wished the world to know just how much he loved his wife when he ordered to build this world wonder to be her, and his, resting place. The building of this mausoleum lasted twenty years (circa 1632-1652). more than 20,000 slaves from India, Persia, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, worked to make this world wonder come true. Many paid with their lives. The result is extraordinary.

Discrimination against tourists is staggering. I paid Rs1000. My hosts paid Rs40 each. This is unjust. I have visited many countries around the world. It is the first time I witness such tourist discrimination.