‘ The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly.’ said Friedrich Nietzsche.
I was on a flight yesterday and a guy seated beside me, a white, pops this question - "Have you seen Slumdog millionaire?". I said "No! I have no intention of watching it!". I explained my reasons and he nodded. I drew a parallel by asking him how would Americans recieve a film if it was made showing rampaging christian crowds butchering muslims in the aftermath of Islamic terrorist attack of 911, that too with image of Jesus in the background! That sure made him feel very wrong! It's strange that villains are shown as victims and vice versa. That was just not the only reason. This question comes up often. So for the record, I have not watched the movie and will never watch it! Why?
"First they plunder us and then they film our ruins….Hats off to British ingenuity…..What is with Indians and Dogs, looks like British can't complete their phrases without mentioning Indians along with Dogs" -- a comment from Internet. INDIA WAS THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (accounting for 25% of World's GDP at that time) before the British plundered India. Read the 1908 article Why is England in India at all?" or you can read the Economic Exploitation and the Drain of Wealth during British.
The Dark Side of Slum Dog Millionaire
It was produced by a Christian Evangelist Producer Using Islam to Batter Hinduism - consider it as an extension of propoganda war against Hindus/Hinduism aiding the bigger goal of "Planting the cross in Asia in the 3rd Millenium" per Pope's plans. Slumdog is about defaming Hindus. Slumdog Millionaire: the prejudice continues?
How British Raped India
How India Became Poor.
Other reviews
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2009/01/22/on-slumdog-millionnaire-prejudices-guest-post-by-saurav-basu/
The Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric of the country. Slumdog is a recent attempt. Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practice their religion freely.
Religion, Marxism and Slumdog
WHY did a film like Slumdog Millionaire, which conveys an utterly negative image of India. slums, exploitation, poverty, corruption, anti Muslim pogroms - create so many waves in the West, pre and post Oscars? And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality?
There are several answers: When the missionaries began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent. They therefore decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows, sati . Today, these exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths, have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India's intelligentsia ( that is ordinary people like you who do not THINK! )
The Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority complex over the so called Third World in general and India in particular. Sitting in front of their television sets during prime time news, with a hefty steak on our table, they love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly flatters their ego and makes them proud of so-called "achievements". That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.
In this film, India's foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free medical aid, schooling and loans. If you see the Tamil Nadu coast post tsunami, there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one's head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals , so much for his impartiality) .
Islamic fundamentalism also ruth lessly hounds India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single act of savagery. Indian communists, in power in three states, are also hard at work to dismantle India's cultural and spiritual inheritance. And finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a failure in the West. Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.
Many of the West's India-specialists are staunchly anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate the tradition of Max Mueller, who said: “The Vedas is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low, commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from the depths of the soul"
This tradition is carried over by Indologists such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty, slums and more than anything their pet theories about - Hindu fundamentalism. Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practise their religion freely.
And finally, it is true that Indians, because they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism. Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools, such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess infinite wisdom.
Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based. In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal's mother is not killed by Hindu fanatics, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal's torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.
And finally, yes, there still exists in India a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural‚ much more than in the West as a matter of fact.
When will the West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists, more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West.
.