Circus Du India

A few days ago I attended an Indian circus. I went with a group of American students from Rhode Island I met in Vrindavana. Foolishly, I was thinking an Indian circus--considering India's seemingly lax attitude towards safety and health--would be some crazy experience of tigers juggling midgets in the lotus position or something. What I was completely forgetting was that India is an incredibly poor country with a schizophrenic personality.

The circus was a pathetic attempt of Indians trying to duplicate a western activity. All of the performers, while their acrobatic skill was certainly worth praise, were incredibly unenthusiastic and would even bicker amongst each other on stage (as was the case when one girl accidentally fell of a human pyramid). They also had an elephant (I'll save my anti-animals in circuses talk), which had a plastic cellphone advertisement slung over the elephant's back.

From just the little bit of India I've seen, there seems to be a really weird identity crisis going on in India. One minute they're traditional Indian, the next they're western. Schizophrenic personality. It's such a weird sight seeing a man riding on a cart being pulled by water buffalo for his transportation chatting on a cellphone, or Hindu devotees in their traditional robes and shaved heads whipping by on a motorcycle.

The circus, however, really brought forth what I perceived to be an uncomfortable westernization of India. It appears, to my western eyes in India, that many Indians leap at anything westernish. Anything that has to do with the west is good in their eyes. Even if they don't really quite grasp it (as was the case with the circus), it doesn't matter, because it's western. Same thing with bollywood; I saw a few bollywood movies on the plane over here (one of them being the exact same story as Mrs. Doubtfire, but Bollywood-ized) and they're really pathetic. Bollywood doesn't seem to get it and all it seems to care about it appearing "western."

I feel it's unfortunate, not that devotees shouldn't ride on motorcycles or that Indians can't have cellphones, but this weird post-colonial mentality of what I've seen many Indians possessing in Northern India. Then again, as they're walking around wearing Tommy Hilfiger jeans and really tacky "western" jackets, I'm wandering around in a traditional dhoti and chattar... who's to say which is better?

I just think it's weird.

Hari bol,
Dylan