I’m posting this from the tarmac of the airport in Delhi (I no more enjoy calling it “Indira Gandhi International Airport” than I would willingly refer to National Airport in Washington, D.C. “Ronald Reagan Airport”), on my way to the 7th Annual International AIDS Conference. India is playing host to this year’s gathering of leading scientists, doctors, and NGOs working on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the venue for the conference is Varanasi.
I am looking forward to the conference, at which I will be representing an innovative biotechnology project that provides unique sample preservation tools to enable the diagnosing HIV infection through analysis of DNA. Still, I am dreading being back in Varanasi. Rather than recount my reasons, let me attach the text of an email I sent following my previous visit in 2002.
For those of you who do not already know, Varanasi is the holiest city in Hinduism, sitting on the banks of the sacred, if toxic, river Ganga. You may know it by its former name, Benares. According to the Vedas, one who dies in Varanasi will attain instant moksha, automatically escaping the cycle of death and rebirth (or is it birth and redeath?). As a result, the city is awash with the aged and dying, as well as Sadhus, hippies, and lesser pilgrims.
Varanasi
Leaving Varanasi was not easy – an arduous 45 minutes to go the 17 km. to catch our onward train from the neighboring one-dog town of Mughal Sarai – but very satisfying. Varanasi was such a crushing disappointment, the dingy waiting room of the Mughal Surai station seemed like paradise, with gecko races along the walls as added entertainment. When our train finally arrived, it was like salvation, freeing our spirits much as the funeral pyres at the Varanasi ghats free the souls of the dead.
Once aboard, I was able to reflect on the Varanasi experience with a bit more equanimity than one can muster while they are in the midst of the heat, pandemonium, and filth.
Varanasi is singular, and can accurately be described in superlatives. It is the holiest of sites, inarguably one of the most culturally significant places in human history. Its dramatic ghats flanking the sweeping Ganges, filled with pilgrims and priests, are supremely atmospheric. The countless sick and the aged who have come to die in Varanasi, and its incessantly burning funeral pyres give death a feeling of immediacy, familiarity, and tolerability that I, for one, simply have never experienced before.
But it is also the filthiest place I have ever been. It takes extreme care to get from one end of the train platform to the other, upon arrival, without stepping in human excrement; and this is par for the course on the city streets and on the ghats, as well. Trash is to Varanasi as sand is to the desert – it drifts into dunes here and there, to be rummaged by pigs or cattle or dogs; but it is ubiquitous, filling every void, finding every corner, touching everything. Then there are the diesel fumes, the incessant noise, the breezeless heat, and the nauseating stench. Against this backdrop, we, as foreigners, are also treated to the aggressive touts, drivers, rickshaw wallahs, and shop keepers who are constantly in our faces, with the standard opening line, “Hello, which country?” That line ceased to sound like a friendly greeting long ago.
The problem of Varanasi is not simply that it is horrible, although its perfect horribleness is problem enough. My disillusionment stems from the fact that this, of all cities in India, should be well cared for. How is it possible that a place that is so venerated could be so utterly defiled?
As upsetting as the day had been, I would have felt I’d missed out on something important had we not gone. I’d have been wrong, of course; and Yoo-Mi is quick to point this out.
It is most unfortunate that you choose to see only the superficial aspects of Varanasi, rather than also considering the intense spiritual nature of the place. It’s as if you see, and are disgusted by, a leper, without talking to the person or seeing into the heart of the man. Varanasi is not Seattle, with an antiseptic Starbucks at each corner; it is so much more. Varanasi certainly has civic problems that must be addressed. However, to give the impression that it is ONLY a garbage dump (or a shithole, as you call it)reflects an all too common and typical Western- tourist -superficiality. Perhaps if you had actually spent some time talking to the pilgrims on the banks of the Ganges, your impression might have risen out of the tour bus mentality.
You should return there and ask the devout why they journey there from all over India.
James:
It is most unfortunate that you read my comments only superficially (if I may paraphrase your condescension), and overlooked the point I make quite explicitly:
My essay says: Varanasi is in bad shape, and that is a crime against cultural history. To disagree with my thesis is to argue that the filth of Varanasi is somehow appropriate to its role in Indian culture. I cannot imagine anyone – even the most hate-filled anti-Hindu – staking out that claim. I don’t think you are taking this view. Rather, you seem to say the spiritualism of Varanasi is more important (in some way you do not define) than its physical debasement. Maybe you are right; but spiritual merit is something I’m not well qualified to assess.
I readily concede that I fail to see the spirituality so many others find in India. I have never experienced a more ego-driven, me-first culture anywhere in the world – although it manifests somewhat differently than in the appallingly ego-driven, me-first culture of, say, America. People in India talk a good spiritual game, of course, quoting aphorism after aphorism like so-much bad poetry. But then, they’ve had five thousand years to get their lines down. How many of these spiritual poseurs even attempt to live by the principles they espouse, much less actually live by them? Few; and the burgeoning swami-ji profession appears largely a con-game to my eye.
India, of course, is also home to hundreds of millions of deeply religious people – from these ranks come the pilgrims on the banks of the Ganga, to whom you refer. But their mindless superstitions and blind ritualism do not impress me as a worthy manifestation of the complex and brilliant philosophy reflected in the Vedic tradition.
To be blunt about it, I see spirituality in India as 90% well-meaning small-mindedness, 9% self-delusion or outright fraud, and perhaps one-percent (or less) of something authentic, meaningful, and impressive. As for this final one-percent: it is something I take on faith, rather than anything I feel capable of judging for myself.
Let me be quite clear: I have a strong anti-religious bias. Still, the one thing I loathe more than religion is religious intolerance. It is this latter disposition, or something quite akin to it, that motivates my outrage about the pathetic condition in which Varanasi is maintained. I believe that the defiling of Vananasi is tragic precisely because it is one of the world’s most important religious sites. This is no way to treat such an important symbol of cultural achievement.
You denounce my essay as the “superficial” views of a “tourist”, who longs for “Seattle, with its antiseptic Starbucks at each corner.” I do not think this is a fair or honest reading of my ideas. I am neither a tourist in India (although I suppose I was at the time the essay was first written), nor am I the germ-o-phobic Westerner you suppose me to be (I am quite comfortable sorting trash with ragpickers, for example). You may disfavor my observations, and the in-your-face editorial strategy I employ for making them, but I bridle at the notion that they are superficial. Varanasi is not superficially a shit-hole; it is a through-and-through shit-hole. And that is a profound tragedy, not a superficial one.
My mother is the first to acknowledge that her kids are not perfect and is, as most mothers are, the first to let us know it. However, when someone out of the “fold” makes a negative comment about one of her kids – mother bear comes out of the bushes and defends at all costs. Even when the attacker was totally on target. It doesn’t matter what was said, how observant and factual the charge, you do not love her children and cannot even pretend to know the inner workings of their minds the way that she does. You have not seen their determination when they took their first step, the pain YOU felt when they had their first fall, the pride you felt when they picked themselves up. If someone implies that her kid is a lost cause or not all they should be, the memories of those triumphant attempts or dizzying defeats comes rushing back and there is still the hope that all will be well. And the next thing a mother does is to get back home and address these issues with the kid, hoping to make a dent in their thick skull.
The same can be said of the love one has for their country. No matter how much chaos there is, no matter how many negatives one can come up with from observing general life somewhere, there are still those that do not like someone from another place attacking their home. The assumption is that you cannot even pretend to know the beauty of this place unless you have it imbedded in your soul, know it left and right, love it to the core.
You are an observer of the world and your blog is a place for you (among other things) to voice your opinions, show your concern, and maybe even wake up a few people and remind them that home needs to be cared for continually and not just accepted “as is.” People don’t have to like what you say, don’t have to agree with it, don’t even have to read it, but if they are reading it, maybe in the quietness of their home they will think about what you’ve said and wake up to the fact that changes should be made, that homes need maintenance, and maybe tomorrow when they are walking down the street, they’ll throw that dreaded plastic cup laying on the curb in the garbage can two feet away. Whether it is in India or America.
I’m not defending you, you do that pretty well all by yourself, but I have read a number of these “how dare you” type replies and I just wanted to say that in the end, it’s the “I dare YOUs” that get people thinking. And that’s a good thing. Thanks.
I was looking for pictures of Varanasi and came across your website. I read your essay because it caught my attention for the worse possible reason: “Varanasi: Shit-Hole of the Gods”. Do you have any idea on how many people are you deeply offending? I have no idea on why do you travel. For me the point is to learn, observe, grow. There is nothing constructive about your comments, your “defence” to Jame’s reply is pathetic. I grew up in the immaculate western world, spent 4.5 months in India (including Varanasi) and would go back at any time. There is more than garbage. Read again Jame’s answer and return.
Miguel:
To answer your question: I cannot quantify the number of people I am offending. But I can certainly describe them. They are generally well-meaning spiritual-seekers or those, like you, interested in “personal growth,” whatever that means. Typically, their desire to embrace the exotic and to indulge themselves in superficial empathy far outpaces their intellectual capabilities and causes them to ignore the things that fail to conform with their pollyanna preconceptions. Almost always, their habitual political correctness sublimates their honesty. And one more thing: they need to learn how to read.
I love the give-and-take of ideas about the things I write. But to have sanctimonious lightweights like you and James – who are too lazy or too challenged to read and comprehend my actual words – react to the risible language rather than address the ideas that I have advocated is really a waste of blog space.
For anyone else who needs the Cliff Notes version of the essay, here’s the punch-line: I am saddened by the shit and trash of Varanasi precisely because the place is culturally and historically important. It is not that I require Swiss cleanliness to feel comfortable; I don’t.
It is a matter of objective verity that Varanasi is a pig-sty, a garbage dump masquerading as a city. You and James lamely argue that it is not a shit-hole, as I delicately put it, because there is more going on there than people crapping and throwing their garbage in the streets and on the ghats. You fail to grasp what any child knows: things can have more than one true characteristic. James is condescending and wrong in his assumptions about my life and lifestyle. You are self-righteous and inarticulate. Varanasi is a shit-hole and a place of profound cultural significance.
James,
It is very easy to say about anything, but it is very hard to make a difference. The situation of solid waste management may be bad but for that reason you can not say “I see spirituality in India as 90% well-meaning small-mindedness, 9% self-delusion or outright fraud”. Before coming to any conclusion, have u ever seen positive points of India. There are very beautiful places in India where you might not have visited. Holding one bad point in hand, it’s not good to blame any country’s situation this way.
If you really had to do something for the pathetic situation in varansi, you would have approached the civic authorities & had recommended your views to them. The same had to be highlighted in your article Try to be fact-finder rather than fault-finder.
My suggestion to you is visit India again & see some very beautiful places. I promise you that it will definitely help you to change your mindset towards India.
- Ms. Shraddha
National Solid Waste Association of India
Ms. Shraddha:
You urge me to be a fact-finder, rather than a fault-finder. I suspect you make this distinction only because I’m picking on Varanasi, a place that should be treated with the utmost respect, one would think, given its cultural significance. My findings may be stated provocatively, but they are reasonably objective and easily distinguished from my opinions (equally provocative). I’m afraid I find milquetoast writing pretty dull, and particularly ineffective to energize people about real problems, like garbage in a purportedly holy city.
You also take me to task for not stepping-up to try to make a difference in Varanasi. We all pick our battles; and Varanasi is certainly not mine. One would think that one-or-more of the 800+ million Hindus, who profess to revere the place, would take it on.
And do you really think the “civic authorities” of Varanasi really need to be told that they have a garbage problem? Do the eskimos need to have someone point out that they live in snow? Have I for once under-estimated the ineptitude of Indian bureaucrats and the corruption of Indian politicians?
I have a great plan. If you really think the folks in Varanasi need their garbage problem called to their attention, why the hell doesn’t your National Solid Waste Association of India do it? You’ll probably be paid a fine salary for writing the letter.
You make the ugly insinuation that I have done nothing to improve India, but merely criticize. Obviously you haven’t read more deeply into my blog. I write extensively about garbage (a subject which I know interests you), have worked with ragpickers in several parts of India, and work extensively with Shuddham, an NGO that is pioneering solid waste solutions in Pondicherry, where I live. You can find some of my pieces on garbage by clicking the “Environment” category on my blog (or simply click here).
I am not, as you suggest, a one-time tourist visitor to India. And everyday I am here, I am working to make it a better place. Varanasi, however, is on its own.
MBJ
p.s. My name is Mark. James is the other idiot.
p.p.s. I was actually being (unusually) diplomatic about spiritualism in India. While it is, indeed, my true feeling that genuine spirituality runs about 1%, I think I was being far too generous on the 90:9 split between well-meaning small-mindedness and self-delusion or outright fraud. I think the Indian littering habit is a perfect litmus test; but if you want others, I certainly have them.
Thanks for having the honesty to state the facts. Miguel asks how many people are you offending? If the truth offends so be it. I would rather hear an offensive truth, than a beautiful lie.
James said if only you had seen the pilgrimage to the Ghanges you would see the beauty of the area. Is this the same pilgrimage the BBC filmed where feces were floating by due to the many cities that dump raw sewage into it upstream of the pilgrim areas? Where rotting bodies are dumped by those to poor to afford cremation first?
Trash everywhere, but somehow its suppose to be a spiritual place? The locals don’t respect the land, but western tourists think its nirvana.
Don’t worry if you offend the ignorant masses. They will never be swayed by rational discussion or facts.
Keep on preaching the facts my brother!
BTW seeing as many Indians use cow shit and urine as sacred medicine known as Panchgavya http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchgavya , maybe they wouldnt feel insulted being called a shithole.
Ouch, Winston!
No one loves a good provocation more than me. After all, I was the one who dared to call Varanasi a shit-hole in the first place.
But this is a bit whacked, don’t you think?
And just to be clear on my message: I am calling Varanasi a shit-hole (and I will admit to having said the same of Kolkata). I am not calling “them” a shit-hole, whatever-the-hell you mean by that incoherent remark. I have great affection for India and for an extremely large number of the people I’ve met there. I am not shy about dishing-out insults, where merited; but I like to do with some degree of precision.
MBJ
The root causes of the desperation, rampant poverty, and environmental disasters in India lie in its absolute lack of any programs to address their overpopulation. Their views towards women and their caste system also play a role. The root of this lies in their religion. Until this is addressed there is no hope.
wo wo wo…. Mr Winston….. desperation, rampant poverty, and environmental disasters in India has nothing to do with religion you idiot. This shows you know nothing about Hinduism (oldest civilization on the face of earth). Reading regular articles from masala newspapers and magazines won’t give you any knowledge about how this religion request you to treat everyone.
Just like POPE of Christians doctored so many things taught by Christ, many idiot leaders in India also changed things for their vested interests and that is what you know as reality. Do some reading mate and you’ll come across the reality.
Anyway… you guys will never understand…. your so called religion is only 1900 years old and that too adulterated by many devils like POPE.
India is in such condition today due to their politicians and bureaucracy they learned from Britishers.
If Indian culture is so bad, why do you westerners are embracing YOGA, herbal and ayurved.
Nilesh:
I’ll not defend Winston in all respects, but will comment on his condemnation of Indian religion for contributing to misogyny and casteism.
You and I both assume the religion to which Winston refers is Hinduism; but the interesting thing is: it may not really matter. Sadly, there is astonishing syncretism among major religions in India when it comes to promulgating these particular social evils.
Hinduism has certainly never been lacking its own misogynistic elements. But there is no question that, in many regions, Hindu culture was quite quick to adopt variants of the Islamic practices of purdah following the Mughal invasion.
Likewise, the disgusting concept of caste, though Vedic in origin, has been adopted with ferocious, if somewhat less visible vigor within Indian Islam and Indian Christianity, as the “elite” converts to those religions eschew notions of egalitarianism.
So you are right on this point: religious norms and rituals change over time. Ultimately, the moral culpability lies not only with those having authority within a particular religious orthodoxy, but with the followers themselves, who unthinkingly sublimate their own ethics to the prescriptions of the faith. This is the principal evil of religion, though subtle and grossly underappreciated. Those who conduct themselves well because they simply follow religious teachings, without applying their own ethical judgment, are not, in my view, impressive moral agents. Those who follow pernicious religious dictates are given a dangerous absolution for immoral behavior within their specific cultural context. In the best-case scenario, religion yields well-behaved sheep; in the worst, it produces sanctimonious, socially acceptable fiends.
Religion may play a somewhat harmless role in supplying people with comforting metaphysical fairy tales; but its prescription of normative behavior is insidious.
MBJ
MBJ… you are comments definitely are provoking may be they ca also be caled direct insult. However none of the guys who speak with prode about the so caled ancient religion and sounding very offended stop for a moment and think about the situation today. Applying rational thoughts in opposition to ancient ( read twisted ) religios beliefs is something you can least expect from Indians. And one more thing to note is that all the so called patriots only choose to follow the rules of religion/culture to an extent of what suits them; sheer hypocrites.
With bulging population and self centered attitude it is time to lay the “false pride” of religion to rest; it does no good to alleviate the suffering of a comman man.
My view would be take a moment and think why someone made such a nasty comment about varnasi. Think about is this picture what it conveys to a tourist. Think of the behaviour of the people surrounding you before you go to defend and start attacking the person who commented against you, your religion or your land. The biggest mistake anyone can proabably commit is to think they are always right and to think that goverment is responsible for providing everything.
OPEN YOUR EYES GOD IS IN THE SHIT TOO
Wow, Bob! Thanks for that piece of wisdom. Who knew! What is god doing in there? You’d think god could afford a condo, at least.
I’m afraid my grasp of theology isn’t quite as sure as perhaps it might be. I get the whole omnipresence-thing; but I’ve never been able to understand why the notion of god was somehow essential to it.
Maybe you didn’t mean to say that god “is in the shit”, but that “god is the shit!” You know: the whole hipster lingua. Bad is good. Thin is fat, or phat, or whatever. We used to say “hot shit” to denote a super-cool something or someone. But the phrase has transformed since my (bygone) era.
This interpretation of your comment seems to make sense. It puts you well within the mainstream theistic traditions. Those who are into the whole god-thing tend to be pretty impressed with their invisible friend. Praise the lord, and all that. And, if you follow one of the inane traditions which believes that god has some kind of stake or interest in your particular life, then I guess you might say that god thinks you are the shit too. Or wants you to be shittier. Or whatever.
I guess my grip on hipster-talk isn’t so great either.
Cheers,
MBJ
Spiritual beliefs and devotional traditions are part and parcel of a civilization, no matter which civilization we pick. These rituals are sometimes signified by some geographical feature and /or art and architectural heritage. These physcial manifestations of spiritual and devotional belief systems are created by ruling bodies, patronage of elites, by communal and individual inspirations. The traditions and spiritual aspects don’t change, but dynamics, demography of the population change, the governing bodies change. When these centuries old rituals along with their geographical package enter the modern times, with its population outbursts and environmental issues, it is not the common man who will think where to throw his garbage… it is thrown on the street if there is not a place assigned and cleaned up regularly. It is up to the ruling junta to sustain that built environment and give due respect to these rituals that are tied and dyed into the souls of the beleivers…those who come to places like Varanasi to find solace and peace from their own set of problems.
It is a serious injustice to the culture, belief system, heritage of a country when the governments donot think of the common man and donot create any sustainable infrastructure to enhance the serenity of such rituals and support such profound spiritual journeys within their country.
More the governments dodnot give a shit (pun intended) more the shithole fills up. VERY SAD :(
Yeah. India is a shithole all right. I’m a real Indian waiting to get the hell out of this country at the first available opportunity.
I have been to India, spent four months there and have visited everywhere from the Himalayas to the backwaters of Kerala and it seems the problem in India (with trash, poverty, caste system, the list goes on….)resides wherever Hinduism and Islam are concentrated. I went to Ladakh, which is Buddhist, and it was one of the most beautiful (and clean) places I had ever seen. I went to Kerala, which is very much Christian,and it was very clean, modernized, and actually holds the honor of having the highest literacy and education rate in the country. Most of INDIA, however, is a shithole. Places that could be beautiful are ruined by its people. They claim to revere the cow but the cows on the street look malnourished and eat some of the trash on the street. Also, the lack of sanitation that goes along with using their hands as toilet paper needs to go also. Its just plain filthy. Every Indian in some economic position i met treated those below him or her like shit. One fucking Brahman asked me “why did you come to India to volunteer, we don’t need your help” Well, she wasnt doing it, I was, an American. I spent some of my time cleaning up the heaps of garbage on the street but the locals didnt follow my example. I saw Indians throwing plastic bottles on the ground at a monument like the Taj Mahal. Some cities I visited, like Chennai, didnt have a single visible nice place anywhere. The whole city was a pile of shit.
Hi David,
Much of what you’ve seen in India is undeniable, but I have a few nits to pick: Your line about “Indians using their hands as toilet paper” is unwarranted. It’s the washing of the hands after that matters and I think Indians are probably better about that than many Americans.
Also, Kerala happens to be majority Hindu, so it is just as likely that the high level of education, the fact that it is a tourist destination, and the community government can take credit for it being relatively cleaner than other places. As for Ladakh – it’s remote and hard to get stuff there (and fewer people), so naturally there is less to throw around.
I’m sorry to hear you had such a bitter experience in India, though. It can be an aggravating country, and people are slow to change. But for those very reasons, the change you can effect is so much more powerful and rewarding.
Look again. There are lots of people doing remarkable things for others, often at great personal cost. Talk to some kids – you’ll be amazed at how idealistic and eager they are to improve their communities. They’re already doing it and would be eager for some encouragement and guidance.
Don’t give up on us just yet.
Cheers!
Smita
Smita, I agree with you on the toilet paper thing, I just combine the best of both worlds and use water, soap, and toilet paper (dont mean to get into details). I just think that it is a little more sanitary to put a barrier between your hand and waste, especially when it can get in places (like your fingernails) that wont get clean and could spread infection. Dont get me wrong, there is still something about India that draws me, I do love the food. I spent 2 and a half months volunteering which revealed to me much more of the country’s problems then I would have seen as a tourist. But why is a place like Agra, the most touristy destination in India, one of the worst? I forgot to mention that Rajasthan was also nice and Chandigarh was somewhat put together ( I have a friend who’s family I visited there). Yes I know Ladakh is remote but I was in Madhya Pradesh, which is also very remote, and the same cannot be said ( wonderful wildlife and temples though). Everyone I seemed to meet from Kerala was Christian with all my Malayali friends in America also Christian. However, I have been all over the world and have been to places like Africa, which are supposedly poorer than India, but the poor are clean and places visited by tourists are given good attention.
Hi David,
I like the best-of-both-worlds approach too, but imagine all the trees it would take to provide TP for all of India’s 1 billion + people. :) (Besides, since paper is easily permeated by water and therefore germs, it’s not really much of a barrier and may lead to less assiduous hand-washing if people think otherwise.)
But seriously, your point about the dirtiness of India is totally valid. Forgive me for leaning on a hackneyed and dubious analogy, but I think it is a perfect case of the frog-in-boiling water concept, i.e. if you drop a frog in hot water it will jump out but if you heat the water very, very slowly, it won’t notice.
When I was a kid in a small village in Gujarat (not that long ago) we had lots of open space and very little that was not bio-degradable. My family was particular about cleanliness – clothes were washed every day, the entire yard was swept each morning, the house was swept and mopped multiple times.
But there were no garbage collection services (except for the stray dogs and cows) so people would put leftover food (no fridges either) out for the animals. My aunts would sweep the dust out of the homes and deposit it in the big dusty lane beyond our gates. Any plastic bags that made their way to us were carefully washed and put away for future use. If you were out and bought pakoras or some other snack, you got them in a small piece of newspaper. If you dropped that on the ground it would wash away with the next rains or be eaten by a cow.
For big functions, such as weddings, the guests were served on plates and bowls made of leaves stitched together, which would first be cleaned of food by stray animals and then burned. My cousin and I would walk across the village every morning and evening with a steel container to get milk from the cowherd community. (I remember watching children walking behind the animals collecting the dung in baskets so it could be dried and used as fuel.)
Now most people use gas stoves to cook their food and milk is delivered to villages by truck in small plastic bags. Big parties are catered, and Styrofoam and plastic and paper are replacing clay, glass, steel, and leaves. Plastic bags are second in ubiquity only to my biggest peeve: the little sachets of “pan masala” that now litter the paths of even the most remote parts of India.
As both the concentration of people and the amount of non-degradable increased somewhat gradually, most people didn’t see the need to adjust their behavior. So they still swept their houses clean every day and dumped the garbage just outside their gates, except now, along with dust and leaves and straw it includes plastic and foil. In a village of a hundred people, they may still have been able to get away with that. But now a couple of thousand people live in that same area, exacerbating the problem exponentially.
It’s starting to change a little. There is a sweeper who goes through the village each morning collecting garbage and sweeping the lane, but unfortunately that only encourages people to continue littering because they know someone will eventually remove it. People still see their responsibilities for sanitation as ending at their front gate. When I stopped my 20-year-old nephew for throwing a bag out of the car window, he responded with a riddle: “A poor man throws it away, a rich man keeps it in his pocket. Who is better?” The “it” is snot.
Ultimately it comes down to mindset. Those of us who have lived abroad where littering is seen as a social offense cringe at the thought of dropping even the smallest scrap of paper on the ground. The folks in Kerala have no doubt imbibed that inhibition from all the Christian churches and because so many of them live and work abroad. So it obviously can be learned.
I do wonder, though, how much of it is cultural. Americans have a far more active sense of civic responsibility, as demonstrated by the wonderful public university systems as well as the ordinances that dictate what kind of trees you can plant in your front yard and what color you can paint your house. I’m curious to see whether simply raising awareness can create a similar sense of responsibility among Indians in India, or if it will take a deeper “cultural revolution.”
Cheers!
Smita
I really hate to interlope in the conversation between Smita and David about personal and public hygiene in India — the former of which is fetishistic and the latter more of a rumor than an accomplished fact — but I think Smita concedes too much when she characterizes toilet paper and a good post-wipe hand washing “the best of both worlds when it comes to cleaning one’s ass.
No argument from me — or hopefully anyone else — on the hand-washing thing.
Frankly, I think the use of toilet paper is a wholly unsatisfactory after-shit procedure, both from the standpoint of unjustified resource consumption and hygienic efficiency. The water-based approach leaves me feeling April fresh and none the worse for wear. I do, however, favor the European bidet, Jetsons-like Japanese car-wash-for-the-ass toilet automations, or simple hose-like butt-sprayer to the try-to-clean-your-ass-with-a-spoutless-cup-of-water approach, which requires a practiced deftness not unlike learning to eat with chopsticks.
This topic probably deserves a thread of its own. Or not.
Cheers,
MBJ
No, silly. “Best of both worlds” refers to wipe as well as wash (and then wash hands). Despite all my years in America, I’ve never been able to do without the “wash” component. In fact, even the babies in our family get their bottoms cleaned with wet wipes and are then hauled onto the pot for a good wash.
(And if this is all too scatological for you, you may want to reconsider the use of “shit hole” in future post titles.)
As for the rest, I think we’re unanimous in acknowledging that “public hygiene” is still an oxymoron in India. But you’ve not responded to my question: Is there something unique in the American character that has made people public spirited and civic minded or is it just something that comes with education, awareness, and prosperity. In other words, is there any hope for us poor Indians?
Smita
Smita:
I think David might do a better job tapping into the American zeitgeist than I can. After watching the utterly exotic and unfathomable Sarah Palin and being dumbstruck to hear that Americans “relate to her”, I’m not so sure about my instincts. But here’s how I explain the differential between public hygiene in America and India: shame.
People forget that, as recently as the 1970s, America was quite the litter-box. Perhaps the level of trash in the streets and open-spaces was not quite on a par with today’s India, but that was before the ubiquity of plastic carry bags and, after all, India accommodates a billion people in approximately one-third the space. Grass roots environmentalism found its legs in the late 1960s; and shame was its tool of choice.
Let’s face it: littering and otherwise defiling the shared environment is immoral in some fundamental and non-relativistic way. There is no one on the planet who would defend the practice — or could. With such an unambiguously evil target, it wasn’t hard to make people feel badly about poor public hygiene.
The approach was epitomized by the famous “Crying Indian” television commercial, which debuted on the second annual Earth Day celebration in April of 1971.
Can the same transformation take place in India? If so, my guess is that shame will not be the motivation-of-choice. Indians are far too busy feeling shame over a myriad of other things — mostly senseless, like the fact that their perfectly happy daughters are not married off to some moronic, abusive, and otherwise useless man — to spare any remorse for defiling public spaces. I think national pride is a far better bet. Indians do jingoism exceptionally well.
Cheers,
MBJ
Smita, I think that America isnt too much different than India than many people think, and while the population and poverty may be a challenge to reaching the goal I dont think it makes it impossible. I am not sure who mentioned the US being “dirty” in the 70’s, but I cant vouch for that since I was born in 1985 and am 23 years old (Although I think Detroit is a shit hole). Anyway, poverty doesn’t mean one has to be dirty. I currently live in Bangkok, Thailand and while there are many poor people here, the country is amazingly clean and put together. The same can be said for East Africa and South America, other “poor” places I have visited. Personally, I havent noticed a population density less than India, even when I visited the rural areas. Now, just to let everyone know here, I went “Indian” while I was there and used the bathrooms like the locals, maybe I wasnt doing it right but not many people were up to elaborating the idea for me.
In terms of the litter toilet paper would produce, I am not so sure. I think the modern world clash with India that produces the already existing problem is a far larger threat. Plastic bottles and unnecessary packaging is creating much of the filth. Perhaps India should rethink their use of such items. Older Indians told me that years ago, India didnt have the same trash problem because most of the poor didnt produce heaps of trash, everything they consumed decomposed rather fast. God only knows whats going to happen with air pollution now that Tata has introduced the Nano.
I do think Indian homes are very spotless, but many behave like I did as a young teenager where I would “clean” my room, but really just throw my trash in the closet.
I think the modernity factor is a serious contributor, with the countries new found economic growth being too much of a shock. The United States grew over a very long period of time. I havnt been to China, but I have heard their country is similar to India with the trash problem. India also has great systems of education dont forget, IIT is one of the best engineering schools in the world. America has a great university system, one of the best in the world, but our primary and secondary systems are shit. I attended private school almost all my life as a result.
I think much of the hygiene problem has to start with the eradication of the “caste system”. The key foundation of America’s success is that a poor child can grow to be successful, if he or she works for it. That isnt the case in India. Many of my poorer friends while I was there, however much I got to know them, would never tell me their last name because they know that is an indication of their caste. My upper class friends seemed like they were trying to be too western in their appearance and movement but didnt display the mentality. Wearing name brand jeans and carrying an Ipod is fine, but treat your neighbor well, even if he doesnt make the same amount of money or if his skin is darker. On the other hand, they treated me like one of their own. Also, the north – South hatred has to go as well. The Aryans need to stop looking down on the Dravidians and vice versa.
David:
Thanks for the thoughtful commentary.
I’m not sure what to make of your remark that America and India are not so different. The observation is a little to broad for me to wrap my head around. I live half of each year in India and half in North America and, if I can respond with the same generality as your statement, I’d say they couldn’t be more different. Sure, people are people the world over, with the same brilliance, ingenuity, innate morality, aspirations, stupidity, greed, and venality. But things just manifest differently in the two places. These are legacies of history, geography, and culture that cannot be effaced by a few decades of modernity. The world may be homogenizing rapidly, but not that rapidly.
The implication that poor public hygiene is the exclusive and necessary product of poverty is a straw-man of your own making. India’s wealthy are among its worst offenders. While it is true that poverty puts constraints on the ability of people to handle trash and human waste in an appropriate way, the overall dysfunction of public hygiene systems in India, throughout the entire social spectrum, means that the poor really have no opportunity to rise above their handicap, even if they had the awareness and desire.
You may or may not have seen my essay Garbage. Shit!, which, among other things, compares the cleanliness and beauty of Lahore to the filth of Amritsar, which sit equidistant across the India – Pakistan border. To me, it shows that the inclination to better or more neglectful public hygiene is a matter of nurture, not nature. After all, India and Pakistan are the perfect twins-separated-at-birth experiment so favored by behavioral psychologists.
As for the caste system, we can agree that it is ubiquitous and hideous, but will have to disagree about the prevalence of its role in inhibiting India from moving toward a healthier regime of public cleanliness and overall successful development. While pernicious casteism persists, I think that economic status, which is increasingly independent of caste factors, is the principal driver of the poor direction India is headed. I think you concede this very point when you begin by talking about “caste” and wind up speaking of “class”. Perhaps this isn’t a distinction you intended to make; but it is certainly one I draw. A good analogy might be with Tokugawa era Japan, in which the strictures of the Confucian social hierarchy gave way to the new economic realities of the peace-time, mercantile economy.
Thanks again for your perspective.
MBJ
David and Mark:
I enjoyed reading your views. They seem to highlight the fact that this problem is the child of many parents (1 billion or so).
But I’m sticking to the boiling frog theory. Except that I don’t believe the frog will allow itself to get boiled alive, though it might let the water get unbearably hot before finally trying to get out. So I’ll wager that in another 10 years India will be very much cleaner – we, too, will soon be piling our garbage high on ships and trying to pay off some poorer country to take it. (Though being Indians, I fear we are as likely to dump it in the ocean if we think no one is looking.)
My other theory is that as India strives to emulate America, the US is becoming ever more like India. Thousands dying in a single storm, politician bought and sold on the open market, regulatory agencies unable to regulate for lack of resources and fear of political pressure are just some of the most obvious examples.
Sarah Palin may be the next one. Forty-some years ago, cynical Indian politicians lifted a young women into the spotlight because they thought she would be charismatic vote magnet while they held the reins of power. Indira Gandhi sure showed them. If we end up with Sarah Palin as president within the next four years, I’ll consider my theory vindicated.
Cheers!
-s
Smita:
Ten years is an eternity in today’s world. If India does not reverse its downward spiral with respect to public hygiene by then, the subcontinent will probably not support one human life, much less a billion of them.
The big difference between Indira Gandhi and Sarah Palin is that Governor Palin comes by her scary ideas honestly; that is, through ignorance and lack of big-league intellect — much like George W. Bush. No one would claim that Indira Gandhi was stupid, only that she was evil. Which is the more dangerous? Hard to say.
MBJ
(Though being Indians, I fear we are as likely to dump it in the ocean if we think no one is looking.)
Smita,
You’re being too charitable to the first-world “developed” countries with that comment. :)
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html
I remember reading about a waste-filled barge (from the US or France, I forget) that was simply dumped into the ocean by some unscrupulous owners when they couldn’t find any takers for them. Another recollection is reading in Reader’s Digest about a scandal in Europe 2 decades ago or so where radioactive nuclear waste was dumped in the ocean.
So, dumping in the ocean is not unique to Indians alone – there’s precedence, and after all, that’s what developed countries do. ;)
Wow, Amit!
That’s an amazing article. Curtis Ebbesmeyer’s description blew my mind: ‘”It moves around like a big animal without a leash.” When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. “The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic.”‘
And you’re right. Indians have only been following the trail carved out by the “developed” countries. The plastic bottles and unnecessary packaging that David mentions are certainly derived from western influences.
The funny thing about most Indians is that peer pressure is probably the most powerful motivating factor in our lives, but despite the fact that the risk of social disgrace is omnipresent (or perhaps because of it), Indians are extremely ready to flout the rules if they think they can do it without being caught. It’s a funny combination.
Thanks for the reality check!
Smita
p.s. MBJ: I imagine IG was every bit the wide-eyed “must…not…blink…” ingenue that Ms. Palin now portrays. The dreams she had for the country must have been quite lofty. I imagine struggling for survival against manipulative, cynical, sexist men (and the profoundly corrupting influence of the power she managed to snatch from them) is what led to her ultimately despicable actions.
really enjoyed reading this post and the discussions that followed. someone had mentioned to me that during the British occupation, defiling public places by the “common man” was a sign of protest…meaning that it belonged to the raj and hence not to be respected. this then allegedly remains as a bad hangover into the present day. i personally don’t know what to make of that assertion. however if it were true, then mbj’s comment that indians respond to jingoism could be used to move things in the right direction.
regarding ms. palin – she scares the bejeebers out of me! a real picasso moment in the making if she gets elected. get the tp and the high tech japanese jet sprayer and the fire hose. we are going to need them all!
rotfl, Jai!
A shit in?
I’ve got my pink plastic “mugga” on the ready and am prepared to do what it takes in service of truth, justice and the American way.
http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/worldlook/1/193345.shtml
This is one of the most discussed posts in China right now. It’s in Chinese, but you can check out the pictures on the page. I’m honestly speechless. The pictures were taken by a Chinese tourist, who spent 6 months in India. It’s fair to say that he went to India with an open heart but left with disgust and disappointment. Cannot blame him.
India used to be the mystic country on the other side of Himalaya to the Chinese people.. Not anymore, I don’t know if it’s fair to call a country or a city a shithole, but damn, it’s hard to look at those pictures.
Tourist,
I’ve so far managed to avoid visiting Varanasi. But if those pictures are for real, I’ll endorse the “shithole” appellation.
Yesterday at a family gathering, someone talked about a new power point called India 2020 that shows the city of Ahmedabad vaulting into the new millenia with the third-largest airport in the word, huge buildings, fancy roads, etc. All I could think of were the pictures I saw on that Chinese blog. I agree with Mark that India’s going nowhere fast until we clean up our act.
Thanks for the stomach-turning eye-opener.
-s
Smita,
I looks to me that those pics are for real.
As for an Indian city in year 2020.. seriously. I have read enough “India the next superpower” predictions from mostly Indian pundits in the past 2 years. I’d like to bet my 100 dollar against it. I hope Indian friends can get some basics done in their country, before boasting on India’s potentials.
I didn’t intend to make anyone’s stomach turn. So, before you go see those pics, be warned it’s not very pleasant.
bahut bade chutiye ho tum sab kasam se
Well i have been to India many times and it is THE WORLDS SIT HOLE! FILTHY and disgusting full of people with such abysmal manners and habits. Totally disgusting with a Billion maggots.
India and everyone in it should be cleansed….NO I am NOT RACIST I have Indian friends and still i tell them what i think of India.
Indians in General have NO reason to smile or feel proud of there country..I mean look around you dear Old India..Look at REAL CIVILIZATION!
Although I do not approve of the language used to describe people ( maggots by india is crap does make him or her sound like a racist and having Indian friends doesn’t make him or her less so) or a place, I have to generally agree that India can do with some serious cleaning up. While in some cases it is a recent phenomenon ( Delhi, North East, some of the hill stations), in other places it has largely been a culture( Mumbai, Varanasi). And people can be trained to have civic sense. The beaches in Mumbai were the crappiest that anyone could have seen in ages but some serious dedication by the Indian armed forces and enforcement has helped it to be in a better shape than what it was in the 1990s.
The problem with the Ganges is exactly what you have said. Most people will not listen to criticism of how it is maintained. I do agree with you that a place of reverence must be cleaned. Some of the villages used to have very well established garbage disposal system until “urbanization” set in. I guess people didn’t know how to get rid of the more “western” created waste of plastic bags.
Also, please be aware that many Developed countries actually export their trash to Africa and Asia and hence your back yard looks as clean as it does now. With nearly 240 million tonnes of garbage generated every year by Americans alone, do you honestly think they just all miraculously evaporated into thin air? Pick up any National geographic from last year to understand what I am saying.
So before you blame their religion, culture and what not on their massive piles of waste, you may want to know where your trash is headed.