Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Dear Bloggers,
On page 52 Chacko talks about "The War of Dreams" in which, "We're prisoners of war... Our dreams have been doctored." I think what Chacko meant was that as citizens of India, a former colony of the disgustingly large British Empire, they have been practically brainwashed to worship western ideals and therefore unquestioningly subscribe to the rules, regulations, and social guidelines of the west, to better serve their western conquerors. Among social guidelines is the attachment to material possessions as a sign of wealth and status, a growing fear of death and aging, and the impatient search for concrete and certain knowledge. A South African anti-apartheid activist said, "the greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressors is the minds of the oppressed." I think that has a huge relevance to what is happening to the upper middle class citizens of India during the period of the book and even now. Looking at countries with a higher amount of personal material wealth, and believing it is that which will bring them peace and happiness. It is easy to understand, if you were a starving child on the streets of India or even a well fed on like Rahel and Estha, yet you see the glory of being a child in America, T.V. toys, Mcdonalds, the whole nine yards, it is easy to associate that with happiness. But is it? I guess to bring it home I would have to bring it around the earth to the Putney school. Though in many societies we would be considered the conquerors that Chacko speaks of, but though there is no debate for how fortunate we are to be in the position we are in, are we not also caught in the same "War of Dreams" that Chacko speaks of. We have just been so heavily indoctrinated that we cannot think of any other way to live it just seems natural, but do you really believe that peace will come in the material success that we so rigorously train ourselves for in school? Are our dreams so corroded to the physical that we can't break this cycle of working for what we can touch and take cold comfort in. Or is it still possible to dream beyond the cold comfort that makes us so powerful so determined to fill the void that we cannot identify with all sorts of silly objects from T.v. to fried chicken and Ben and Jerry's and a nice necklace and a smoking gun?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Right on! And as long as we're quoting on Aparthied Biko, it seemed appropriate to mention a quote by Buthelezi. "We have our own history, our own language, our own culture. But our destiny is also tied up with the destinies of other people - history has made us one." Under the yoke of the British Empire, India suffered greatly, as did many of its other colonies. Its failed colonial policy paid a heavy price - on its oppressed people. In Aparthied South Africa, every last naive South African opposed its decrees. In India, however, preserving the culture, much of which was destroyed by Europeans, namely the British and the Portuguese, proved to be harder to reach than in South Africa, as it was bitterly divided by ethnic and religious conflict, much of which added to India's already disastrous financial stability. This book has made the situations of a number of lower-class Indians clear to me, none of which I had seen in any other way besides film, whose accuracy is hard to determine anyways.
I would also like to put in there, that South Africa had a leader whom they could unite under, namely Nelson Mandela. India did as well that is certain, Gandhi, but when Gandhi was asassinated it only threw an already vulnerable new nation into complete turmoil.
native****
Not "naive".
Oops. That was pretty bad.
Post a Comment