Thanjavur Exotic
William Dalrymple travels to Thanjavur where “in the holiest innermost sanctuary of the temple… the Brahmins perform the evening arti, or fire ceremony, incanting their ancient Sanskrit slokas” and where “ancient ritual” requires that “only the most elite families of Brahmins” may cast bronze sculptures for the temples.“As India’s economy goes from strength to strength, and more of the country’s north becomes suburban and developed, travelling in the rural south becomes more attractive. Around my farm on the outskirts of New Delhi, new neighbourhoods are springing up full of call centres, software companies and fancy apartment blocks, all rapidly rising on land that only two years earlier was still billowing winter wheat.
In contrast, whole swaths of the south remain oddly innocent, unchanged and relatively unvisited. There are no malls here; instead the villages are still like those in R. K. Narayan stories with roadside shops full of sacks of dried red chilli and freshly cut stalks of green bananas; buffaloes sun themselves on the sandbanks of the Cauvery River; goats wander in the streets; and cyclists wobble along red-dirt roads, past village duckponds and palm groves. The villagers leave their newly harvested grain on the road to be threshed by the wheels of passing cars. Women in bright silk saris troop along the roads with jasmine flowers in their hair. The cattle are strong and white, and their long horns are painted blue.”
What is it about this piece that irritates me…
Uma, I dont know what you feel, but the thing that irritates me, is the inability of the people of the West to digest that India is now a rapidly developing nation. They seem to have too much of a craving for the exotic aspects of India and therefore dont think twice about branding India as backward.
P.S: Of course they would also do well to realize that it is not the Brahmins who are the sculptors of the idols. William Dalrymple, being supposedly a great writer on India, this is something he cannot be excused for.
Comment by Srijith — March 28, 2007 @ 6:35 am
huh…sort of weird that he should contrast an urban North Indian city with a much smaller South Indian town ? I wonder which malls he found in the smaller cities or villages of UP..
Comment by apu — March 28, 2007 @ 7:05 am
Ok, there seems to be some problem with comments, so hope I am not repeating myself.
I think he is wrongly comparing India’s largest city in the North to a small South Indian town… wonder which malls he found in the towns of UP…
Comment by apu — March 28, 2007 @ 7:07 am
Too much exotica?
And most of the country’s north is becoming suburban and developed? Which country are we talking about again?
Comment by Veena — March 28, 2007 @ 12:26 pm