India is, amongst other things, "hot" as a tourist attraction and is seemingly the centre, in the world, for call-centres.
But there is another side to India. The movie "Water" is currently showing around Australia - and has generally garnered favourable reviews. That said, the movie, has "revealed" a side of India not generally known outside the country - and in the process evoked a "response" in India.
As the New York Times reports:
"India has made headlines as an emerging superpower, a land of high-tech multimillionaires and a vast new market for American goods. But there is another India too, and it is not just the one of villages and ox carts that has always been best known in the West.
This is the disturbing India of the Hindu widow, a woman traditionally shunned as bad luck and forced to live in destitution on the edge of society. Her husband's death is considered her fault, and she has to shave her head, shun hot food and sweets and never remarry. In the pre-independence India of the 1930's, the tradition applied even to child brides of 5 or 6 who had been betrothed for the future by their families but had never laid eyes on their husbands".
The article goes on [here] to discuss the implications and ramifications of the Indian custom and the movie itself.
But there is another side to India. The movie "Water" is currently showing around Australia - and has generally garnered favourable reviews. That said, the movie, has "revealed" a side of India not generally known outside the country - and in the process evoked a "response" in India.
As the New York Times reports:
"India has made headlines as an emerging superpower, a land of high-tech multimillionaires and a vast new market for American goods. But there is another India too, and it is not just the one of villages and ox carts that has always been best known in the West.
This is the disturbing India of the Hindu widow, a woman traditionally shunned as bad luck and forced to live in destitution on the edge of society. Her husband's death is considered her fault, and she has to shave her head, shun hot food and sweets and never remarry. In the pre-independence India of the 1930's, the tradition applied even to child brides of 5 or 6 who had been betrothed for the future by their families but had never laid eyes on their husbands".
The article goes on [here] to discuss the implications and ramifications of the Indian custom and the movie itself.
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