countryside thoughts

I am very honored and pleased that some Indians have read this blog!

The internet connection here was effected by thunderstorms last night, so this posts may be short or infrequent.

Father Puthami has taken us on a whirlwind tour of North Dijanpur. We have visited many local schools, nuns, and have even met the local bishop. The countryside is painfully beautiful. To watch the sunset from on top of the building, with rice paddies and jute fields as far as the eye can see was quite an experience.

Most of the children who are educated by nuns in the rural areas are the so-called Tribals of India. They are not much discussed in the West. Those who are interested should read the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribals

They often get the short stick in Indian society. The most flood-prone land, the least education, discrimination by mainstream society ect.

And speaking of bias. One of my traveling companions was volunteering a Prem Dam and talking to a young woman who was almost conversant in English. The patient at Prem Dam had dark skin, and pointed at my friend's arm and said "white", pointed at her own and said "black", pointed back at my friend as said "good", pointing at herself and said "bad". My friend tried to tell her no, that she was sundoori. There are many subtle manifestations of this attitude in India. The preference for light skin can be traced to the Aryan invasion and was enforced through the caste system. Even today it seems most important political leaders have lighter skin. All of the big TV actors, and all the faces in advertisements seem to represent the upper 15 percentile of light-skinnedness. I am reminded of rapper Immortal Technique's comments about racism in Latino media

see the spaniards never left
its pues de colon
and if you dont believe me you should click on univision
its like apartied with 10% ruling the rest

I was impressed with the astute observations of the (northern/western/eastern European ancestry) ladies I am traveling with. They mentioned how all the Jesus representations were the standard brown haired white guy, and how in Hawaii they have the apparently very muscular Polynesian Jesus. Given the history of the caste system and British domination, it would be nice to see a movement for depictions of a more ethnically representative (and for that matter realistic) Jesus in India. After all, a Palestinian or Israeli is likely to look alot more like most Indians that most Europeans.

Here in Raignaj, instead of school buses, they have 2 meter by 2 meter boxes filled with about a dozen children in school uniforms pulled by bicycle.

Looks like I lucked out with the internet. Much love, peace and asha to everyone around the world.

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