Change In Plans

HINDU TEMPLE FROM 1020 AD (WITH BOUGAINVILLEA)

Namaste from Khajuraho, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, in the heart of central India.  We traveled here to look at the recently excavated thousand-year-old temples, and as a jumping-off point for going to look for tigers in Bandhavgarh National Park.

We have been traveling in India for two and a half weeks, which is nowhere near enough time to have any intelligent conclusions about the society or the culture or the economy.

That said, I offer six observations under the heading “early impressions of India.”  Observations 1-3 are simple confirmations of what we had read, seen on TV, and been told by many people about traveling in India. They are blinding glimpses of the obvious. Observations 4-6 are bigger issues which India (the person) and I are thinking about, asking about, and trying to make sense of.

Observation #1 - India has a lot of people.  Reading that India has about 1.15 billion people crammed in a relatively small space gave us an intellectual understanding of this fact.  Our visceral understanding has come from being here, and having scores or hundreds of people around us in all public places at all times of day.  Every time I try to count (e.g., 50 people hanging around idly outside the rural Jaisalmer airport even after the day’s only flight had been cancelled) I am astonished at how many people I can see.  City streets are the most incredible: wall-to-wall people sleeping, working, eating, cooking, walking, riding, selling, buying, idling.  If there is a verb to describe a non-amorous human activity, several people will be doing it by the side of an Indian road.

Observation #2 - Cows really do rule the road. From what I can tell, there are no other rules in Indian driving except “avoid hitting cows.”  On city and village streets, and on national motorways, there are all kinds of vehicles and pedestrians and cows going in both directions in both lanes at widely varying speeds.  Cows always have the right of way.  Everyone seems to be somehow comfortable with this.  Traffic moves most of the time, and we haven’t seen a lot of accidents.  City traffic jams are bad though, and will get a lot worse as the Tata Nano (for only $2,200) really starts to sell.  A favorite fact: Varanasi is a city of over 2 million people, in a metropolitan area with more than 4 million people (i.e., roughly the size of Minneapolis/St. Paul).  I don’t know how many cows, but a lot.  There are two traffic lights in Varanasi, and  neither of them was working when we were there.  Roundabouts, attentive drivers, patience and luck.

Observation #3 - the swastika really is a Hindu symbol (it is even a Hindi word).  The clock-wise facing swastika is used everywhere here as a decoration.  Everyone I have asked makes a clear distinction between this and the counter-clockwise version used as the symbol of Nazism.  The clockwise version means progress and continuity through love, and was introduced by Indo-Aryans about 4,000 years ago.  The counter-clockwise means domination through blood, so no one thinks that the Nazis chose it by accident.  It is deeply freaky to see this symbol, regardless of direction, which is now absolutely associated in the West with unspeakable acts of hatred and destruction, decorating temples and rickshaws and shop walls.  

So much for the obvious.  Here are some broader concepts.

Observation #4 - India is overwhelming in its size and age and complexity.  Our guide, Indrajit, keeps encouraging us to think in the context of trying to “understand Europe” in three weeks by spending a few days in a few countries.  India has twice the population of the expanded EU, and has at least 2,000 more years of civilized history.  Prior to 1857, it was really a fragmented sub-continent of about 500 “princely states”, each with its own history and characteristics.  Relative to the long history of the place, the integrated Indian nation-state came about only last week, and independence from Britain was yesterday.  It is just very complicated.

Observation #5 - Generalizations are risky, but applying a basic framework of religion/caste/class/ language/gender/urban vs. rural has been useful.  In trying to understand historical events, current affairs, individual perspectives, and likely behaviors, these six variables seem to be useful.  For example, understanding a little of the warrior tradition of Punjabi Sikh men, or knowing that Marwari merchants from Rajasthan are widely believed to have exceptional commercial acumen is helpful in following the shorthand that is used in the press, on the news, and in conversation.  These six variables also seem to determine a lot of societal hierarchy, distribution of income and opportunity, differential growth by region, etc.  

The role of women in Indian society seems particularly difficult to understand.  On one hand a current female President, a most-famous female prime minister, good representation of women in growth industries and professions.  On the other hand, many Muslim and non-Muslim women in purdah (wearing burqa, veil, the whole bit), the ongoing importance of dowry and arranged marriages, absolute exclusion of women from Hindu cremation ceremonies, high rates of gender-selected abortions and (alleged) female infanticide.  This is definitely Ph.D. dissertation territory.

Observation # 6 - to make any sense of it, I need to embrace the contradictions.  I feel as though I understand about 2% of India, and on many days I feel the number slipping back toward 1%.  There are many elements of Indian society that I think we will just need to appreciate: we will never have the deep background or suppleness of mind to really understand.

We are incredibly glad to be here, and to have the privilege of making these observations first hand.  This is exactly what we were hoping that our trip around the world would be about.