<img title="A video of a youth allegedly tied to an army jeep as a human shield from stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district went viral last week." src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/apr/24-kashmir.jpg" alt="A video of a youth allegedly tied to an army jeep as a human shield from stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district went viral last week." /> A video of a youth allegedly tied to an army jeep as a human shield from stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district went viral last week.
<img class="left" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2015/dec/Aditya-Sinha-op.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="78" />The United States of America is an enviably wealthy society that is self-involved, sometimes for the good. More than what America preaches, we are impacted by watching them deal with the problems of life and the world, be it age-old issues like social harmony or unfamiliar ones like technology-blanketed alienation.
Yet, we also accept that Americans of all strata - and this includes American children and grandchildren of Indian immigrants - don't bother about the outside world, or even India.
Why should they? Americans who think a bit deeper, or who are affluent enough to explore the world around them, or who are the establishment that President Donald Trump's voters futilely hoped to dislodge from power, are interested in their ancestry, be they from Scotland or Western Africa or China, rather than in India. Why only them, many ethnic Indian-Americans prefer to holiday in the Bahamas or in France than explore their dysentery-and-mosquito-swamped roots.
Life in America is walled in by comfort and food and an avalanche of choice. The weather is sunny and crisp (not punishing like Gurugram); the roads are endless and wide, filled with shiny hybrids; meaty women confidently stride into coffee shops wearing only the newest clothes. Not only do these women have a dizzying array of roasts to select from, but even the creamers are varied (vanilla flavoured, caramel flavoured). It's a science fiction film where the senses have been refined and enhanced, simultaneously.
More dystopian is the smartphone-hypnosis. I flew from New York City to San Diego and the bookshops both at the airports as well as at my younger daughter's University were thinly stocked. Everyone in the terminal, at the boarding gate and on the flight was glued to tiny screens. And Americans work hard at their leisure, whether it is to flee the city on weekends, or surf the Pacific Ocean, or just the daily gym. No human can possibly have the bandwidth to handle all that sensory data, and then be able to pay attention to the goings-on outside their Trumpian Wall of Comfort.
Thus, the images from places around the world, like India, that do manage to penetrate the Wall are few and far between. Fewer images mean that each has a greater impact on the American mind: each leaves a lasting impression; each defines India.
Many Americans might have seen images of India (and some may even have visited India); but many young Americans may have only recently seen their first image of India. This would include youngsters who eventually become America's policy-makers or business leaders.
These youngsters may have seen one abiding recent image of India: that of a man tied to the front of a jeep. For a second, forget about the politics surrounding this photo or its context. If it was just an ordinary jeep then the photo might be dismissed as a prank, though a dangerous one. But it was not an ordinary jeep; it belonged to an armed force of the State.
Similarly, if the person tied to the front was laughing or mugging for the photo, then again it might be dismissed as a prank. But the person was clearly not happy. In fact he looked terrified.
To an average American, it is immediately a revulsive photo. The tied-up person looks like a human shield. My last recall of human shields is from the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. My Editor had wanted me to go to Baghdad to report on the impending war; there was talk of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein using human shields on Baghdad's outskirts to repel the Americans. (Images from the 1981 post-apocalyptic film 'Mad Max 2' came to my mind.) More recently, there have been reports from Mosul, in Iraq, of the Islamic State using human shields against Iraqi and Kurdish forces trying to reclaim territory.
Tying a Kashmiri to the front of a jeep, even if it was to deter stone-pelting youth (which is not the brightest justification in the world), has been more than counter-productive. Our nationalists may shriek themselves hoarse and red about its justification, and about how little it matters, how the liberal US media projects India while we "clean up" our act.
First, it's not only the 'New York Times' but also the alt-right 'Breitbart News' that thinks India is in a mess in Kashmir. Second, India cannot insulate itself from world opinion, particularly since we aspire to the high table of international relations.
But most of all, in the eyes of the ordinary citizen of the world, India is the composite of images of brutality and megalomania. It may suit us in a world of strongmen, but politics always eventually changes. And in the long run, India will not be a beacon to humanity but instead an ugly and vulgar pretender.
Aditya Sinha's crime novel, The CEO Who Lost His Head, is available now. He tweets @autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

When pictures like that of a Kashmiri youngster tied to a jeep go past the Trumpian Wall of Comfort, what do they project about India?

Aditya Sinha: India and its image problem

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When pictures like that of a Kashmiri youngster tied to a jeep go past the Trumpian Wall of Comfort, what do they project about India?

Aditya Sinha: India and its image problem

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Aditya Sinha: India and its image problem

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