Do you think the pictures from India are racist?

[SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun]

The pictures published are so shocking and of course reflect reality but the press would never show bodies of British people in coffins, in the crematoriums, in ambulances or in their graves. There are pictures today of corpses with no wrapping being transported. They wouldn’t show a British person after death with no covering. Maybe all the pictures of funeral pyres reflect Indian culture and the fact that this is shown is in fact somehow the opposite of racism like an acceptance of a different culture without applying our taboos?

Although actually there was a bbc report from a hospital mortuary early this year with wrapped bodies so maybe it isn’t racism but it doesn’t sit right. It feels like maybe they think we can see this because the people are ‘other’.

I don't know. I was in Spain during the 2017 terror attacks. Our taxi driver was showing us news on his phone and NOTHING was hidden. You saw everything. Maybe its because the news in other countries isn't as heavily censored and its shown here to show the gravity of the situation.

I don't the NHS so I think it's more to show the shocking conditions over there I have 6 people who work directly for me in a few cities over there and they tell me how bad it is, 2 of them have it now and all have had family die. The numbers are thought to be be under reported by many times. I feel so helpless and sad and scared for my team there. Ppl are dying that would have been ok if they got some basic health care. That's the scary thing. It's not just a numbers thing.

In other countries they’re much more graphic. It’s rare for the uk media to show stuff that’s seen in other countries on the news so I don’t know. I think as it’s covid related they feel it’s right to show it maybe?

If you are old enough to remember the Winter Of Discontent (1979) when the strikes including gravediggers and crematorium staff led to bodies piling up here in Britain, then you will know that although the actual bodies were never shown, there was coverage of coffins/shrouds

So no I don't see it as inherently racist, even though the circumstances which led to bodies being unburied or uncremated were totally different.

Of course it’s racist. It’s unbelievably intrusive and de-humanising, which is why the Brits are doing it: it makes the shitshow in this country look good by comparison and creates a fee-good factor for the public.

As a percentage of the population dying, India is nowhere near the worst figures, even if you disregard the untested/unreported figures. In my absolutely vast network of Indian friends and family, only one person had Covid, and they are now absolutely fine.

Healthcare in India has always been shocking. Nobody pays the taxes they owe. The public vote in total dicks and condone corruption. You get the leaders and the leadership you vote for.

In my absolutely vast network of Indian friends and family, only one person had Covid, and they are now absolutely fine.

Whereas my family in India (Delhi and Ambala) are incredibly worried, especially about the elderly members of their family.

We did the same to the Italians in ICU - no privacy or dignity. The media claimed that were doing it to "warn" us, but really Sky News were excited about the scoop (they even did a big back-patting documentary about themselves reporting the pandemic )

I don't think it's racism, but it IS a total lack of human decency on the part of our media.

I’m really sad to hear that @TheOrigRights and I am really sorry if I came across as dismissive.

But India is a bloody massive place and has a massive population and the media sensationalism of scenes that are undeniably heartbreaking and scary is actually obscuring the bigger picture which is that most people are fine and in most places, India is functioning even if it’s not business as usual.

I am Indian. Most of my family and friends are there. They are terrified, esp now that many of the young are dying. I do not think it is racist. The world needs to know how our govt has let us down. Those journalists arguing it is racist want to cover up Modi's hubris.

It is very unusual for dead bodies to be shown in news reports here. I am not sure if it is just about respect though, death/dying is almost a taboo subject here. Not sure if my family are unusual but kids were never allowed to attend funerals, I didn’t go to a funeral until I was in my 20s.

But I was in India a decade ago and was really shocked to see the news reports, one particularly harrowing report showed the body of a young woman that had died and her infant son was pulling at her clothes trying to breastfeed.

India is not functioning as usual, btw. Even in the south..My cousin, in his 30s, had to be driven to another town 100s of miles away because there were no hospital beds in his v large home city. He's in an ICU now. I could go on and on abt how everything has broken down... but this was a long time coming.

In my experience this isn't unusual for India.

Eg. Celebrity funerals are shown on TV (similar to how Royal funerals are here), with celeb bodies being shown (not necessarily head-to-toe but you get the idea).

I've been to funerals here (Indian families) and family members from outside the UK have taken photos of the body quite plainly for all to see. These images have been WhatsApped without permission / approval but no one was stopped from taking the photos in the first place.

I don't know if racist is exactly how I think of it, but there's definitely an element of willingness to show trauma in other countries that we wouldn't show here.

Remember the footage of people dying on hospital floors in Italy, etc? It was like disaster porn but when our first wave hit, it all went suddenly quiet.

I always assumed it was government mandated to be honest, to stop people panicking. Whereas if it's far enough away we can all gawk at them in safety

I don’t know, but I do know there is massive cultural differences worldwide on acceptable level of graphic detail in the media. I don’t have experience of Indian culture specifically but did spend significant time in Central America where it was really normal for newspapers to feature detailed photos of murder victims etc, that we would find completely unacceptable in the U.K.

I expect the footage coming from India is produced by local media and sold worldwide; obviously British editors then choose what they show; but the source material may already be more graphic than we are accustomed to.

@Frequentflier

I am Indian. Most of my family and friends are there. They are terrified, esp now that many of the young are dying. I do not think it is racist. The world needs to know how our govt has let us down. Those journalists arguing it is racist want to cover up Modi's hubris.

Surely you can't blame that clown Modi for everything. He did not force people to go to the massive festivals where millions went, mixed up with others and then possibly millions again to political rallies.

What's happening in india is through lack of lock downs, enforcement and people wrongly assuming the worse was over just like many other countries a couple of months ago

in the uk the people many of them and the mdeia was banging on abot speedier back to normal before the second wave and a quicker end to the first lockdown.

Even now clowns want to go on hols today from the uk, just watch what happens come winter - even i doubt it will be as big as the last 13/14 months but if the virus changes for the worse, you never know.

there is chat about doing away with masks in enclosed spaces in the uk you would have thought the clowns had learnt their lesson but sadly not.

I’ve always thought that it was horrific to show dead bodies on the news. The other day they showed a man who had just died who doctors were attempting to resuscitate. I know they want to show the magnitude of what’s going on but it seemed enormously disrespectful.

@Emma2021 I do not blame the govt for everything, but I certainly blame them for giving press conferences and taking out ads announcing India had defeated Covid, and sending out the general message that it was ok to relax. When the NHS was overwhelmed in January, India should have been watching and stocking oxygen as well as vaccines. Instead the message sent was: we have used the power of turmeric and sunshine to defeat Covid.

I don't think it's racist but I do think it's quite disrespectful. Surely there must be ways to get across the gravity of the situation without disregarding people's privacy so much.

I guess it's important for us to know how bad it is though. The official figures on WHO make India look like it's got off lightly compared to the majority. But those figures must be huge underestimates. Maybe only the people who manage to get into the hospitals are being counted or something.

As a percentage of the population dying, India is nowhere near the worst figures, even if you disregard the untested/unreported figures. In my absolutely vast network of Indian friends and family, only one person had Covid, and they are now absolutely fine*
On the flip side to this I only know 2 families in the whole of India. 6 people out of 1.4 billion and the two families don't live in the same area. All 6 have had Covid in the last 3 weeks, including the 2 children. 2 of the 6 were very ill. If the figures coming out of India are accurate, that's a huge coincidence!

I think there were some pretty harrowing images broadcast from U.K. hospitals earlier this year. But what I’d happening in India is more horrific.

Im going to get jumped on for this but im half Italian and i have relatives in Italy in the South. None of them have had it. Neither has the Italian cousin and his family who live in upstate New York. Im NOT saying Covid doesnt exist. Just that they havent caught it.

There are Hindu nationalists on Twitter etc trying to stir up the idea that "showing pictures like this is racist" because they are trying to avoid the world seeing negative publicity about Modi and his criminally ineffective government.

As PPs have said, bodies have been shown in other countries in circumstances like this.

It might be a good idea for media to start pixelating out faces and so on. But the shocking pictures need to be seen.

I think it is deeply humanising. Rather than see numbers all the time, these are the things we need to see to make us recognise it is a human crisis. These are people that were loved.

I know that some of the images show in other countries would be far worse. However I do think that whilst still portraying the horror of the situation media should be more respectful. They would do that with the British dead. Some news clips have definitely nodded to racism. We wouldn't dream of showing a UK citizens body falling out of a moving ambulance! Yes these videos are available from India. However it isn't right to use them.

Listen to @Kokeshi123. Meanwhile I am old enough to remember that Indian TV showing the funeral of Rajiv Gandhi including a very young Rahul Gandhi lighting the pyre. My dad says same was true of IG and there is also footage of Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral. Now suddenly we are told that we should be sensitive about it.

The eight phase WB state election btw is totally Modi’s fault. As is the Kumbh. It should have been held in 2022. And did you hear that address to the nation where he said we have the world’s best vaccination programme and follow the rules and then that was that??
He’s still tweeting about the WB elections btw.