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Do you think the pictures from India are racist?

142 replies

SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun · 29/04/2021 21:22

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’.

OP posts:
ChaBishkoot · 30/04/2021 02:31

Excuse the rogue *that.

AndroidsAliensAndWizards · 30/04/2021 02:34

@MercyBooth

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.
I'm confused, how does your Italian family in south Italy and New York not catching covid relate to the question the OP asked or what's currently happening in India?

I apologise if I sound like I'm being funny, that's not my intention, I'm just not sure what it has to do with India so wanted to ask.

TruelyWonder · 30/04/2021 02:35

@MercyBooth

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.
I believe you. A lot of people in the UK haven't had it too or at least are not aware they have. They looked at cases and have actually found married couples were one person gets the covid and their partner doesn't. No scientific reason has been found for this as far as I know. Just one strange way this virus came work.
Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 30/04/2021 02:35

I don't think it's racist. I think in this country we are far too sensitive to death. Why shouldn't we have to see what's going on? Why should it be hidden from us, so we don't feel as bad?

redferrari · 30/04/2021 02:37

There still no natural level lockdown across the country imposed by the central government. Each state is locally imposing their own lockdowns and unfortunately there is still not restrictions on movements, household mixing or gatherings such as weddings. There are some who have had the vaccine but many who can't afford it. It's not free for the poor and the price of vaccine is now increasing from the 1st of May.

redferrari · 30/04/2021 02:40

And yes current gov needs to take the blame for the election rallies, not stopping Kumbh mela (there was no investigation into the consequences of such a mass gathering) also the misinformation that covid was under control and letting guard down.

ChaBishkoot · 30/04/2021 02:42

Indian govt declared ‘victory’ over COVID.
Has been happily blaming the states for what is happening in hospitals. Is everyone state badly run or might it just be that the centre is too??
Too busy censoring hashtags and tweets.
They want the Amarnath yatra to go ahead. Wtf.
Vaccine distribution is a joke. They opened it to all over 18s with no actual supply in place.
Did I mention the 8 phase election in not a very large state and the mass rallies???

SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun · 30/04/2021 07:15

Thank you for your insights, especially those of you with connections in India - it must be so frightening. I can see both sides - Showing how bad things are vs respect for dignity of individuals. The different culture around death and funerals vs sensationalism.

OP posts:
Marguerite2000 · 30/04/2021 07:36

I think we were over protected in the UK when it came to media coverage of storing and burying/cremating the bodies. We were shown photos of the temporary mortuaries, and that was it really. Logically the UK must have struggled to bury our dead during the peaks, but it was never really covered. It's hypocritical to show this in other countries, but not our own. We're no better than people in other countries, and everyone feels grief when they lose their loved ones.

DesdemonaDryEyes · 30/04/2021 07:42

Only in the UK could we fret about something like this being racist.

starfish4 · 30/04/2021 07:51

I don't think it's racist. I guess some would argue disrespectful. Very sadly it's the harsh reality of what's happening out there, maybe needs to be done in the hope that it increases aid from other countries, people make donations, no matter how small.

Flugbusters4 · 30/04/2021 07:57

I think it's disrespectful because it suggests British broadcasters are treating images of Indian people differently to images of people here. They have different laws here and they could bring the footage in India in line with this, blurring images and so on. But they don't!

But I also didn't grow up here and where I'm from news coverage was very graphic compared to the UK. And like some pp have said, it does really show the devastation so many people are experiencing

btwwhichonespink · 30/04/2021 08:02

@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’.

No, of course not racist. Indian culture is very different from ours, they still believe in the caste system and those people they film lying around the street are likely to be the 'underclass' among their own people.

The pyres are normal, that is how Hindus are cremated after death. I believe it's a scandal how pictures of those pyres have been used to terrify British people with no understanding of Hindu culture into thinking they are part of the crisis.

Also very important to note that many of the pictures coming out of India are fake, or were taken from previous disasters and are unrelated to the current covid situation. Watch some of those videos carefully - they are being 'performed' for the cameras. The picture of the two brothers on the bike with their mother between them was so obviously staged.

All the world is a stage, the play script designed to shape your thinking and perception - be careful what you believe from the news.

bumblingbovine49 · 30/04/2021 08:14

@RoseWineTime

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.
This people on here seem to be living in a different country than the UK. There were lots of reports inside hospitals at the worst point . We never got to the point India is at, some areas came close but we managed to avoid it . The reasons for that can be argued about ( lockdown, natural virus cycle, , vaccination or Covid is exaggerated) - take your pick but there was definitely coverage and documentaries of how bad it was in the UK , particularly in the second wave. Less so in the first one.
HolmeH · 30/04/2021 08:15

I don’t think it’s racist but I think we heavily censor death within the U.K. & that’s what we are used too. We rarely have open coffins, funerals are quiet affairs, we don’t openly express grief very well here. We are expected to cry at the funeral (quietly) & then be OK. Enjoy the wake. Go back to work, no-one really asks again.

Whereas other countries, not just India, are far more expressive & open. Death is a reality & sadly in some countries far too common. I think we are seeing the reality here. And of course, there’s a huge press angle here of ‘look at this poor country & their shit healthcare.. aren’t you glad it’s not you’ .. India is being portrayed as ‘the other’ and a crisis that could never happen to us. And no, we weren’t this bad but it was pretty awful in January. But again, we had quiet, low key news reports with doctors & nurses quietly saying how hard it was and how many were dying. But the pictures shown were calm, not the dramatic chaos we see from India. It was carefully chosen.

Moondust001 · 30/04/2021 08:17

Like others, I think that this is not so much racism, and more to do with different cultural norms - the vast majority of the footage will originate with Indian photographers and news media, who have a very different reaction and relationship with death. The UK has a very uptight and sterile view of death which is actually rather out of step with many other parts of the world. In the UK people die in sterile surroundings and are whisked away, often never to be seen again, and if they are, in a bland "cosmetic enhanced state" that masks death and its realities. That is "wrong", but it certainly isn't the way many parts of the world operate.

The other aspect to this is that one needs to bear in mind that all media is politicised. Whether or not someone is to blame for XY and Z (insert your own version of what people should or should not have done) India needs help. They know, the media knows, and we know, that the fastest way to get the world to respond to that need is through imagery. That is why, in the wake of disasters or poverty, reports focus on images rather than words. Words tell people what has happened, but seldom import the gravity that an image does. Tell us that 45% of the population do not have enough daily nutrition, and that is possibly an interesting fact but tells most people nothing. If they read it at all. Show us a picture of a rake thin mother and a severely malnourished two year old, and our purses spring open.

Right now India needs medics, equipment and supplies. Those pictures are forcing people, and governments, around the world to see the reality of their lives at this moment in time. Basically, it is forcing the world to do something. Indians themselves are far more likely to be sanguine about bodies and death and such images. For many of them, coronavirus or not, this is their daily lived experience, just compounded by the weight of the situation.

Moondust001 · 30/04/2021 08:19

Sorry - it should have said "that is not wrong, but it certainly isn't the way many parts of the world operate"

Billandben444 · 30/04/2021 08:20

It is not racist, of course it's not, but it does emphasise the cultural differences. There is a short video on the online news showing 2 young people with the dead body of their mother wedged between them on a motor scooter riding past to find somewhere suitable to leave her. It is heartbreaking. Is this happening in India? Yes. Should we show it in the UK? The answer is yes as it is a disaster that is happening right now and it might give those upthread who are either covid deniers or ostriches a head wobble. It puts the UK media's concern about Downing Street makeovers to shame.

SpacePug · 30/04/2021 08:21

I think it's different in other countries. I was in Florida when Michael Jackson died and on the news it showed his body being wheeled out of his home on the trolley with a thin sheet over, I was shocked as they'd never show that here

DogInATent · 30/04/2021 08:42

The UK media were heavily criticized for not going into NHS hospitals as the UK pandemic was raging and showing the full extent of the impact on NHS services. The UK media has always been more comfortable showing foreigners in distress than UK citizens suffering, maintaining the colonial attitude of bad things happening 'over there'.

Reearry · 30/04/2021 09:13

The situation in India is very bad. I have family back home and when we talk to them ... It's heartbreaking. I just found out that a neighbor who is an 18 year old girl lost both of her parents in the hospital while she was isolating at home. The neighbor on the left has a death in the family and so does the neighbor living on top. There is so much loss, sadness and distress which is exacerbated by the fact that the family, friends and society around them cannot offer support in person and be with them in this time of grief

PostLockdownLife · 30/04/2021 09:15

Race didn't cross my mind, I just felt terribly sad for the two chaps holding their Dad Mother between them on a scooter.

Reearry · 30/04/2021 09:18

I do agree there is some aspect of it that does not sit comfortably with me when it comes to the lens with which the British media is covering the crises in India. It does reek of a colonial mindset of showing the suffering in developing countries especially a former colony without the dignity and respect that they had shown when they covered their own citizens

frazzledasarock · 30/04/2021 09:26

I do think there is an element of trying to make our governments (mis)handling of the pandemic look good in comparison.

I have family and friends and work colleagues in India, almost everyone has suffered due to it. A work colleague recently went to India and is now stranded and very very unwell.

The fact is we all have self serving governments, it's a race to the bottom, and we the regular joe public are suffering spectacularly as a result. Doesn't matter where we are.

Billandben444 · 30/04/2021 09:28

The UK media were heavily criticized for not going into NHS hospitals as the UK pandemic was raging and showing the full extent of the impact on NHS services. The UK media has always been more comfortable showing foreigners in distress than UK citizens suffering, maintaining the colonial attitude of bad things happening 'over there'.
Do you think so? I thought the footage from India was supplied by non-UK sources but I could well be wrong. Our TV documentaries on long covid have been truly harrowing and I can remember the uproar when Ross Kemp took a film crew into a hospital to film the reality of covid and was heavily criticised at a time when relatives couldn't visit dying patients. Our attitude to dying, death and funerals is the opposite to theirs so I still think the difference in media reporting is a cultural one.