Western media is keen as ever in degrading India

Western media is keen as ever in degrading India

Introduction:

Colonialism ruled India's fate once upon a time and it seems they have still not taken to the fact that India fought it's freedom back. It so much as hurts the ego of the Western world that a country once bound under their rule is about to become the third largest economy in the world. Even after years of development and advanced changes, the perception of the Western world about India is not the least bit shifted from a country of poor people, filthy streets and rapists. They do not miss a single chance to portray India in bad lights, be it rape cases or Nirbhaya documentary or offensive controversies. Western feminists keep probing India to talk about the rape issues and how Indian men are chauvinists left lose on streets.

For:

1. A large part of India's economy for poor depends on its tourism industry which suffers greatly when Indian cities are cited "rape capitals" with a claim that girls are not the least bit safe in India. Yes, rape and crime against women is a major issue in our country but not every man is a rapist and hence calling a city rape capital is unjust with intentions of degrading, with direct effect on tourism industry of our country. After the Delhi bus rape incident in 2012, India's tourism industry has been constantly suffering loss.

2. What is actually disturbing is the way the documentary on Delhi rape was shown. It just captured the views of the convict in jail and his lawyer who was all for how women should behave to avoid rape. This definitely is not how majority of Indians think. Judging from the views of a rapists, how can a sensible documentarian decide that India is in denial about its rape issues? This is like blaming the entire manhood for rape issues but of course she meticulously chose India and not the statistics of other countries for showing number of rape incidents.

3. We do not by blaming the western media in any way support rapists or those that disrespect women in any way. All we ask for is some dignity when such news break out in prime times. It aptly showed that our country witnesses a rape every 22 minutes, but going by statistics, it failed to show that in Britain the number is "a rape every six minutes" and in US it is "a rape every 25 seconds." If this is not ways of intentional degradation, then what is it?

4. Western media effectively blames it on our orthodox culture that leads men to feel that they dominate over women and have the inborn right to exercise will and power whenever and with whomsoever they seem fit. If it is about our culture that makes rapists think this way, what in the western countries where freedom is everything and everywhere inspires rapes at such an alarming rate? Rape is a serious crime against humanity on the whole and the sick minds of a rapist has nothing to do with the country's culture where they live.

5. Talk about Slumdog Millionaire and Monsoon Wedding and the west knows them well for they liked it and even awarded it to make them memorable. That is how they perceive India to be - poor, backward and with no resources to make things better on their own. In a trade and finance meet, out of nowhere the third question asked to Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley is about rapes in India. This is intentional degradation to weaken India's business strategies on the whole.

6. The Leipzig professor barred an Indian student from an internship and his reason was this: " we hear a lot about the rape problem in India, which I cannot support." Female teachers in Germany refused to teach Indian boys with similar reasons. It is really alarming that the distorted view of India that the western media presents is affecting the future of India's youth in many a ways. Original version of India's daughter supposedly had the worldwide statistics included but that part was not present when the documentary was released.

7. After the 2012 rape incident our own media has been looking after rape news like it is the only thing that can get coverage on a daily basis. However, the media totally ignored the fact that most of those cases were false FIR made by girl's family when the girl eloped or for political causes like degrading the other party's rule. Going by figures, in UK and US 14 per cent of rapes are by strangers while in India the figure is less than one 1 per cent.

8. India's Mars Mission cost us less than the total budget of a Hollywood movie but the western media emphasised that Indian government is wasting money on such extravagant missions instead of focusing on poverty and rapes in India. The western world is still under the belief that Indians should bow theirs heads back in shame and never go for researches or participate in a world class venture.

Against:

1. Rape incidents in India have been on an alarming rise, excluding false cases, and if we are really affected by what the world thinks of us, we should be working on addressing this concern with strictness rather than blaming media for being straightforward.

2. In the age of social media and internet, we cannot expect that such incidents remain concealed from the world even if media does not highlight it with added spices of degradation or so we say. Attitude of people regarding women and their dignity has to change and it won't be false to say that it was due to media that the news spread over the nation and beyond that drew people to protests and government to look into the matter with seriousness.

3. Taking criticism is something we Indians are not used to. We would rather shift the blame, dig for statistics, and gather incidents from other countries only to show that we are not the only one where chauvinist monsters roam free.

Conclusion:

India's rape incidents is a shame for every indian but we need not make rape incidents the second name for India. Tourism industry on loss, students refused admission and job in western countries, business suffering is not doing any good to Indian economy at all. We need to address the western media and tell them their limits and show them that India is no more a backward country, it's a country on the path of development and we refuse to be downtrodden.