Photo by Mulyadi.
https://unsplash.com/photos/dDlvuSKUDZM
There’s a huge difference between the Euro-Anglo-American liberal and their Indian counterpart. It is not just of nuance though. It has to do with the unique socio-political-legal-gender-religio-cultural situation we see as reality in India as opposed to what they see and live and experience there.
For example, ‘pro-choice’ seems to be such an obvious liberal stance that my American friends are surprised when I tell them I am ‘pro-life’ because in India, the pregnant woman rarely is the final decision maker of whether or not to keep her child, specifically if it is a girl child. I had written about this some time ago.
Ditto with vegetarianism. While it is the ethical choice that many liberals are now coming around to believe and that it is indeed true that the world would probably be a better place were we all to stop eating meat and animal products, in India, due to the casteist notion of ‘purity’ attached to this weird half-hearted vegetarianism where milk and milk products are fine but egg and meat is not, meat is fine except on Tuesdays and Fridays, and so on, it is actually far more ethical to refuse to side with the vegetarians who want to shut down the production and consumption of meat, a staple for more than 70% Indians. Why? Because these 70% happen to be the wrong kind of Indians, meaning that they are either from lower castes or non-Hindu faiths.
Any other issues where you find a divergence between the more Western liberal positions of today and yours, as uniquely Indian? Do comment and tell me.
