SparkyCentral

March 29th, 2008

Incredible India

There is a supposed difference between travellers and holidaymakers. The truth is that travellers are just holidaymakers visiting lots of places in one go, and on a tight budget.

Of course 95% of these ‘travellers’ never stray from a very well-beaten path across Australasia and the Far East created over the last 20-30 years. They return home with tales of beach parties, lady-boys, treacherous boat and train journeys and filled with depression at the prospect of now finding themselves jobless and back in their ‘real’ world. They start dressing in cheap, badly-made cotton clothes and constantly speak of their new found spiritual home in some corner of Asia or South America as though life in paradise was snatched from their grasp by the evils of scheduled air flight. They scoff at any trip you make that doesn’t involve a long-haul flight and a bout of dysentry.

Most of them could experience the same radical shift in culture that has changed their life so dramatically by visiting northern England, but of course they wouldn’t get a suntan there.

Which brings me to India. I’ve met people that have always wanted to go to India, usually to see the Taj Mahal. I’ve met people that have been to India, usually to Goa. I’ve met people from India, but they all live in the UK now. Most of these people have spoken of India’s various charms. The wonderful people, the amazing architecture, the incredible colours, the fantastic food and above all, the spirituality of the place.

I quickly realised that I had fallen into a trap set by the mainstream. I was left exposed to the realities that I would have normally approached with an educated mind and a healthy cynicism. Thankfully these qualities slammed back into place quickly after my first contact with the rude people, the unimpressive architecture, the dirty colours and the bland food. I’d been had, but this was my opportunity to confirm my suspicions about travelling and my understanding of the workings of the world.

I understand that part of the appeal for travellers is experiencing the ‘different’, but to speak to many ‘travellers’, by visiting India you experience something better than we have here. A way of life and a culture that should be embraced and admired. I experienced much that was different, but nothing that made the advances of Western civilisation seem like the ‘wrong path’. I saw a people crippled by their devotion to ridiculous and prehistoric religions. A country crippled by overpopulation encouraged by archaic views on family. Forts, mosques and temples fashioned from local materials, all in the same tried and tested Mughal style and stripped of their original grandeur and opulence many decades before.

I constantly worried that I was missing something. That I’d somehow been distracted from all that is great about India. Yes, I was part of a tour party rather than being an individual traveller, but the only obvious difference for us was that we stayed in nicer hotels. In theory we would be shielded from the less salubrious elements of the country, not denied it’s treasures.

Upon returning home the jealous masses are left incredulous when you regale them with tales of apathy and disappointment. But worse than that is being told that I ‘just don’t get it’ by seasoned India fanatics. Why is my opinion of the place any less valid than that of someone that returned with a new found interest in Hinduism, or a new distrust of commercialism and wealth. Can we not have different experiences?

Am I supposed to feel privileged to witness first hand the suffering of millions of people caused by centuries of political turmoil and devotion to ridiculous religions and doctrines? Is the advance of civilisation in the West somehow less impressive than the ability of a nation of thousands of millions to remain in a primitive state? Should I be bowled over by a 300 year-old marble edifice, when there are myriad more exciting buildings in the UK with much more history and variety? Must I feel guilty that I come from a part of the world where people, on the whole, are happy to help each other and to work together for the greater good? Where poverty is not merely shrugged off as a person’s ‘destiny’?

Yes, India is the third world. It’s a landscape open to drought and flood and earthquake, and yes, it has been exposed to abuse by more advanced civilisations repeatedly over the centuries, but being a spectator to the aftermath is not a comfortable or enjoyable experience.

As with anything I highly recommend you experience it first hand before forming an opinion, but don’t take for granted the tales of paradise that you will hear from some quarters. And don’t expect to return with some sort of spiritual awakening unless you are the sort of person gullible enough to fall for that sort of thing. Remember that most of what you experience as a tourist (or traveller) is there because you are. Either for your benefit, or because of your influence. Religion, spirituality and the dignity of the poor are as readily available for sale as wooden elephants and Taj Mahal fridge magnets.

Categories: Rants, Holidays