India: Disconnected from the Socio-Political Landscape of the Global South

   A few days before, I had happened to hear the TED Talk by Nigerian writer and social activist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- titled " The Danger of a Single Story". I was also reading her novel Half of a Yellow Sun at the same time. Reading both these expressions together brought an array of thoughts in me. It questions the unidimensional position held by India as the leading voice of the Global South. The danger lies in the singular definition of Global South that runs across India. 

  

   Over the past few  years, the Union Government's innovative engagements with e-governance, saw a rise in public participation through mygov website. This tacit approach has also been carried out in the field of Public Diplomacy. Outreach through strong diaspora and student exchange programmes have been seen to build bridges between even distant countries of the Global South. But the reality of these relations seem far non-committal beyond papers, handshakes and the proximally wavering flags. The singular story of hues and cries for daily existence, is transmitted among even the educated and well-off population of India.

   For instance, take a look at the school textbooks produced by the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) for the Arts and Humanities subjects. It dedicates pages and years of knowledge for disseminating the contributions of Italian Renaissance, the wheezing engines of the Western Industrialisation, the epitomising tenets of the French Revolution as well as the American War of Independence. However, lives in countries of Africa and Asia are pushed to a side among these glories. They are only mentioned amongst wars, malnutrition, poverty, pogrom, terrorism and other sacrileges. The existence there is often conceived out as a hell through these "single stories".

  Adichie's observation is also true in case of India's conception of narratives. India, takes cue from  developed countries, by presenting only a tinge of the economy, life and hazards of the indigenous population of the African countries. In such a constricted view, we consider the whole of Africa to be just a bunch of tribes living in close harmony with the nature. It has encouraged a kind of condescending colonial gaze among Indians, towards the coloured population of these countries. The intellectual urban population and financially well off Africans are erased from these narratives. The irony becomes striking when we consider that India celebrates the adage ‘Unity in Diversity,’ yet frequently reduces the African continent to a homogeneous, disaster-ridden entity; this singular narrative continues to be circulated and reinforced among many Indians.

   My point here is to make deeper engagements possible between the citizens of various countries of Global South. India posing to be strength behind the group, must strive to entangle the web of single stories that reduce deeper public engagements across the oceans. Indian Diplomacy must create a space for reflecting the reality across the countries of Global South. It should not mirror the prejudices of the western world.  India need to extend a helping hand for those countries in crises, but at the same time,  the government, diplomats, media and other intellectuals must make the efforts to transmit multiple shades of narratives from the lands in peril. This saves them from prejudices. Ultimately, the move can hold India closer to the socio-political landscape of Global South.