Comments on: The Magic of India (for White People)

By: Bridging the Social and the Spiritual | Social Justice Peace and Development 2013

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 06:52:30 +0000

[…] the oldest religions, and spiritual epiphanies. I was very mistaken, probably because of this myth (http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/02/08/the-magic-of-india-for-white-people/), and am not even too disappointed by […]

By: Sociological Images | The Plaid Bag Connection

Sociological Images | The Plaid Bag Connection — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:05:25 +0000

[…] The magic of India (for white people) […]

By: Mocha in the Family Latte: Race on American screens | Samira Ahmed

Mocha in the Family Latte: Race on American screens | Samira Ahmed — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:58:22 +0000

[…] The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – India as one giant Magical Negro […]

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:04:00 +0000

I’m not so sure it’s the magical negro thing. The trailer suggests that a change in their lives and the removal of certain inhibitions has allowed the characters to shake loose their prior limits and enjoy life again. It could have happened anywhere. For the viewer it simply provides a cultural counterpoint and some exotic comic relief.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:41:00 +0000

*beneficiaries, rather than benefactors. They aren’t those either, though!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:40:00 +0000

I’m not a sociologist so I guess I’m not really qualified to comment, but I am British and I saw this movie in full a couple of weeks ago. The focus (for Indian and British characters alike) is on not letting social barriers like prejudice or expectation get in the way of doing what you love in life. All the characters feed from each other, the ‘white privileged people’ are not benefactors with India facilitating their happiness and the only trials they overcome are in their own heads. Same for the Indian characters. Older Brits are quite often prejudiced towards South Asian immigrants and their British Asian descendants and and I thought they were very thoughtfully portrayed as those issues were tackled.

Incidentally there is a side story about a man who had a gay relationship when he was a teen/young man growing up in India, and had left after they had been exposed and he felt he’d brought shame to the family. When he returns, he finds his former lover and the woman he has married, who knows who he is, that they were in love, and in front of her they embrace, dispelling the British character’s long-held belief that he had brought shame on the honour of the family (there are many preconceptions in Britain regarding Indian family honour) and in fact nicely demonstrating that life goes on and people are people wherever you are.

I guess perhaps this trailer doesn’t do the film justice, in which I recommend you watch the whole film, perhaps in a more British, rather than Western, context and see if it changes your views. I guess perhaps it won’t, and as I say I could be wrong as I haven’t studied these things, but it might!!

By: Gita Navarro

Gita Navarro — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:35:00 +0000

More Dev Patel, ugh! there are other actors in India.

By: :(

:( — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:50:00 +0000

I was heated in my last response.
It really is a problematic book though. If you didn’t notice them the first time around, read more of this (and other) sites and then re-read the book.

By: Also it's trite

Also it's trite — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:47:00 +0000

Are you kidding? A Passage to India exemplifies the trope!

Saying that because Aziz is an interesting character therefore all of the problematic aspects of the book are washed away, is like saying Memoirs of a Geisha is okay because the main character is easy to empathize with.

If you need specific examples of how shitty it is, look me up. (jk. learn to be critical instead)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:46:00 +0000

Maybe let’s phrase things more on the line of Orientalism and essentalizing, and less on the ‘Magical Negro’. For the sake of clarity.

By: LifeOnEarth

LifeOnEarth — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Just be honest with yourselves.
It’s not about the country itself, it’s about being special and unique in a setting where you are a minority and can feel exotic yourself. that wouldn’t work in Maine or Russia, but it would work in India, Africa or any other country in Asia or where they have brown skin.
You, as a white person such as these people in the movie, want to feel like “Here I am alone in a foreign country where I am the only one with white skin, the brown skinned people will look at me and I will feel special and like i’m in the 1800 century”. You want to look down your nose at them and feel superior, that’s what I have noticed anyway. Some of them thrive on it like the character in the awful movie eat pray love. It’s pathetic. Some of them look at you like you’re a genie “Teach me something you wise one”. I laugh, literally because it’s so embarrassingly pathetic. A lot of them feel like they’re the default human being and everyone else is just a character in their movie (life). Props here to guide, teach and serve them.
I wonder where they’ve gotten that idea….

By: Alex Cranz

Alex Cranz — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Saw the movie last night. The trailer harps the “magical India” spiel much more than the actual film. They even address the whole “magical India” thing in the film. MUCH better than this trailer would suggest.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:47:00 +0000

exactly! no, India is what it IS; a country. it doesn’t need white-provement…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:46:00 +0000

yep!! barf

By: Hochs101

Hochs101 — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:26:00 +0000

I see what you’re talking about, but I don’t think I view it as racism, at least not in a negative way. It seems more like movie makers using white characters to connect to a white and multicultural audience, to make them see India in a new, more loving, beautiful light, instead of the ways they’d be portrayed on Fox.