Hypocrisy of Indian Celebrities’ Selective Activism

Celebrities from Bollywood a.k.a India’s Hindi film Industry are some of the colossal influencers in the country. They hold enormous power to impress ideas upon the conscious minds of large fan base they command, which they use for mere lip service and phoning in their voice for social causes. This is how their activism can put in a nutshell as mentioned by this Twitter user:

https://twitter.com/vishj05/status/1268239467023708160

Unless you are dwelling under a rock, in spite of having access to the internet, you must have known about the protests happening across major parts of the world against police brutality and racism that has reached an insufferable extent in present day world. The campaign – Black Lives Matter – has substantially gained momentum that has galvanized the world to take notice of the brutality faced by African-Americans in US. This could become an endeavor that could bring about much needed ideal changes in the society, but those chnages could take an epoch.

Now, what is Bollywood’s connection with the Black Lives Matter campaign, you ask?

Good question, and here’s the answer: hypocrisy and convenience of selective activism.

Let me put forth at the outset: I don’t hate Bollywood although I find issues with a lot of things about them. So, this is not a tirade that comes out due to some specific hatred for it. There are artists who are vocal about things that concern the environment and the social/moral/economic fabric of the country, but unfortunately they are in minority.

That being said, this is about the disingenuous majority of Bollywood celebs who maintain radio silence to things that need their voice and turn into megaphones when opportunity arises to gain some woke points.

So, I present to you a list of the aforementioned celebrity charlatans who seem to support the Black Lives Matter campaign on social media, but in reality they couldn’t care less about any color so long as their brand gets them their cash register ringing.

 

Disha Patani

This famous Bollywood celebrity’s heart must have bled to see the atrocities faced by blacks and other people of color. But Lo and behold. She is the same person who endorses fairness cream that promises to find your lost fairness.

 

 

 Sonam Kapoor

Daughter of another prominent Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, also wasn’t behind in this race to be a woke celebrity to share her support for the BLM campaign through  her Instagram story in which she displayed a quote from Desmond Tutu. So, it’s obvious that she doesn’t care about the color, right? right? right? Then what why would she endorse a fairness cream?

 

Deepika Padukone

 

Yet another Bollywood actress who is known for her talent and good choices of movies (western movie going audience might or mightn’t remember her for her stint in Hollywood with this Vin Diesel flick: XXX- Return of Xander Cage) decided to jump in and show her support by also sharing a quote in her Instagram story. I think by now you’d know where I am going with this. So, here you go.

 

Priyanka Chopra

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Priyanka (@priyankachopra)

 

Of course! The self-proclaimed Beyonce of Bollywood who made some noise in west by marrying another American celeb Nick Jonas also had to show her support and write profound piece on her social media platform about the unfortunate victim George Floyd and went on to call it… wait for it…..   … race war. Yup! She thinks the entire thing is a race war, while in fact the protests happening are against a particular race being long oppressed by another race. Well, that just goes to show how he perceives this matter, but even for a moment if you consider that her heart is in the right place and she thinks there must be equity when it comes to color, then how does she explain this?

And the men in Bollywood are also not far behind when it comes to endorsing fairness and making it into a substantial market for beauty conscious people in the country. Take a look at these male stars, ShahRukh Khan, John Abraham and Shahd Kapur who unabashedly endorse or have endorsed fairness creams.

 

 

Bias against color is a long social spite that is practiced by Indians for a long time. Majority of people with fair complexion consider dark complexion repulsive, which ca perennially makes others conscious of their complexion and causes a sub conscious sense of inferiority complex.

 

The idea behind putting this piece here is not to instigate online witch hunts against these stars. I do not personally hold any ill will against them, but what I do abhor about them is that they take activism for granted and mock them for get few woke points since it is convenient for them. Being superstar and commanding huge influence gives them the power to do voice their opinion  against critical matters in their own backyard, such as bias against color, oppression faced by minorities, incompetent leaders in power, communal discord, but they choose to play safe, which still makes sense if they prefer to stay neutral in order not to invite unnecessary controversy. But if they do wish to partake in activism, then they must be called out for the hypocritic advantage taken by them.

 

On To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch and heroism

I have recently had the chance of reading this novel, and I must say it has rightfully earned its position in the annals of literature as one of the greatest modern classics. If you haven’t read this novel, then I sincerely urge you to read it, and if you read it during your high school or middle school days as a part of a literary studies project, I would still urge you to read it again.

I am going to proceed with this post assuming that you have read To Kill a Mockingbird sometime recently or at least at a point in past from which you can still recollect the plot, characters and nub of the story. Also, this is not a review of the book, but an opinion piece on one of the primary characters and its reflection on the present era.

Although the book’s central character is a six year old girl, it is the principal character’s father (Atticus Finch) who I found to be the most inspiring figure, to an extent where I would consider him to be the greatest fictional hero of all time. I do comprehend that the universe of fiction is brimming with characters who have accomplished heroic feat, but for me Atticus Finch takes the honor, and there is an underlying reason behind this.

To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by a six year old old, and it takes place in 1930s America, when the aberrations of prejudices against African-Americans were normalized and seen as a standard for a customary social structure by majority of white men and women.

Save for handful of characters such as central character herself, Scout, her brother, Jem; their widowed father, Atticus; and their affable neighbor, Ms. Maudi; all but entire white population of the town that the story is set in saw nothing wrong in racial injustice. An act of empathy or support to people of color would wreak revulsion of the officious community of white people. 

So, as the story goes, Atticus Finch, a middle-aged lawyer, is appointed to defend a case for an African-American who has been falsely accused of violating a white woman.

To Kill a Mockingbird might have paved way for some of the Hollywood movies to scarcely set the character arc of their protagonists on Atticus Finch’s plot line. Avatar, Dancing With the Wolves and The Last Samurai follow a trope where the protagonist, who belongs to a certain powerful majority, fights for the OTHERS who are seen as enemies by his own folks, because he is motivated by the fact that his people are ready to put the minority populace in harm’s way just to satiate their fiendish interest and prejudices. Of course, there is a minor difference when it comes to these movies and the novel: unlike the protagonists from the aforementioned movies, Atticus Finch does not seem to be teetering in indecision whether he should stand for the one who has been wronged, but he sticks to his duty right from the beginning because he knows that every innocent has every right to seek justice in a fair world, and he sticks to it even when it rakes severance from some of his own people.

A still from the film adaptation of the novel.

Atticus Finch is not a stereotypical Gen Z hero: a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist with a suit of iron armor, fighting diabolic monsters and aliens. He is just a common man with a typical job and a small family in a sleepy town.

What makes his heroism relatable is that Atticus Finch could be anyone, me, you, yes, you right there reading this blog post,  your siblings, your parents, your children, your neighbor, anyone.

Atticus’s character has ostensibly full knowledge of what his conscientious action towards his duty will wreak, and he still proceeds to do what he is supposed to, a trait that many of us lack in today’s world teeming with iniquity. We are afraid that questioning people in power or the government’s incompetence  will get us antagonized in the eye of public, and we will be labelled as anti-nationals; questioning religious charlatans will wreak the havoc of rabid, fanatic followers; questioning the rise of fascist powers will get us labeled as anti-state; questioning the unfair exploitation at the corporate house will get us tagged an contemptuous incompetent employees; basically we avoid going against bullies when we see them stomping on the weak, because we don’t want to be seen as someone who is against them, lest we see the bully wreak havoc on us.

Doing what is fair and right is seen as an act of naivety  in today’s vulpine world. While racism, jingoism, xenophobia, casteism and classism is becoming a norm in majority in many parts of the world, shunning these prejudices is seen as an act of rebellion by the majoritarian establishments.

People who vehemently support these unjust prejudices seek the validation of the majority. Maybe the rebellion of one Atticus Finch to do the right thing may look inconsequential in influencing the society at large; however, if many come forward and do what Atticus Finch did, it could help  inspire other majoritarians to stop being mere spectators and come forward to shed  their outlook on how they view minorities.

We see a similar stamp of his objective’s purity in many real-life figures from the past. Take, Nelson Mandela, for example, or Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. There are many more examples of individuals from past and present on whom we could see the silhouette of Atticus Finch. They knew that the path to justice and fairness is paved with unspeakable malice of the oppressors, but they still strode the path of rectitude and fought for the oppressed.

To conclude, my take away from this classic literary piece and its essential character was a timeless reminder that heroism does not always have to be an ostentatious display of brawniness, that standing up for what’s right is not easy, but always necessary.