Over the last two decades, the caricature of India has altered to include the south

National caricatures can be funny things.

Rarely do they tell the full story. Take the example of England. Till about two decades ago, many surveys showed that when people abroad thought of Englishmen, they

imagined fellows in bowler hats and pin-striped suits who behaved with a stiff formality. These days, however, the image of the Englishman abroad – especially on the Continent – is more likely to be that of the football hooligan or of a lad who drinks too much and is always looking for places to vomit in public.

 

   Partly, it is that England has changed. But it is also that caricatures usually emphasise one region or one class of a country. The bowler-hatted Englishman came from the south and was usually upper middle-class. The yobs, on the other hand, come from all over and are not necessarily middle-class.

 

   So it is with India. Till two decades ago, if you asked foreigners for their impressions of India and Indians, you would end up with the standard basket of images: Maharajas, the Taj Mahal, tandoori chicken, Sikhs dancing the bhangra, famine-affected victims in Bihar or Orissa, and such Bollywood stars as Amitabh Bachchan.

 

   As caricatures go, this was not particularly unfair. After all, most national caricatures involve an element of distortion and fantasy.

 

   But here’s the thing: nearly every one of these images was derived from north India.

 

   As far as international perceptions of India – especially at the level of caricature – were concerned, south India simply did not exist. The furthest south these images went was Bombay. Even the Maharajas tended to be north Indians like the Jaipurs or the Udaipurs rather than, say, the Maharaja of Mysore.

 

   One of the most interesting, if relatively unsung, developments of the last two decades is that the caricature of India has altered to include the south. One Indian city that many Americans in the mid-West have heard of is Bangalore because they are afraid that their jobs are going to be Bangalore-d, that is, they are going to be moved to the capital of Karnataka where white-collar workers are better educated, more efficient and demand less money.

 

   Partly, it is the software revolution that has given the south its due share of prominence. North Indians may fret and fume, but the truth is that the transformation of India’s image has been largely achieved by the success of our info-tech services. Almost without exception, the geniuses of our info-tech sector have been drawn from the south. More to the point, the software engineers who Americans come across in their cities – or in Silicon Valley – tend to be south Indians.

 

   If you look at references to India in popular American culture you will find little evidence of the north. The Indian characters in such shows as the Simpsons are clearly non-north Indians. Kumar, in the Harold and Kumar movies, is a Gujarati and is even played by a Gujarati actor. When you see Indian characters playing small roles in American TV shows, they tend to be south Indian techies and doctors or Gujarati motel owners. Even the most successful Indian character on American TV – Suresh in Heroes – is a south Indian with a science background.

 

   The only rival to the rise of the south in popular culture terms is the rise of Bombay. Bollywood is a global phenomenon and Indian popular music is now played all over the world. But even there, south Indians manage to steal the show. The Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire went to two south Indians who the West had never heard of previously. Of those two, Resul Pookutty may remain relatively obscure in the West (like Gulzar, a north Indian who also won an Oscar) but A.R. Rahman is now the world’s best-known Indian musician.

 

"After several decades during which north India represented India all over the world, the balance is finally being redressed."

   As far as the West is concerned, Rahman epitomizes Bollywood music. A few years before the release of Slumdog Millionaire, Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Bombay Dreams became a hit largely on the basis of Rahman’s music and one of its songs even entered the British charts. (That song was a rewrite of a Rahman number from a south Indian film.)

 

   The south Indian film industries have not had the same impact as Bollywood (though the world’s best-known Indian director, Manoj Shyamalan is a south Indian) but at least in the East, that might be changing. Each time I go to Singapore I am startled by the fact that when they talk about India’s biggest star, they don’t mean Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan. They mean Rajinikanth. In Japan, Rajini’s movies have acquired a cult status and south Indian cinema has a much greater presence than Bollywood.

 

   But, of course, there is a long way to go. Indian food is much more influenced by the south within Indian than it is abroad. In a recent poll, conducted by Outlook magazine, the masala dosa beat tandoori chicken for the right to be regarded as India’s national dish. Abroad, however, north Indian food still has the edge. You will find relatively few south Indian restaurants and when you ask Westerners what Indian dishes they are familiar with, it will be tandoori chicken, north Indian curries, chicken tikka and samosas that they will name.

 

   I am not sure that this will change very much in the years to come. If you were to ask my personal opinion, then south Indian cuisines are vastly more sophisticated than their north Indian counterparts. It is hard to find a single cuisine in Indian that has the complexity of the food of Kerala, for instance. But south Indian food relies on the interplay of spices to achieve its effects and Westerners don’t really understand spicing.

 

   So, it is with folk art and handicrafts. Indians may value the saris of Kanjeevaram and rave about the traditions of the south but what passes for Indian culture is largely derived from Gujarat and Rajasthan. Almost every print that Westerners think of as being typically Indian is usually a Rajasthani pattern. Because the designs of the south lack the immediacy of western-Indian handicrafts they may find it more difficult to gain acceptance abroad.

 

   But these are quibbles. The overwhelming trend is clear. After several decades during which north India represented India all over the world, the balance is finally being redressed.

 

   And the south shall rise again.