Nation Geografic's India vs. India's India

The confident Gaze by Shekhar Deshponde brings to light an important issue. He has an extreme claim that National Geographic is covering up truth and exploiting people all over the world for the pleasure of the western eye. Deshpodees article highlights the magazine's May 1997 issue India turning Fifty . Deshpone accuses the photographers of not telling the whole story. He says, "From he worn out bricks to the tobacco stains on the teeth the photographers are rich in their content, but entirely dishonest in their relationship to the environment or the context. It is as if that world needs to be posed in the appropriate way to the westerns observer, he could not see it in it's bare essentialities"(par13). He is saying National Geographic is misrepresenting reality. The pictures in the magazine are all about looking beautiful and artistic. One example of the artistic photograph is on the cover of the India Turning Fifty issue. The picture is a close up of a boy covered with red Holli paint. The image has sharp eye catching contrasts with the boys clear dark eyes, the red paint and a rustic grey wall behind him. To the western eye he looks so interesting and mysterious. This sets him apart as different. Set against the grey wall it seems his life is rustic and definitely not modern. The boy has a sort of curious look on his face that could make the westerner feel like he is unfamiliar with the technology of the camera. All this makes for a strikingly interesting image. Look a bit deeper. The boy must be around 9 or 10 at least. It doesn't look like he is having fun but from the paint you can tell is must be the religious holiday were you go around throwing colorful paint on everyone. The boy looks so unnatural standing there not smiling. He should be running around throwing paint on people with his friends. look a bit deeper still. The boy's thin hollow face looks like he is probably malnourished. His lips look cracked and dry which might indicate other heath issues. But the picture is not saying "help make sure this boy has clean watter" it is saying "Look how exotic he is". Deshponde comments that. "[National Geographic] is quite sensitive to trouble spots and trouble contexts; it dose not pretend to evade such situations. But while it covers or represents such issues or situations, it can sanitize and even beautify the blood and the gore of the conflict"(par12). Deshpode goes on to accuse the west of using suffering as entertainment. Concerning the article on India he says. " It provides innocuous details of life in India, without any reference tot he real troubles of the people or the global conditions in which the country is implicated in"(par20). He is saying National; geographic has a very narrow lens and is not helpful to truly understand what is going on around the world.