Dirty India?
Since so many people have commented on my unique perspectives (5 people), I will throw this one out as I believe it is one of the main negative perceptions people have of India. Dirty India. Or the belief that India is one big garbage heap which breeds smells, disease, and totally unsanitary lifestyles. Now this is actually not something I came up with because I actually didn’t really understand it as well.
First, I will have to say that this issue is not something confined to India. I saw it in South America, Africa, the Middle East, and hell, there are pockets of it everywhere.
Second, as I stated before, I didn’t quite understand it myself, but one day I was glancing through one of India’s English newspapers, and I saw an article about how India placed in half of the top ten dirtiest city polls but yet the culture is based on cleanliness. This article was written by an Indian, so that is why the culture information. I am sure as a foreigner, it would have stated it as “duh, everybody knows that.” Well, the above is kind of my way of saying, “if any of this is wrong, blame it on the other writer.”
Okay, lets dive right in. I can’t speak for everybody, but in the Western societies, if you say “India, cleanliness on a scale of 1-10,” I am sure it would rank in the lower three’s to two’s. Say the same thing with Africa, South America, Central America, and Canada, the answer probably wouldn’t be too far off. That’s right I said Canada. Of course, most of this poll would be answered by people who hadn’t been there as most people have their own perspectives based on the media without having first hand knowledge. I would have to say though, the average tourist would actually say the same thing so in this case, sorry India, Africa, South America, not Canada. Having actually visited these places, I do have to say that the places that I and the majority of other tourists have visited, there definitely is an issue with trash.
So, India is a filthy place. Well, yes and no. Yes, when you go outside and walk around, there is pretty much a high visibility of trash. So the answer is yes? No. This is where the yo-yoing comes into play. If you just look at the trashy areas, that’s what you are going to see, but if you look at the other areas that are clean, they won’t be trashy. “Steve, you’re an idiot.” Now, wait. Let me clarify and also go back to that article I read and the part about the clean culture. The people are taught and believe that cleanliness is next to Godliness (that’s a saying, I know, but I am not sure from what religion, but it applies.) All the prior countries I have been, it is one eyeful of people cleaning, from sun up to sun down. Without filling up a page of examples, I will revert to the furthermost scale, and you can fill in the middle. There is an Indian, African, Latino, etc. living in a mud hut with a dirt floor. You know what happens probably five times a day? They sweep their floor. That’s right, they sweep their dirt floor, scoop up the debris and loose dirt and shoosh it away. A dirt floor. That my friend is not following a logical point of view, but what it does do is follow the context of “cleanliness is next to godliness.” The majority of people have the same standards of cleanliness. Clothes cleaning is another one. Find any water source at any time of the day, and you will have some matriarch of the family out there pounding clothes into oblivion. Again, another extreme example. Out in the sticks where water is very minimal. There are usually little, what I would call a mud/slime pond. I personally wouldn’t even clean the bottoms of my shoes with the stuff, but someone will be out there as well pounding the dirt out of their clothes because “cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
The Indian clean culture can easily be explained, (now that I have read the article.) The belief is that all those excretions that your body performs, is basically a vile and detestful subject. Were talking, sweat, snot, poop, pee, blood (menstruation), body odor, and I am guessing ear wax. For the rest of us, I would have to rate it all as being at the level as human shit. I think we see the rest of the stuff as slightly less evil, but to the Indians, it is all equivalent to human shit. Back when I was staying in Arambol, Goa at that little guesthouse, they had a seasonal helper there who was kind of like the fixer guy. Well, every morning he would come at 9am, and use our restrooms. My little $2 dollar cubicle room was this little addition right next to the bathrooms. There was no wall all the way to the ceiling, so the wall just ended about head high plus a foot. I could hear every little squeek coming out of those rooms. Well, every morning, he would come in and make these disgusting lung, throat, loogie compartment, cleansing, hacking, gagging, vomiting sounds. At first I thought he drank his first bottle of Tequila or something, but it really grossed me out (I do not gross out so easily.) Every morning it was the same thing. I thought perhaps he had a cold and was trying to force it out of himself. It got to the point where I was up and out of my room by 8:30am every morning just because I didn’t want to hear it. Well, once I read the article, I finally understood. The flem/mucous/loogie thing falls under the context of devils work like I stated before. Hacking up a loogie in Indian public would be equivalent to letting loose a juicy fart during a funeral. For this reason, people will spend a few minutes gagging themselves to make sure their whole throat/lungs/ esophagus, etc. is totally free and clear before they start their day. The same goes for the eating with the right hand thing and never ever touching anything that is to be eaten with your left (remember poo cleaning hand.) The same even goes with blowing your nose. Kleenex or not, you don’t do it indoors and especially not at the dinner table. Women are also affected specifically as during times of menstruation, they are banned from using communal water areas and temples. So basically, excretions=bad. Now, I am not sure about the man excretions ie. Porn shots, but I will assume that it is frowned upon at the dinner table as well.
The same kind of mentality can also be carried over to the household. In the Indian household, the kitchen is ground zero and is kept next to godliness. I also commented about the clothes cleaning as well as keeping the grounds clean. So, if the Indians are so clean, why is their country such a garbage pit. Well, that’s the other part of the Indian mentality. Once you get out of the above guidelines, stuff doesn’t matter. The rules don’t apply. Remember how I was saying how the people would sweep up their dirt floors. Well, once they have their little trash pile, they will pick it up walk to the edge of the house or to the street, and drop the trash on the ground. Same with the trash and waste that is removed from the house, on the ground in the street or in some corner of the neighborhood. The belief being that those areas don’t matter. Your home matters, but outside of that, its fine to have trash stacked to your neck. And that is why my friends, you see a lot of trash but you don’t understand how it can be such a clean society. As tourists, we actually don’t get a chance to see into the every day life. Sure we see tourist places and mocked up areas, but in reality they are nothing of what real life is. If you spent most of your time in an Indian household, you would probably think they are some sort of clean freaks. Also, while walking around, it is infuriating to watch as locals unwrap their whatever, and just throw their wrapper on the ground. Again, it’s being dropped where it’s supposed to be, the not in the home or business area. You wouldn’t see that wrapper being dropped in someone’s home or business as those areas are to be kept next to godliness. You get it now. Pretty cool huh.
Sure, there are other fairly significant reasons such as minimal waste management resources, dynamic manufacturing growth, the refuse is food for animals, low caste people will have a chance to pick through the trash for anything of value, low education about the environment, and of course some people who know better but just are lazy, but in the general context of a society, that is why India is so dirty, but is a super clean culture.
Any 6th-8th graders who want to plagiarize this and use it as their own, go right ahead. I guarantee at least a C+/B.
Tags: clean, culture, India, trash
October 10th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
India IS filthy.
India is really just a big sewer.
There are very small pockets of decent and clean areas. Just not enough.
Just take the Local Trains in MUMBAI, CHENNAI.
You’ll know what FILTH really is!!
January 6th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Well , the problem is very simple:-
1. We dnot drive away or disallow poor people from entering our cities like in China.
2. We were quite a clean, rich and well maintained nation unless the Britishers arrived and wiin 200 yrs they increased poverty level from 6% to 66% and their mismanagement created dirty and filthy Kolkata , overcrowded Bombay to name a few . Why, western people dont understand that how can a democracy repair all the damage caused by them in 200 yrs within 60 yrs .You people first destroy and then complain for the damage to the victim.
January 28th, 2009 at 3:14 am
Do a YOUTUBE search with …UNREPORTED WORLD INDIA-”THE BROKEN PEOPLE” PART1/3.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
India is a filthy dirty place? The whole world knows already!
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:31 am
cool intelletual take on filth! India shall be known as a super clean country for the rest of the 21st Century. As professor Steve stated India has a cleanliness is godliness mentality and from there we can all hypothesize that a beautiful flower will emerge from the pile of shit that was India. To put things in perspective, India had all its goodies consistently robbed by a foreign power not to be named and all that was left was rubbish. Indians must rise up with brooms to whip the little behinds of their kids into becoming sanitation experts. Globally, everybody should talk about the omni-potent filth pervading in India and shame its government into cleaning up the place. The course has been set for a cleaner India! Let’s all wish them luck in frequent uses of broom usage.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:38 am
simonT,
Your right about the next generation being the solution. With the evolution of the western way I think more and more of the people who have gotten to see that the “cleanliness is next to godliness” applied to outside of the home makes life a lot more pleasant.
With their move to a larger middle class, I am sure it is in the making but will take some time before the “old ways” have gone to the old ways of doing stuff.
Steve
July 29th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Well India was not that dirty in 50s but became a heap of garbage later on ,I have visited Bombay in 1956 and then in 1998 and allI noticed that it became a heap of shit from a beautiful city that shouldered London in its colonial glory.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:39 pm
In conclusion: Indian care about their own houses only and don’t give a damn about public good.
August 31st, 2009 at 2:11 am
Ha HA bunch of western idiots who have not visited India talking about being clean -
this is what India gave the world - bathing process u idot westerns were not taking baths for months together
Ancient India cities has sewer lines even when u guys werre staying in caves . it was the stupid british which made the country into dirty mess it is . it took more than 200 yrs for US to be where it is so called clean compared to that at least India is doing much much better
August 31st, 2009 at 2:15 am
AND ONE MORE THING MR STEVE GOA IS NOT WHOLE INDIA - U NEED TO VISIT AT LEAST 15 STATES TO GET A SMALL HINT OF KNOWLEGE ON INDIA - EACH STATE IS A COUNTRY WITHIN ITSELF
September 7th, 2009 at 8:34 am
This issue about 3rd world cleanliness makes me laugh. I had read a similar article somewhere and a reader had posted this sentiment. - Ask the planet, who thrashes it the most? The big western nations produce more garbage in a day, than a country like India produces in an entire year. This is a fact. The streets of New York are a mask. Just because you don’t see it there as much does not make say a country like the USA clean. Sure civic sense in India is poor compared to western nations. But at least they take care of their parents, don’t sleep anything and everything that has 2 legs and don’t produce bastards in droves like western people do.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Hey Indians, (I am an Indian too) stop being defensive by blaming everyone else and the British of all people to clean up your mess.
If Indians have any pride, they will know what needs to be done.
Morons!
October 26th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
priti, you dirty indian rat, you people are the smelliest and stinkiest fucks in the world. stop blaming the british. because of civilized british, your kids eat cadburys and complan and horlicks. british introduced bar soap and shampoo and dish detergent to you filthy neanderthals.
just see ANY place around the world inhabited by indians: its dirty and it stinks: come to edison, new jersey: its now dirty and filthy like bombay. come to manama bahrain and see what the filthy indians do.
stop blaming the british…you fuckers are responsible for your own mess…you people have evolved half way from neanderthals to homosapien (human), so give it another 500 years of evolution time!
October 26th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
lol…if india invented the drainage system, why does india have the poorest sanitation in the world? what happened to your monkey brains in a few hundred years? it shrunk? lol…don’t give me that ‘civilization’ bullshit. the muslims built your taj mahal; the british made your ambassador cars (still the 50s style, don’t have brains to redesign it), railways (still indian engineer monkeys don’t have brains to create mag-lev trains).
your filthy government has 400 billion dollar surplus, yet they don’t do shit about the slumdog country.
countries that are economically lot smaller than india are clean and pristine: the people of india (not all, but the vast majority) are dirty animal-worshipping apes.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
i am an american and when i went to my engineering class one day, a bunch of graduate indian students fresh off the boat exited from the class…pooh! what a stinky trail of smell they left behind…i was suffocating.
please take a bath, cook and eat curry under a lot of ventilation (if you must eat curry) and do weekly laundry of your garments….i can’t stress this enough!
pointers for improvement of india:
1) stop being selfish: stop saying its ‘memememe’ and go and help your country and fellow citizens picking trash one by one off the street; stop corruption and start using the money to build AND MAINTAIN good infrastructure.
2) stop spending money on military: superpower doesn’t mean some imitation weapons…what it means is food, clothing, shelter for the majority of population, clean and modern infrastructure and standard of living (as in no power cuts and stable electricity)
3) give hygiene priority: ‘filthiness is next to godliness’ mentality is what majority of indians have…
4) realize that hinduism is a hoax: hinduism is a primitive way of life (not a religion) and should have no place in modern society. give priority to science and technology over religion. that’s why your neighbors: japan, s.korea and now china are well ahead of stinky indians.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Priti you idiot, the British never caused poverty in India, poverty always existed in India even before the British came. You cannot fool people.
Even before the British, the Mughals (Mongols) who ruled India had a low opinion of the monkeys of the land.
The first Mughal emperor Babur wrote in his diary Tuzk Babri: Hindustan is a country which has few pleasures to recommend it…. Indians have no idea of the charms of friendly society, of frankly mixing together, or of familiar intercourse…. They have no horses, no good grapes, or musk melons, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good food or bread in their bazaars, no bath or colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candle stick.” The Mughals were superior to their Indian counterparts in war but also considered themselves so culturally.
They had taste for the fine things in life - for beautifully designed artifacts and the enjoyment and appreciation of cultural activities They introduced many changes to Indian society and culture, including:
Centralised government which brought together many smaller kingdoms
Delegated government with respect for human rights
Persian art and culture amlagamated with native Indian art and culture
Started new trade routes to Arab and Turk lands
Mughlai cuisine
Urdu and hindi languages were formed for common Muslims and Hindus respectively
Periods of great religious tolerance
A style of architecture
Landscape gardening
A system of education that took account of pupils’ needs and culture
India did not have these before.
Babur also writes
“Hindustan is a country of few charms. Its people have no good looks. Of social intercourse, paying and receiving visits there are none; genius and capacity none; of manners none. In handicrafts and such works there is no form or symmetry, method or quality. There are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk melons or first rate foods, no ice or cold water, no good bread or cooked food in the bazaars (marketplace), no hammams (baths), no colleges, no candles, torches or candlesticks. In place of candles they have a great dirty gang they call diwati (lamp-men), who in the left hand hold a smallish wooden tripod to one corner with a thing called diya (lamp) like the top of a candle stick is fixed, having a wick in it which is as thick as the thumb. in the right hand they hold a gourd through a narrow slit made in which oil is let trickle in a thin thread when the wick need it. Great indian kings keep a hundred or two of these lamp men. This is the hindustani substitute for lamp and candle sticks! If their rulers and nobles have work at night needing candles, these dirty smelly lamp-men bring these lamps, go close up and there stand.
There is no running water not even in their gardens and residences. These residences have no charm, ventilation, regularity or symmetry. The common people AND peasants of low standing go about naked.”
M.K. Gandhi writes about Indian villages
“Instead of having graceful hamlets dotting the land, we have dung-heaps. The approach to many villages is not a refreshing experience. Often one has to shut one’s eye and stuff one’s nose; such is the surrounding dirt and offending smell.
The one thing we must definitely learn from the west is the science of sanitation.”
To get an idea of how life was in India before the British came and te efforts of the British to civilize and improve India read Katherine Mayo’s book ‘Mother India’
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300811h.html
and to all those trolls who keep on spreading lies about Britian looting India read the above book and read this
http://www.friesian.com/british.htm
February 5th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
I am from germany and living in abu dhabi and dubai since about 6 years now. Around 80% of the foreigners here are indians and the other expats from all over the world really love their nice cultivated behaviour, their good smell and the rich indian culture which they bring to this region. It is always refreshing to see them driving a car / truck / bus and how they do adapt to the traffic rules.
It is also easy to clearly identify areas / buildings where the population is mostly of indian origin.
They are different to all other people, very different….