Apu’s World

Does the headline from this article in the Telegraph, UK, “Cherie Blair brings ‘new culture’ to aspiring businesswomen of India” strike anyone else as unnecessarily patronising? (Terms like ‘white man’s burden’ and ‘bringing the light to the natives’ come to mind quite easily).

Of course, one doesn’t blame the Asian Women of Achievement (AWA) Awards team for the ludicrous headline that the newspaper chose to adopt. Still, I am curious as to what exactly Cherie Blair, a patron for the awards, meant when she says, “I gather, actually, that there are awards [in India], but they are not the same as a Pinky award, because if you have got a Pinky award it’s seriously researched and seriously peer-judged, and you are up against great competition – not somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody else. That’s the culture we want to bring over to Mumbai.”

For starters, there is some serious generalisation and condescension happening there. Yes, some awards in India may not exactly be thoroughly researched, some may involve nepotism, some may even involve money changing hands. But to tar all of them with the same brush and assume that Indian industry has no history of professionally done awards is a case of some big-time looking down the nose (and without one’s glasses too).

And to imply claim that they will bring it to Mumbai; well, I suppose hubris knows no limits. If I seem irked, it is because I am - how terrible to bring in an award that proposes to support women, and then do it in such a patronising manner. This is not an example of women’s solidarity; rather, it is a classic example of the We will teach you what you need to know manner that irks activists in non-Western countries.

Blair’s comment made me very keen to find out what exactly the AWA award process is, so I hopped over to the AWA website, which gives you on the process - exactly nothing. The nomination form (PDF) tells you briefly who is eligible, but about the judging process - zilch. Now, of course, I’m not saying they are not seriously researched and seriously peer-judged , but while looking down their noses at local awards, they might consider actually detailing their own process on the website.

And of course, they could also go look at TiE’s Stree Shakti awards, which do indeed mention how they go about it.

(Also, I seem to have missed linking to this - the 8th Carnival of Feminists is up here, with a lot of stuff specifically on young women and young feminists).

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