Hair and the clash of cultures

The March 2009 issue of the fashion and beauty magazine Allure featured an article The Locks Market about the global trade in human hair to make wigs and hair extensions. It focuses on the Tirumala temple in India, where Hindu women have their hair shorn as a gesture of humility and thankfulness.

Tirumala

The article describes the process that the hair undergoes from being shorn to being made into extensions. The hair changes hands from temple auctions to Indian hair brokers who sell it to Indian factories that sort, clean, and fumigate hair, which in turn sell it to wig and extension makers in Italy or Tunisia. Then the finished products are sold to distributors all around the world.

It’s a fascinating read, but it’s only part of the story. Orthodox Jewish women often cover their heads with a wig. A rabbinical ruling forbade the purchase and wearing of wigs from hair that came from Hindu temples such as Tirumala, which are regarded as polytheistic and idolatrous. These rulings also apply to getting rid of the wigs – one cannot sell them, as it only perpetuates the trade. When Orthodox Jewish women in New York discovered that the human hair in their wigs came from Hindu temples, they destroyed the wigs by burning them.

This article is cross-posted at The Style Page.  Afrobella links to it in her article Where Does Your Hair Come From?

Ganges

I was channel surfing (who says that the gene for channel surfing is on the Y chromosome?) and discovered a 3-part documentary called Ganges being shown on the Travel Channel. This documentary was produced by the BBC.

Rivers of India

One recurring theme was the co-existence of humans and animals, whether it was thieving macaques in Rishikesh or ducks being herded. The most interesting part featured fishermen using tethered otters to chase fish  [VIDEO] (not that I support tethering creatures that were meant to swim free). The otters were kept hungry in order to chase fish. Once the fishermen made their haul, they lifted up the wooden framed net to make sure that the otters didn't get in. However, the otters were treated to the leftovers.

Otter fishing on the Ganges

India never looked so picturesque. While the ecological problems were discussed, we were not presented with images of pollution and misery. Instead, we were treated to images of the Gangetic dolphin swimming in the waters of the Ganges.

Gangetic dolphin

While I have not listened to NPR's radio documentary The Ganges: A Journey into India (broadcast in April 2008), it is evident from the text descriptions that NPR had a need (or an agenda?) to portray India as a problem country.

The Beeb's TV documentary Ganges may be purchased at Amazon.com.

Readers might be interested in the three-CD set Ganga: Music of the Ganges, which features folk music from Gurmukh to the Bay of Bengal, available now through Amazon.com.

NOTE: The Bahu of Bengal is an Amazon.com affiliate and receives a small commission for sales on Amazon.com via this blog.

Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia

Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia by Thant Myint-U
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a travelogue: the first third covers Thant Myint-U's travels through Burma; the second third, his travels through Yunnan province in China; and the final third, his travels in India - New Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta), and finally, India's northeast.

Burma borders Yunnan Province and India's northeast, and connects India and China. Because it also borders the sea, it might also end the isolation of the land-locked Yunnan province and India's northeast. China has invested more aggressively in Burma than India, and insurgencies in its northeast hinder India from increasing its influence in Burma.

Map of Myanmar (Burma)

I regard Kolkata as a second home, as my in-laws live there, and I resent the popular characterization of Kolkata as a poor god-forsaken city rescued only by a European nun (Mother Theresa). For this reason, I appreciate Thant Myint-U's chapter on Kolkata.

If Thant Mying-U's name sounds familiar, it is because he is the grandson of former UN Secretary-General U Thant.
View all my reviews

Inundation in the Bengal delta

Namaste, 

Scientist Dipen Bhattacharya studies sea level rises in the Bengal delta over millennia, with implications for sea level rise and inundation in the coming decades.

Source: Uploaded by user via Bahu of Bengal on Pinterest

This image of the Ganges River Delta was captured February 1, 2000 by Landsat 7.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel

Namaste, 

Too often, Westerners associate India’s independence movement with only Gandhi and Nehru. IMO Gandhi and Nehru emasculated India. In my article The Assertive Indian, I said that Westerners should know about the efforts of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel toward India’s independence.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Now, after reading His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire by Sugata Bose, great-nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (and grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose), I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that strong personalities such as Netaji and Sardar Patel were at odds with each other. For one thing, Sardar Patel, as part of Gandhi’s wing, undermined Netaji’s becoming Congress President.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

More personally, and this was new to me, Sardar Patel’s family fought the terms of his older brother Vithalbhai’s will, which allocated a portion of his fortune to Netaji “for the political uplift of India and preferably for publicity work on behalf of India’s cause in other countries.” Vithalbahai Patel and Netaji met as they were convalescing in a sanatorium in Europe.

This is not to disparage the efforts of both Netaji and Sardar Patel toward achieving India's independence.  Both men contributed strongly to India's independence in their own ways.

Note: this article contains a link to Amazon.com.  The Bahu of Bengal is an Amazon.com affiliate, and by selecting the link and purchasing the book through that link, you support the work of this blog.