Sizing Up Our Standards

Sizing Up Our Standards

1988 2 February 9 Sizing Up Our Standards (208) Every second-rate journalist, author or poet receives accolades, and is hailed as an Islamic authority, and what is worse, the raisers of provocative slogans are carried shoulder-high as the saviours of the nation.

Thanks to the setting of high standards in Western countries, anything which falls even slightly below par is summarily rejected. Quite the reverse is true of India and other developing countries where, in the absence of generally acceptable standards, there is much in the sphere of culture which receives undeserved recognition.

This state of affairs is perhaps worst in Muslim countries. There, every second-rate journalist, author or poet receives accolades, and is hailed as an Islamic authority, and what is worse, the raisers of provocative slogans are carried shoulder-high as the saviours of the nation.

Symptomatic of this easy-come easy-go attitude is the admission made by Tom Alter, a young Urdu-speaking American actor, in an interview with an Indian national daily. He said, quite frankly, that he preferred India to America as a place to work. Asked for his reasons, he said that American cinematic standards were so exacting that it was quite common for films to flop and lose money, whereas in India, even quite bad films could be successes at the box office.