I don’t want to detract from the intensely sad news emerging out of Sri Lanka however I came across this ad on instagram and I found it rather amusing. Anyone who has read my views over the years, will know my thoughts on this so there is no need to repeat them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwmG1FlAMnj/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=jv082jxrsh6f
Virat Kohli is known to have an “arrogant” streak (I can’t confirm either way) but him doing this ad demonstrates the same judgement SRK had when doing Zero, When Harry met Sejal or RAone.
Perhaps I’m being overly critical but a little tact and a lot of taste will go a very long way in building an International Reputation for both himself and Brownitude (if such a thing exists) abroad..
As an aside King Khan speaks on India’s diversity:
"1600 languages and dialects in our country. At every 10 kms dialect changes. 100s of religions co exist. Being diverse is a good thing. Being divisive is not. Like Art has no religion, a country has no religion":@iamsrk #IdeaOfIndia pic.twitter.com/snrBw4ZbkM
— Faridoon Shahryar (@iFaridoon) April 22, 2019
I was a bit curious by the 100s of religions bit. MJ was telling us the night of our Jallianwala Bagh podcast that pre the 1880/90 census that Hinduism was cohered from several different schools of thoughts.
The complexity that is Hinduism is of course difficult to define as is Hindu and Hindi. The ancient Persians dubbed the land Hindustan, which then got applied to the indigenous religion and language. But Hindu means many things to many people and so does Hindi. I do notice that there is deliberate misappropriation of the label when Hinditvas conflate “Hindi language family” to Shuddh Hindi.
During 1890s in East #Africa, #Hindustani (Urdu) became a dominant language among East Africans and south Asian migrants, where many Somalis spoke the language with ease, to the extent that Sultan Sayyid Bin Sultan of Zanzibar (Tanzania) spoke fluent #Urdu. pic.twitter.com/xBN539wM0i
— Abhishek Avtans अभिषेक अवतंस 🌐 (@avtansa) April 23, 2019
I’ll be doing a linguistics podcast on Friday with the gentleman below but this was a painful status. The takedown and attack of the Urdu language is probably one of the most heinous sins of the 19th century; probably was a Coloniser attempt to divide India after the Mutiny. It was a spectacularly successful policy and it’s interesting to note the one “Hindi newspaper” pre-Mutiny survived for only a year.
Anyone who has read my views will sort of know my thoughts on such pieces and there is no need to repeat them.
Sorry Zack, but do you mind elaborating on what’s wrong with the ad (or Kohli’s judgment) for the unenlightened (like me)?
He does have a(deserved) reputation of being a brat on the cricket field, but I don’t follow his antics otherwise.
Arguably India’s sporting star needs American Tourister to be recognised “abroad.”
Technically it may be true but it demonstrates poor judgment. The Indian elite have to broaden their scope from the Desh to the world..
why is the dude in a canada/pac NW like setting, but he has an australian accent that also turns indian? the whole thing is super confusing to me
I imagine they are some Scandi-Dutch types?
Brownitude is a cool neologism — I hope it catches on. Senghor would definitely approve… now we just have to make it exist.
I thought I had coined it in BP 1.0 but I just googled it and it seemed that Razib used the term in 2006!
You are now tempting me to watch Zero ?
Btw VK did an American Tourister ad ‘with’ Cristiano Ronaldo as well. You might cringe at it more.
Ironic part is Kohli himself was embroiled (and trolled) last year in whole “Self-respect starts at home” thing when he did his own version of “If you dont like our cricket , why don’t you leave India?” when a fan honestly made a point that he liked Australian cricket more than Indian cricket
VK is the typical Desi Elite; he’s a slave to the Coloniser but arrogant towards his own.
His type abounds Pakistan and India. The liberalstanis and Hinditivas who tore apart our syncretic culture.
Well, why even listen to people speaking outside their expertise area? Why listen to Sharukh Khan on important topics if he is an actor? “100s of religions co exist.” – Ha ha…. Now I can sleep peacefully. I personally felt dumb to click on his video. For that matter why take even Kohli seriously outside his cricketing sphere. He’s a great batsman, nothing more.