Essay 3.1
Coldplay’s “Hymn for the Weekend”
The geographical differences have been neutralized by the advent of technology and scientific discoveries, thus letting people from one culture explore the cultural environment of a totally different corner of the world. Thus, one might come to understand that the intertwined relationships between the nations and the predominance of globalization have opened avenues for cultural exchange among communities and ethnicities of the world. Now, one can take into account the recent music video released by the famous band, Coldplay, titled “Hymn for the Weekend.” The West has this tendency to have an orientalist approach while seeing the Indian culture and society. The music video “Hymn for the weekend” stereotypes Indian culture because it exoticizes Indian religious practices in a way that erases the religious diversity of India.
What is missing in this video is evident right from the inception. The video goes on to portray Chris Martin walking around the streets of Mumbai. The video shows Beyonce as a Bollywood actress. She is seen dancing in an exotic nature, with her costumes having too much bling. Her dance steps are somewhat identical to Bharatnatyam steps (that is a traditional dance form in India). The video goes on to incorporate some very popular religious stereotypes so as to portray the picture of India. One cannot simply miss the celebrations of Holi in the course of the video that shows the kids running around in joy draped in the colors. Now, it is true that Holi is a very popular cultural event in India. But, this cannot be seen as one of the major markers of the culture as there is more to it for sure. Now, the portrayal of the celebrations of Holi coupled with the scenes with the sadhus (religious people or monks in Hinduism) in their saffron robes make the stereotypical perspective get exposed to one and all. India is primarily known all over the globe for its diversified population who differ from one another in culture, practices, religions and languages. It has to be noted that the country of India has population who hail from mainly six religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Apart from this, as many as 387 languages are spoken in the country. This proves that the stereotypical and blatant portraiture of Hindu culture and customs in a music video can never suffice for the representation of the Indian society and culture. However, this contextual music video by Coldplay goes on to shun the various other religious, cultural or ethnic communities that are present in large numbers in the country of India.
It needs to be reckoned that the Holi is a celebration of colors among the Hindu community of the country. Again, the sadhus represent only the Hindu religion. The way the sadhus are portrayed in the video also promote the exoticism of the portrayal as one of them is seen balancing on a pole (something that can be described to have its own theatrical value). This is followed by showing a kid guised as Lord Shiva, a popular Hindu God in India. Now, there is simply no representation or portrayal of the other ethnic and religious communities. It must be mentioned in this context that Hindus are the majority in India. As such, this video by Coldplay undermines the importance of other communities in India so as to portray the dominant community- something that can be seen as a subtle expression of propagating hegemony of Hindus over the religious communities. This is truly not supportable in any way as it is a blatant expression of certifying the cultural hegemony of Hindus in a greatly diversified nation. It is surely not expected on the part of the Western culture to shun or not acknowledge the presence of Muslims, Christians or people of other religions in India. Now, all of this is supplemented by the low-angle shot of the Hindu temple in the slum area that is shown in the video. This cinematic technique can be comprehended to be aiming to show the paramount importance of the religious structure- something that undermines the presence of the religious community once again. It has to be understood that Indian culture cannot be represented by Hinduism only. Toward the end of the video, the portraiture of people dressed up as Hanuman, another figure of apotheosis in Hindu culture further reiterates the stereotype.
The country of India is secular as per the constitution of the nation and the vast religious diversity that can be found constitutes the very essence of the Indian culture holistically. As such, the hegemonic portrayal of the Hindu culture in this music video by the famous band only adds to the homogenization and generalization on the part of the Western people to understand the cultural identity of Indian society. There are a huge number of Muslim people in the country, while Christians too constitute some part of the total population. The other religions might be having less number of people as followers of the faith, but the people are very well assimilated into the society of the country. There is an ambiance of religious tolerance in the country where people from various religious identities live with one another in a locale or a city. Now, one can understand how this facet of the Indian society never finds any representation in the video by Coldplay. One does not find even a single shot portraying any religious marker of Islam, Christianity or any other religion. If one describes or comprehends this video to be a mesh of documentary photography, it would be totally wrong. Instead of documenting the real scenario, this video goes on to generalize and establish the omniscience of Hinduism.
This is also the greatest flaw of the video as it intertwines the Hindu cultural identity with the Western concept of Indian ethnic and cultural identity. In fact, Hindu identity or culture is just a part of the larger Indian society. So, it cannot be taken as the holistic representation of the Indian population in terms of their ethnicity and cultural identity. One might present a counterargument that Coldplay is not in a process of portraying the Indian culture as a whole and is simply exploring one of the major cities, Mumbai, to have a view of the people living there. But, this argument would surely be a flawed one as there are a large number of people belonging to other religious identities as well who live in Mumbai. Hence, showing temple, monks and Holi only work to generalize the perspective toward understanding or portraying one of the cities in India. Moreover, Mumbai can very well be seen as a microcosm of the Indian society with its varied masses who come from various parts of the country. Hence, the representation with its endeavor at objectivity is a flawed one, indeed. While the intention of Coldplay might have been to portray India and its people, it has evoked more questions rather than showing how India and its people truly are.
While one might present the counterargument that the video is an attempt to show India as colorful and positive with exuberance and vigor, the argument would fall flat against the stereotypes shown. One simply finds the things shown to be an attempt to show the exotic India (the country’s stereotypical view in the West). As Steven Johnson stated in his article Watching TV Makes You Smarter, “Conventionally, narratives demarcate the line between texture and substance by inserting cues that flag or translate the important data” (633). However, in the video by Coldplay, the audience only sees the stereotypical data, and not a proper representation. Thus, it can be concluded that the contextual video is nothing but a flawed representation of India that is based on delving into some common stereotypes. The visual work fails to show the ‘real’ Indian culture, society and people. Instead, it adds to the list of stereotypical, ethnocentric and biased view of India by the Western culture and artwork.
Works Cited
Hymn for the Weekend. Coldplay. N.p., 5 Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
Johnson, Steven. “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”. Seeing and Writing 4. Ed. Donald McQuade and Chrsitine McQuade. Boston & New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2010. 627-638. Print.
