On being declared (non) Indian
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For some years now, Archaelogical Survey of India has been charging higher entry fees to foreigners, to enter monuments under ASI control. Since most of the tourist attractions are managed by the ASI, foreign tourists sometimes pay as much as thirty to forty times more than Indian nationals.
Until this past weekend, we always wondered how the ASI gatekeepers would determine the nationality of visitors and assumed that color would be an obvious marker. But at the Taj, I was suspected to be a non-Indian / outsider and challenged to produce an Indian identity. I wasn’t carrying my passport (who would on a day trip to Agra) and my driver’s license was being renewed in Mysore. So bereft of all Indian identity, I was declared equal to thirty seven and half Indians and made to buy a Rs 750 ticket to enter the Taj.
But the explanation the ticket checker at the gate offered was interesting. He apparently challenges those whom he suspects of being outsiders. He wouldn’t elaborate on how he would make that judgment but simply asserted he knows. A few yards away, at the security gate, the policeman too took one look at my wallet and asked me to show my NRI ticket. My two companions were highly amused and couldn’t stop teasing me about my non-Indian status.
Taj is a postcard.
From every angle.
Delhi in Winter
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I love Delhi in winter months. One could be outside and walk everywhere, sip endless cups of chai and eat enormous quantities of food. Me and my friends know where to eat and what to do, which makes visiting a city truly fun. A light jacket or a sweater are adequate for survival, although some South Indians Delhi-ites might disagree.
I spent much of my time on the road, visiting neighborhoods and markets, bus and train stations. My new project is to build a photo archive of unusual sights in Delhi, which I want to use in a ‘Biography of a City’ course that I teach on Delhi. Unlike in Agra, this time, my companion wasn’t amused at being taken to the Interstate Bus Terminus (ISBT) and the Sabzi Mandi at Azadpur. Well, they aren’t on anybody’s tourist map. Our cab driver desperately tried to put us back into the tourist circuit and take us to Lal Qila. But the call of Sabzi Mandi was too powerful in the end.
Oxford and Oxford
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Oxford Bookstore is a superbly designed bookstore on Barakamba road in Delhi. Different sections and subjects are located in neatly divided superbly lit circular spaces. Bookshelves are cool and it’s fun to just sit around. Oxford University Press showrooms aren’t. At least the one in Bangalore isn’t. People struggle to find books and staff have no clue about catalogues. Some book sellers seems to be intent on killing the fun in buying books.
Agamben in Delhi
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Yesterday, Italian philosopher Giorgia Agamben delivered the B.N.Ganguly Memorial Lecture at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). I missed the talk since I had to return to Bangalore yesterday morning. Hoping to catch a report on it in the blogosphere but none seem to have surfaced so far.
8 Comments
I am sure Agamben talked about Indians worth 37.5 Indians in India.
Question is: Was your West Coast Liberal, San Francisco Values, University Professorhsip taken in? That still totals to 37.5 Indians?
Imagine how ludicrous white people feel, to count as 37.5 Indians…even if they’ve lived in the subconty for almost two years and work in the subconty and are married to an Indian…
I am not averse to differential price structures, if reasonably and properly applied, because if it has to do with purchasing power, heck, it’s fine cause the ASI needs money. What happens at the Taj (and in countless other tourists sites in India) is that no matter what this structure or logic, you can get around it or get caught in it arbitrarily, and it’s yet another avenue for the folks there making some cash on the side (and for those with foreign passports to suddenly assert their Indianness and pay less too!). What’s even worse than Europeans or US tourists being harassed is folks from other countries in the subcontinent who don’t have the same exchange-rate power: I have two friends from BD, one of whom was waved inside the Taj with a wink saying he was “really Indian” and the other had to pay the foreigner’s fee. Totally arbit. Same with Indians, both resident and non.
I wrote a PS that your maths problems seemed simpler than Sepoy’s, and of course, I got it WRONG! So am typing again.
Delhi in wintertime is truly a delight; do share your photos here. I have a funny ISBT story to narrate too….
Be precise, historian. Who is this mysterious “companion” who suddenly accompanies you to, of all places, sabzi mandi? Posterity deserves to know beforehand.
This dual price structure at ASI sites has been in place for at least a decade. It seems that the difference now is that the foreigner/outsider price is being enforced not only on the pigmentally challenged but also on suspected NRIs. Of course, like most all the segments of the vast and glorious Indian bureaucracy, if one is committed and deft it is usually possible to negotiate favorable treatment. For example, despite being a gora/gringo (albeit with a mildly olive tone), I have managed a couple of times to obtain the ‘Indian’ price by chatting with gatekeepers in Hindustani and fabricating a story about a Goan mother, a Portuguese father, and a life being tossed between India and abroad. They happily chuckled and charged me the Indian price. So it is not simply that ‘brown’ NRIs suffer, but the flexibility goes both ways, and one is ultimately at the mercy of the man with the badge, which can be mitigated with the art of storytelling. Accountability to rules, of course, has receded to the point of near invisibility.
Desiknitter, I agree with you that the ASI and these ticket-takers skimming some money from those who have is a fine strategy. However, the scenario with the BD friends underscores the fact that when it comes down to brass tacks the admissions policies are not about redistribution of resources from rich to poor. Rather, this is purely about nationality - fleecing the outsider. The explosion of NRI/PIO as a rights-bearing status simply obscures the picture.
PS: All pictures and extended ISBT stories are eagerly awaited.
Differences in the rates of admission for Indian residents and non-residents was determined by purchasing power of the unit currency with the US $ as the reference.
The US $ can buy approximately 10 times what an Indian rupee can buy in India; it seems fair to charge what PDCS moans to have paid.
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[...] Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi over at Land of Lime is declared a non-Indian by the ticket-checker at the Taj. Until this past weekend, we always wondered how the ASI gatekeepers would determine the nationality of visitors and assumed that color would be an obvious marker. But at the Taj, I was suspected to be a non-Indian / outsider and challenged to produce an Indian identity. I wasn’t carrying my passport (who would on a day trip to Agra) and my driver’s license was being renewed in Mysore. So bereft of all Indian identity, I was declared equal to thirty seven and half Indians and made to buy a Rs 750 ticket to enter the Taj. Posted by River [...]
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