Youtube has seen a growing surge of non-Indians reacting to the nation’s hot topics to target Indian viewership. Jaby Koay, Geeks-a-Musing, Indi Rossi and Karolina Goswami are some of the many upcoming artists who do so.
They positively react to ‘trendy’ Bollywood movie trailers and songs or anything else that reflects India as ‘majestic’. While this is a smart business trend, a viral Reddit thread speculates different things about it.
Some users believe it is a hint at India’s desperation for acceptance in the first world community:
- “We’ve always loved false praise, no matter how obvious it was. We still share the stupid UNESCO award for best national anthem two decades later unironically.
Youtubers and bloggers have realised how easy it is to boost their stats by catering to our ego. So it’s a loop of them flattering us and us asking them for more to stroke our ego.” – notd1g1t - “This is clearly colonial residue manifesting as a need for validation. Even examining this interpersonally, one can assume that a partner who seeks excessive validation from a friend/spouse/parent has a deep-seated and often unexplored poor self-concept and self-regard.” – unavailable0819
- “I guess we seek some form of validation from our colonisers and foreigners in general. Inherent way of telling them we are no more a third-world country as they stereotype us in their media… In a way, I believe seeing their reactions feeds the nationalistic Indian’s ego…” – HR2501
However, not everybody followed the same opinion:
- “No one ‘begs’ for the videos. There are a lot of Indians on YouTube, and hence posting a video on India gets views. It’s as simple as that.” – whoami13072003
- “I guess you find similar content in almost every country…Just clear your browser’s history and stay clear of that rabbit hole.”- pperfectlifee
Some non-nationals offered their insight :
- “British, white female here. I love India, and I want to learn more. So much to explore and learn. You have an amazing country. Be proud, the western world is a mess right now, pretty embarrassing.” – AstrologyWannabeEmma
- “… I don’t see why Indians need to be obsessed with western culture or what makes you think it’s so fantastic about being white. It’s just a trait you’re either born with or not…Overall, there’s nothing wrong with being proud of who you are…” – MiroTheGreatSlav
What do you think about this Reddit thread? Is India’s obsession with foreigners a result of deep-seated insecurities or is it just plain curiosity?
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