Ian Jack & is Apu Racist?

Ian Jack's article in the Guardian on Apu as a Racial Stereotype, shamelessly panders to the racist myth that White people don't know when they are having their legs pulled when dusky folk like me, with names we ourselves find unpronounceable, play the Race card.

I also object to Jack's characterisation of Sambo- actually a great Uncle of mine who studied at Cambridge and whose contribution to Indian Agricultural policy was indeed based on turning tigers into butter and then going cap in hand to the Americans for PL 480 food shipments.

I recall, on first coming to London at the age of 14. being mocked mercilessly for my 'Peter Sellers' 'Goodness Gracious me' accent by my parents and other relatives. This was scarcely my fault. My generation didn't grow up watching films like 'the Millionairess' or 'the Party' (which Indira Gandhi actually liked). Thus our funny Indian accents tended to be regional- Punjabi, Bengali, Madrasi and so on. It was only at University that I met a class of second generation Asians who had grown up watching Peter Sellers and who could prattle away faultlessly in an Apu accent because they had been properly coached to do so by the champion Mike Yarwood of their local primary school. My point is that the canonical Apu accent is the discovery of a great British comedian. Hank Azaria has great talent and his tribute to Sellers' works very well. You can't put in any random brown dude to do the job. You'd have to hire the best Asian comic voice artist. But those guys would be earning the big bucks back home.

As a right-wing Hindu or a particularly obnoxious type I was prepared to react with umbrage to Homer Simpson dressing up as the God Ganesha to put a halt to Apu's marriage. However, the episode actually highlighted a Hindu theological truth- viz. Lord Ganesha is both the creator and remover of obstacles. Homer's intervention, as an obstacle to an arranged marriage, creates the condition for it to turn into something purely voluntary.

I am not, of course, denying that this Society isn't blighted by Racism- more particularly the pitiless racialist taunting my relatives direct at me- but Apu isn't part of the problem. Artistic virtuosity never is. I don't say it can solve Society's problems either. We, as individuals, must take on that responsibility. To take a case in point, if you make it a practice to ring up your cousin in the middle of the night and demand a delivery of 'saag aloo' in a thick Yorkshire accent- you must expect to get an earful of Racialist abuse- unless of course you speak in English rather than your mother tongue so as to give the deception some measure of  plausibility.