National Geographic

"The Confident Gaze" written by Shekhar Deshpande was about national geographics issue on India turning 50. Deshpande talks about how National Geographic has a huge culteral value for us, "It is a magazine of choice of teachers of history, anthropology and culture in general in schools" (Pag. 1). It is the third largest subscribe magazine in the United States. The particular issue Deshpande talks about refers to India's 50 years of independence, which features a 50 page article, which is divided into 5 subsections. Deshpande then goes on to talk about how pictures in National Geographic are aesthetically pleasing on purpose and not really the truth. "The "innocent" attractiveness of the photography of National Geographic, its ambiguous representation of the knower and the known as the most "natural" and inevitable parts of our world are what have made for the success of the magazine" (Pag. 2). Deshpande is saying that the pictures are popular because of the innocence thats portrayed through the photography. The photographs are actually kind of fake in a way, they only show what the "Western eye" wants to see, a happy place. The magazine makes what is really bad looking into something that the american audience wants to see which is something that looks good, americans are indenial about what goes on. "The pictures of the monsoon or the image of a woman cooking food on the pavements of Calcutta are devoid of their "documentary" contexts" (Pag. 3). Pictures showing misery are dismiss automatically from the article. The article finishes off saying that the magazine only tells information about the non volient India. "It provides innocuous details of life in India, without any reference to the real troubles of the people or the global conditions in which the country is implicated in. The wars and the subsequent arms race since Independence are less important than the plight of urban poverty" (Pag. 3). Deshpande is saying that the magazine is leaving out a lot of important information on the real troubles of India. And finishes off the article saying that India has done a lot catching up in the last 50 years, but still has a lot of catching up to do.