The cultural other - Case Study Example

But learning all of this has never been easy for Bharti. Bharti’s mother has vested in a lot of time and effort to inculcate these skills in Bharti. Although she always loved her daughter to bits, she would not abstain from beating Bharti if that was what it took to make Bharti obey her. In the Indian culture, such an interaction between a mother and a daughter is not only allowed, but is also expected. Indians consent that a little bit of beating is necessary during childhood to get the children on track because it establishes the dominance of parents in the hearts and minds of the children.

Many Indians believe that “the world would have fewer unruly kids if more parents planted a light whack on their child’s derriere!” (Window2India.com, 2009). In spite of all the beating and training she went through, Bharti has a very healthy and loving relationship with her parents. In fact, today when she reflects at her childhood experiences, she feels thankful to her parents, especially her mother, for being strict with her for the right reason at the right time. Unlike most other Indian families, Bharti’s parents decided to send their daughter abroad for higher studies.

Hardworking as she was, Bharti was fortunate to secure a scholarship. It was certainly a big move for her parents to make as they had to explain to the rest of the family that there was no harm in sending a daughter abroad for higher studies on scholarship. During her studies, Bharti was proposed by her classfellow Sunil who is also from India and happened to love her. Bharti suggested that he should talk to Bharti’s parents. Both went to India after the completion of their studies. Sunil sent his parents to Bharti’s parents to properly take his proposal for their daughter to them.

Bharti’s parents happily agreed to marry their daughter to Sunil as he was also a Brahmin and belonged to a respectable family in Bombay. After their marriage, Bharti and Sunil settled in America for good. While Bharti enjoys the notion of independence and freedom embedded in the values and culture of America, she finds things hard to manage when it comes to disciplining her children. Having grown up in such a conservative culture, in which parents generally allow very little, if any, flexibility to their children and expect their children to grow up with their parents’ values, Bharti finds herself at odds with her children.

In a society that supports freedom and protection of human rights, Bharti sometimes feels suffocated and oppressed. She lacks the freedom of dealing with her children anyway she wants to like her mother used to deal with Bharti. Her children are very mischievous and often create a lot of mess around the home. She tries to control them but she cannot exercise her right to beat them into obedience if they would not listen. Bharti feels that the conventional strategies to control children’s behavior prescribed by the psychologists and concerned agencies in authority in America in general are ineffective on her children.

Not only she finds those strategies ineffective, but also she finds it hard to come to terms with the fact that she does not have the right to spank her children when they need it just because she lives in America rather than in India. Sunil feels the same for the most part. The law of Delaware that bans spanking of children on the parents (Clabough, 2012) is perceived by Bharti as an intrusion into her personal matters and a way of placing