Spanish daily uses snake charmer cartoon to portray India's economic growth, draws flak

While India is being recognised as the fastest-growing economy in the world, a Spanish newspaper named La Vanguardia has stoked a controversy by using a snake charmer caricature to report the Indian economy.

Publishing the 'racist stereotype' on its front page on October 9, the newspaper used a bizarre graphical representation of the growing Indian economy. The headline of the newspaper read, "La hora de la economia india" which meant, "The hour of the Indian Economy".

Notably, what caught the attention of Indians was that the Spanish newspaper used a snake coming out of the basket to represent the rising graph of India’s economic growth. The snake charmer graphic used by La Vanguardia received a lot of criticism on social media platforms for cultural caricaturing. Some even stated that a snake charmer to represent India is an insult. 

BJP Lok Sabha MP from Bengaluru Central PC Mohan took to Twitter and expressed his opinion on the representation. "The hour of the Indian economy is the top story of a Spanish weekly. While India's strong economy gets global recognition, portraying our image as snake charmers even after decades of independence is sheer stupidity. Decolonising the foreign mindset is a complex endeavour," he tweeted. 

Interestingly, International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared India as the fastest-growing economy in the world in its latest World Economic Outlook. In fact, the Managing Director of IMF Kristalina Georgieva has also called India a "bright spot" on an otherwise dark horizon because of its fast-growing economy. 

"India deserves to be called a bright spot on this otherwise dark horizon because it has been a fast-growing economy, even during these difficult times, but most importantly, this growth is underpinned by structural reforms," she added.

'What it takes for this to stop...'

Expressing his displeasure over the graphical representation used by the Spanish newspaper, CEO and founder of Zerodha Nithin Kamath took to Twitter and wrote, "The hour of the Indian economy, says La Vanguardia, a leading Spanish daily. Quite cool that the world is taking notice, but the cultural caricaturing, a snake charmer to represent India, is an insult." He further added, "Wonder what it takes for this to stop; maybe global Indian products?"

"Spanish newspaper publishes an article titled "Hour of Indian economy" and then puts a snake charmer graphic. God these Western media can never come out of the image of India being land of snake charmers, farmers and cattle only," a Twitterati said.