Vir Das is facing backlash for monologue about coming from “two Indias”
November 17, 2021 Andrew Buss News, Vir Das
Comedian Vir Das is getting some backlash in India for a joke he made at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
On Sunday, Das posted a video on his YouTube channel that already has over a million views. In the video, he gets honest and breaks down some of his issues with India, and some of the hypocrisy that he has seen there. One example from the video is “I come from an India where we worship women during the day, but gang rape them at night.” Das has described the monologue as being a “satire about the duality of two very separate Indias”.
The video has opinions sort of split down the middle. Some are praising Das for the video’s critical nature. Others, such as Ashutosh Dubey, a legal adviser to the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, filed a complaint with the Mumbai police department. Though it remains unclear just how much can be done for comments that were made on American soil. Others have deemed Das a “terroist,” and want him banned from returning to India. Others, however, are praising Das for representing how millions of other Indians also feel.
“The video appeals for us to never forget that we are great,” Das says in a statement posted to Twitter. “To never stop focusing on what makes us great. It ends in a gigantic patriotic round of applause for a country we all love, believe in, and are proud of. That there is more to our country than the headlines, a deep beauty. That’s the point of the video and the reason for the applause.”
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) November 16, 2021
Had Das made these comments physically in India, we imagine the outcome of the story would be way different. Perhaps that’s why he performed it the way he had.
