Giving People Ownership as Tourists in India

by Rashmi Raveendran

The India Trip coming to an end so quickly was shocking. It felt like just yesterday that we were getting excited to get on the plane to Amsterdam. Staying in that beautiful country for two weeks also taught me so many lessons. We were fortunate enough to visit so many amazing places and NGO’s. Because of this, I saw the idea of giving people ownership. I also saw this idea being applied to tourism. Not only is this simply giving ownership/respect to the culture and country that we are in, but also us taking ownership of our mistakes in adaptations to the new culture. India is such a lively country full of diverse religions and cultures. This is an amazing example of a place where ownership of ideas is present.

One way I saw giving people ownership in terms of respecting the culture was our tourist groups adaptation to exploring NGO’s. It shows the idea of ownership in India, and how it can come from the country itself and it’s tourists. Now, all of the NGO’s were making efforts to give people ownership in their own lives. Butterflies creates easily adaptable environments for students to learn in that are rights-based and good for child development. Even places like Wildlife SOS gave second chances to previous owners who had mistreated elephants in the past. I admired the effort being put into work from NGO’s to boost the concept of ownership and constructing it so well. Dastkar also gives so many amazing women the chance to regain ownership of their life and income after being displaced. Pardada Pardadi advocates for girls education below the poverty line. This concept seems to really stand for India to me. I couldn’t help but think about the U.S., however, and I wish I knew more about advocated ownership related programs in the country. My thoughts about “giving people ownership” really is seen throughout this amazing country in all of the behind-the-scenes work it does. The NGO’s that we visited really showed this and I admired that.

In the other way of “ownership”, I really thought about the way us as a tourist group gave people ownership in the country. We gave it through respect and awareness. First with respect. Religious pluralism is so significant in India because of the extent of amazing religions and cultures that are practice here. I remember when we visited Pardada Pardadi and a woman was telling us her favorite part of India was how each part of India (North, South, East, West) all is completely different that they all have different practices and cultures. Yet, she said, all parts of India can still come together to celebrate each other's differences. The reason why I remember this so well is because it really represents religious pluralism in India. All different cultures can come together to give respect and ownership to people that deserve respect for it. Now one memory I have of us as a tourist group learning about a new religion was when we visited the Sikh temple. I noticed how people followed the unspoken traditions (ex. Touching the floor before leaving) without disrespect or inappropriate questions as to why. As tourists come and go, experiencing new cultures, I think it is so important that they recognize where to give people ownership without question, and I really learned this from this trip.

The second way I saw tourists giving ownership was also through awareness. Tourists need to be aware of mistakes that can be made when experiencing new cultures. It’s hard to say it’s inevitable, but it’s often common that people will maybe act or say something out of line especially when it relates to the way they view the new culture. This idea was mentioned to me in the final debrief and I have continued to think about it. It is so important that taking ownership or acceptance of mistakes being made is a key part of being a tourist. I can recall some times in debriefs when words were taken out of context and seen as inconsiderate. These points were later corrected, but the people were not. It might have appeared to be too straightforward to address those issues to the person, but it was clear to all of us at one point that either what we had said or were thinking was not the best way to interpret the information.

The biggest part of giving people ownership is the way tourists react to the idea. As a tourist group coming into India, we were taught all about the environment in the country and what we could do to respect the culture. Picking what we chose to wear, respecting the traditions of temples and places we visited, and learning, in depth, the history of India. Once Ms. Hamzawala talked about giving people ownership as an idea for a final reflection, I felt like the idea really explained what we were trying to do as tourists. It was not just giving respect. We were having respect for the things we were experiencing. It was not giving pride. Pride was already there. Giving ownership meant more than recognizing the new parts of cultures but also realizing our reactions to it. This trip really showed me all sides to giving ownership: from the country, and how this concept applies to tourists. I am so thankful I got to experience this because the lessons that I learned will always be in my mind.