{"id":5680,"date":"2005-10-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2005\/10\/31\/2005-10-31-the-indian-character-apu-on-the-simpsons\/"},"modified":"2005-10-31T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-31T12:00:00","slug":"2005-10-31-the-indian-character-apu-on-the-simpsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2005\/10\/31\/2005-10-31-the-indian-character-apu-on-the-simpsons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indian Character, Apu, on the Simpsons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.asiansinmedia.org\/news\/article.php\/television\/1135\">www.asiansinmedia.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">October 12, 2005:  While many East Indian Americans feel insulted by the Simpsons Asian Hindu character Apu, Rohin Francis, a medical student and author of this article, puts a different spin on the perception of Apu.  Francis explains, &#8220;I think Apu is a positive character for Asians &#8211; particularly those living outside India. One could legitimately claim that Apu is a fascinating case study of Indians immigrants, their trials, tribulations and triumphs. Had The Simpsons been a live-action show, Apu would have represented the first regular South Asian character on a prime time show outside the subcontinent.  I still find it quite remarkable that way back at the start of the 90s, the makers of The Simpsons decided to include him.  To argue that he is a stereotype is to miss the whole point of the cartoon. Everyone is a stereotype, that&#8217;s how The Simpsons works &#8211; it plays up to our stereotypes to create a realistic microcosm of America&#8217;s social structure. Springfield is populated with all walks of life &#8211; I&#8217;m sure we all know a Barney &#8211; propping up the bar, a Ned Flanders &#8211; goodie two-shoes bible-basher, a Wiggum &#8211; incompetent cop and like it or not, we all know Apu; just go to your corner shop. With a computer science PhD, he is freakishly over-qualified for his job, due to the fact he was unable to land anything paying more as an immigrant. The topic of his arranged marriage was dealt with in a realistic, although somewhat twee (British slang for &#8220;excessively or affectedly quaint&#8221;) way &#8211; he was reluctant to acquiesce to his mum&#8217;s request, but met his bride-to-be and fell in love. At a time when many Westerners equate arranged marriage with forced marriage, this was a welcome plot.  Apu hasn&#8217;t sacrificed any of his cultural identity, he displays a statue of Ganesh proudly and is a strict vegan, yet he has become an integral cog in the small town somewhere in America&#8217;s heartland.&#8221; For this long and interesting article, click &#8220;source.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>www.asiansinmedia.org October 12, 2005: While many East Indian Americans feel insulted by the Simpsons Asian Hindu character Apu, Rohin Francis,,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}