Top Gear India Special

Series 17 Episode 7

The episode I watched this week was from series 17.  It is episode 7.  The episode starts out with the three talking about England’s diplomacy with India, specifically the trades between England and India.  The three are standing in front of the new prime ministers house.  They say the prime minister told them not to go to India.  They ignore his orders.  When the three arrive in India, James arrives first with a 1976 series 1 silver shadow Roles Royce.  Jeremy arrives next with a 1995 Jaguar XJS.  Richard is the last to arrive in a 2000 Mini Cooper.  All three of the cars have been made in England.  The three are there to cement that Britain is a great country and they make good cars.  James and Jeremy have chosen cars that are typically not considered to be reliable cars.  They have a long journey starting in Bombay India ending at the boarder crossing with Kashmiri.  First they must make their way through the city of Bombay.  Their first challenge is to improve on a lunch delivering system.  They are challenged to beat the lunch delivery system, which is operated by men called dabbawalas.  The accuracy of the system is 99.9996%.  The three think they can improve by using their cars to beat the train used by the system.  The mission fails when Jeremy is in too much of a rush and leaves the lunches he is supposed to deliver behind.  Then James and Richard are left to pick up the slack.  Richard in his small Mini spills most of the lunches all over the roadway.  James gets lost and arrives many hours later.  After the horrible loss they load their cars onto a train to Jaipur.  While on the train the three decide to put banners promoting British good and services.  

The banners are too long to fit on one train car.  As the train passes stations some of the cars depart the train and the banner is ripped creating some inappropriate words.  

At one of the stops James is left behind and meets up with Richard and Jeremy at the final stop.  While in Jaipur the trio hosts a hill climb challenge.  The three are the final competitors of the hill climb; they agree they will not be the fastest because they are being diplomatic.  Jeremy however disregards the agreement and finishes with a first place time.  Therefore failing at the challenge.  The boys decorate their cars in Indian cultural decor.  

Their next stop was Delhi.  On the way they must travel on a dual carriageway, which in India are very dangerous due to the limited police activity or lack of any on the roads.  When they arrive in Delhi they must host a trade show showcasing English made goods.  During the trade show Richard is in charge of parking the guests cars.  He is unable to keep track of all the keys and throws them all in a bucket.  Jeremy tries to put on a fireworks show, which goes wrong when one of the fireworks goes through a building where they are putting on the show.  When the guests try to leave they cant because Richard has confused all the keys.  The trade show is a complete failure.  The next day they were to leave to the boarder.  The journey would be long and full of difficult terrain.  The three outfitted their cars with off-road equipment.  James and Jeremy ruin the ride of their cars by putting too big of tires and messing with the suspension.  While on the road to the boarder the three encounter native v

illages, steep and rugged roads, and dangerous cliffs.  By the end the cars had been beaten up quite a bit.  At the peak of the mountain pass the three cars are put on display for all to see.

During the coarse of the show the tree travel through India.  The images of India are dirty and crowded.  The images of India might be accurate but they are not positive ones.  The images are showing how in disarray the country is considered to be.  The country is considered to be a developing country.  The Indian race is portrayed as a underdeveloped race. 

The content of the show is portraying Indians in a light of negativity.  When images of India are shown on screen the Indian people appear to be dirty, poor, and underdeveloped compared to western culture. 

The textual analysis of the show I think would be that English culture and race are far superior to the Indian culture and race.  The socially constructed images of race are those of prejudice and racism.  The Indian race is not portrayed in a positive light.  They are seen as being lesser social class and lesser people when compared to western cultures.