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The vexed saga of the two Bhattacharya children Aishwarya and Abhigyan, taken away in May 2011 from their Indian parents by the Norwegian Child Welfare Agency (Barnevernet) created unprecedented uproar with protests outside the Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi. Such were the extent of passions which raged that the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of India contacted their counterparts in Norway seeking their intervention in the matter of the custody of the two children.1
Akin to the split which occurs between good and bad in the psyche, Indian public discourse soon became polarized: between constructs of our “warm, perfect” Indian versus “flawed, cold” Norwegian (read Western) child rearing practices. At various levels - individual, community and even as a nation - actually accepting the “bad” in us is mostly distressing. It often gets split and then projected onto an “other”. Across the board, it is easier for such “others” - Shudra for Brahmin, the Jew for the German, Muslim for Hindu - to become repositories of dirt; or the targets of murderous rage.
In sharp contrast to Indian authorities who have a penchant of disclosing names of minors even in cases of rape, it is a great credit that despite tremendous public pressure and vilification of Norway, Barnevernet did not waiver from keeping the best interests of the children central to their decisions and did not disclose details citing confidentiality. The details available now appear to be a result of proceedings initiated by the father of the children to separate from the mother.
The fact of domestic violence in the family emerged. Extensive counseling of parents, established the efforts made by Barnevernet, before taking a decision to remove the children from the parents. Contrary to the propaganda of a culturally insensitive Norwegian Agency, placing the children with an Indian couple in Norway speaks for itself. In fact, according to reports the uncle of the children who was later given custody, took the view tha