Oprah Responds to Critics Who Say She Played Up Stereotypes in India Show

Critics say the show was myopic, unaware, ignorant and gauche.

By Jorge Rivas Jul 27, 2012

Oprah Winfrey’s visit to India has been in the news from the moment she landed in the country and her security ruffed up Indian paparazzis trying to take a picture of her. Now months later the "Oprah’s Next Chapter" TV special that resulted from her visit to India is also in news because some say it was a show full of "sterotypes and cliches."

"It’s all the stereotypes and all the clichés the West has, between the elephants and the palaces and the snake charmers and cows," Aseem Chhabra, a freelance journalist and columnist for the Mumbai Mirror, told ABC News. "That exists in India, but it’s this imagery of India that some people seem to have, and I think I expected a lot more from somebody like Oprah Winfrey."