I was reading a blog by my close friend on Raj(Quota/Caste Systems) and how India has evolved from a third world country to a more mature Corporate Super Power today. But, have we really got there? There are so many positives leaving behind the negatives like poverty, corruption and population of our country. From getting Independence from the British to today, we have seen the brighter side of life to grow into a strong position that we are. Slavery and Racism seem to plague us all along this path of glory.
Often we draw inspiration from people around us. I must not forget to thank Abhi for motivating me in getting me to blog today.
Not long ago, the attacks on Indian students in Australia have once again raised the ugly head of racism. The Aussie-India Border Gavaskar Trophy saw it surface but the blame game got better of it and the topic was shut. Once again, India is caught up in the middle of a racist storm involving many innocent lives. Few years ago, the Big Brother controversy launched Shilpa Shetty as an international anti-racism icon from India. This is entirely appropriate as Indians are arguably the biggest targets of racism in the world anywhere in the world . And they are targeted not just by unlettered Brits (simply for the reason that they ruled us for 200 years) or Australian thugs. Is it because we are so racist ourselves most times, that we are so quick to react to a racist attack: it always takes a racist to catch a racist. And our racism is colour-coded in black-and-white terms:it either white (inherently superior and desirable) or black (inferior and undesirable)
In the Indian colour scheme of things, black is far from beautiful or attractive. The idiomatic word for a black person of African origin in the US is 'nigger' which is harsh on them, which was derived from the days of the slave trade in Africa and early traders and travellers from Africa. Why not respect them as African- Americans ?? Do we ?? Arent we all racists here ???
For all India's support of fighting apartheid in South Africa's white regime, North India especially at least is steeped in colour prejudice. For the North Indian, fair is always lovely, as those abominably tasteless TV commercials keep proclaiming: Don't get sun burnt, use skin whitening creams, or you'll end up dark and no one will marry you. (Do you ever remember when you last saw a matrimonial ad seeking an 'attractive, dark-complexioned life partner'?)
Is dark literally beyond the pale for us? Why ? Do we blame the slavery of 250 years under the white rule? Is a pale skin, as against a deep tan, a testimonial to social rank, segregating those who don't have to toil under the sun from those who do? A farmer works all his life on the fields in a country where Agriculture is considered the backbone of the Economy!! His skin is pale too! Do we see that as beauty or hard work ?Whatever the reason, fair skin is a passport to drawing social acceptance -- which might partly explain why an increasing number of Caucasians look for assignments in India, be it as MNC executives, flight hostesses, call centre executives or bartenders in 5-star hotels.
Our racism is largely, but not exclusively, based on colour. Caste is India's unique contribution to the dictionary of racial intolerance. Whether 'caste' - a result of cultural and social segmentation - can rightfully be conflated with 'race' - with its genetic and physiological links- is a matter of academic debate. However, we read of many horrifying stories of rural Dalit who face the wrath of the superior "castes". How different are we as a nation who once supported South Africa in their worst days of apartheid.
Caste apart, real or imagined ethnic traits compound our racism. People from the north-east are said to have 'Chinky' eyes and are routinely asked if they eat dogs. The 'Seven Sister' states are often considered a separate and secluded country due to their geographical distance from the central regions. Even in so-called 'mainstream' India, we have sub-divided ourselves with pejoratives: 'Panjus' or 'Surds', whose culture is associated to lassi, bhangra, agriculture, rotis and turbans; stingy 'Marrus' ; mercenary 'Gujjus' who eat 'heavy snakes' for their evening tea; lazy, shiftless 'Bongs'; 'Madrasis'( this is the part I hate the most) who all live south of the Vindhyas and speak a funny tounge twisting 'Illay-po' language. In our deep-rooted provincialism is our boastful utterance and deceptive unity.
No wonder we can't stand racism. It reminds us uneasinessof the face we see in our own mirror. Now, how can we dare say others are racist when we are racial among ourselves ???
Welcome to the blog world Kishore and thank you for acknowledging me. I have to concur to few of the points you made. For example, the nicknames given to people from different regions in India, the caste system segregation and the fairness factor for marriage proposals. But I must point out to you that the situation in Australia is not equal to the darkness we face in India. Every country in the world is racist from America to England to France to Australia. The only difference is how they react to this behavior. For example, many Americans are invisibly racist about immigrants and even with the African Americans. As Russell Peters had joked, why should they be called African American? They are equally American , just because they are of dark complexion like Africans? Then people with dark complexion in India should also be called Africans! Even the concept of calling people names based on their regions, we have see Americans in the north taunt differently the southerners! Yankee!!!
ReplyDeleteWell getting to the Australian issue, Indians never assaulted people to express their disdain. Indians show their racist behavior by innocent behavior – calling names for example. What happened in Oz was not racist to start with. But with flashes on the news channels and print media the assault became more like a fashion rather than intent! I will not be surprised if most of the accused have no clue about racism. I disapprove of the recent treatment to Indians in Oz and hope the issue gets resolved soon. As long as there is difference in people there will be racist differences adjoining it. How we treat this difference, how we look at each other, how we co-exist with each other will make us realize that at the end it’s only the color and language.
India is a country of diversities; we have learnt to exist and co-exist in this diversity. There will always be differences between people but getting physical to expresses one’s anger towards this difference has never been the nature of Indians. There are odd incidents but never of such magnitude as we see in Oz. Following a famous Indian saying “ Athithi Devo Bhava”- India has welcomed people from outside into its culture and within its culture. We have our quiet difference but I hope you agree that we have never assaulted chinci eyes, the Madrasi, the Gujus, the Marru’s etc on the pretext of race. The difference we see is regionalism which is very different from racism in India.