Are we ‘subtly’ Racist?

The incident in Noida where students coming from different African countries were attacked and brutally beaten up is probably the latest in the long list of racial crimes perpetuated against them. Back in my Miranda days in Delhi University, my classmate Moe from South Africa often told us about the harassment she and others faced on a regular basis. She recollects an incident whereby an Indian woman kept touching her hair again and again despite repeated requests. Her experience is shared by many hailing from African nations. Starting from stares, people laughing at their backs, there were incidents when strangers would try to touch their hair or their bodies. Lewd remarks or humiliating taunts in Indian languages was something common that they faced. Listening to them made me wonder if white students also faced something similar. Although we had substantive number of students from South Korea, Mongolia, a few from US, most of them did not have such horrid experiences of being humiliated and physically assaulted as the African students.

The recent incident in which some Nigerian students in Noida were accused of cannibalism because a young boy went missing points to the same prejudice that Indians feel towards people coming from the Continent of Africa. Five Nigerian students were arrested. However due to lack of evidence they were let off. When some other students protested against such racist targeting of African students, mobs attacked them and injured many of them. News of sporadic attacks on African nationals continue to pour in. A tragic fact remains that amongst students coming from foreign countries, African nationals are put on the lowest rung.

News of a Kenyan girl being dragged out of a cab and then physically assaulted was the latest to do the rounds. The problem started with the death of a Class 12 student under mysterious conditions. His family filed a case against five local men from Nigeria who were detained on suspicion of drug peddling, abduction and murder. But after the postmortem, the accused people were let off. Following their arrest the African students gathered peacefully to protest for their release. A counter protest by Indians however turned violent. An unruly mob of almost 600 people attacked two students of African origin in a shopping mall in Noida. The police had to lathicharge to bring the crowd under control.

While five people have been arrested in connection with the attack in Noida, the situation continues to remain tense. The African students continue to fear for their safety. For them the media is however downplaying the question of racism. This incident cannot be seen in isolation. If we take a look at some other events over a period of time, we will see that African nationals have often been at the receiving end of such assaults. In October, 2014 three African students objected to some people taking their photographs and laughing at them at a metro station in Delhi. At this they were beaten up. While the mob was brutally beating the students, the bystanders were busy taking videos rather than coming forward to help.

Such discriminatory attitude towards African nationals which is based on wrong premises that an African man is an inherently violent drug abuser and an African woman is sexually available is not limited only to the common people. Even our political leaders have shamefully acted in a biased manner. Last year AAP leader Somnath Bharati was chargesheeted for leading a mob attack on Ugandan women living in Delhi’s Khirki extension. The cause was an ambiguous generalized belief that they were indulging in illegal activities and hence are a bad influence on the people living there. A 2014 investigation by the Hindustan Times found that Africans across the country reported incidents of everyday racism, from being overcharged by auto and taxi drivers, to being the butt of racist jokes, the subject of racist comments based on their skin colour and being branded as ‘drug traffickers’.

Such frequent incidents where students, tourists etc are targeted just because they belong to a particular race would make one wonder if Indians are racist. One does not have to go far to have his/her conviction further strengthened. If we look at how people from the Notheastern region are treated in other parts of India, we will notice a discriminatory attitude towards people with Mongoloid facial features. Young Nido Tania was beaten to death in the very capital city of Delhi. Northwestern women are often called the derogatorily “chinky” because of their facial features.

Even after all this, many would try to justify each event by stating its specific context. Now let us come to another kind of racism or apartheid that we practice – the bias against dark skin. The ads of fairness creams which links a woman’s possibility of marriage, a good job and hence a good life with a fair skin, will do much to remind us of this Indian version of colour discrimination. Feminist groups have often spoken up against such advertisements. This bias was so pervasive that a movement was started called Dark is Beautiful where women like Nandita Das renderd support to challenge the bias against dark skin tone.

The bias against ‘black’ is further expressed in a casual remark made by BJP MP Tarun Vijay. He stated that Indians cannot be racist or indulge in apartheid because they live with the dark skinned people of South India. This not only expresses blatant generalization about an entire region but tragically reinforces the hierarchy of North over South.

‘Othering’ someone who is different from us and discriminating against him/her has become something too common and frequent. Be it African nationals, people from the Northeastern region, Biharis and South Indians in Mumbai etc – the story of humiliation is the same. We assume that difference is deviant. It is something wrong and must be countered and corrected. While we Indians are very proud of our diverse culture, of our unity in diversity, of the receptiveness of our culture which has beautifully absorbed many waves of people who came as rulers, travelers, merchants and migrants, when it comes to practically emulate these principles we at times fall short.

Our responses to diversity must be one of accommodating rather than repulsive. India has become a very preferred destination for a large number of foreigners – be it for education, medical facilities or tourism. It paves the way for a greater assimilation of India to the global world. And while Indians themselves have been at the receiving end of racist attacks in United States and Australia, we cannot emulate same hateful attitude and victimize others. Violent assaults on students coming from other countries and making a spectacle of that violence sends a very wrong message to the larger world. Otherwise quoting Atithi Devo Bhava will only expose our hypocrisy.

(P.C - bbc.co.uk)