After the centuries old great black racial abuse, we Bharatiya right now seems to be the most racist associated community on the face of the planet. Racism and Indians go hand in hand. Whether it is high profile case of Shilpa Shetty-Jade Goody, Harbhajan Singh-Andrew Symonds or some other case of ordinary student in Australia; when it comes to racism we are always in the middle of the action.
The current developments in Australia are sad but it will not be true if I will say that we are the most racially abused community after blacks. It is easy for me to say so while sitting in my home but we are not ready to introspect why this happens with us? We are no innocent child troubled in this bad mean world, but what happens to us is our own making. If I think of the most racist people, then we Indians are among them. In an earlier post ‘Are Indians Racist’ Shantnu very rightly argued about our racist nature. We discriminate on the bases of religion, colour, caste, creed, gender, profession; then there is regionalism we have Marathis, Madrasis, Delhiites, Keralites, Punjabis, Biharis and what not except Indians. There are the latest bases of discrimination; what vehicle you drive. Although people do get impressed with big flashy cars, the government is playing its part by not allowing two wheelers on the ‘Gurgaon toll road’; why are motorcyclist not allowed on the toll road if I may ask?
This is about the treatment to our own people. We don’t fare well when it comes to outsiders as well. We call Australians as ‘Kangaroos’, Europeans as ‘Langoors’, Americans as ‘Gorey’ etc. What is this if not racism? But this post is not about our racist credentials.
A friend of mine is doing MBA from Australia. I was talking to him one day and he told me about his friend in Melbourne and the actual racist attacks happening there. He said all the attacks on Indians has very little to do with racism. It is about Indians who tend to go wild with freedom. When out at night he said, Indian students try to show off; they get drunk and involved in brawls with the locals [a unique characteristic of Indian students]. It is then that the locals started beating the shit out of Indians, and the picture got uglier. Had it been plain racism then why students of other countries not affected? It is not that Australians has something personal against Indians or Harbhajan’s kin in particular [it was some relative of Harbhajan who first received all the beating] but we Indians who call Australians as kangaroos and Chinese as ‘Chinkis’ [in this case not just Chinese but all those with Mongolite looks, even north east Indians].
This reminds me of Roti, he is recently back from his US trip and told me that in US a major chunk of the population is of non whites [Africans and Asians]; he met several Indians living there since decades, many by birth US citizens, they all were happy but afraid. This is something which they didn’t knew and if told they will not acknowledge it because they don’t realize it. But deep down the line they all are little scared and this fear prevents them from doing many things which they would have done back home. I couldn’t get what actually he meant. He said when in home town everyone is fearless, carefree and bindaas. But people out there were not because they were not in their own country among their own people. They were afraid and that’s why they maintained a proper distance. A black student in Delhi never misbehaves with any local. But the students in Australia who come from affluent background tend to forget this fear there and mess with the locals; it is then when the racial attacks occur. If we actually want to do something about racism then we first need to put our house in order, Australian government can do nothing about it.
