we Indians are the most racist people on earth! I was reminded of this stark truth when Sam Pitroda made that controversial statement regarding the physical characteristics of people from different parts of the country.
https://thewire.in/society/why-indians-are-the-most-racist-people-on-earth
On the issue of racism, we have a lot to be ashamed of. In her profoundly insightful book on racism titled Caste, Isabel Wilkerson describes the hierarchies of power that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the supposed inferiority of another, that harnesses race, class and colour to divide and subjugate people. We in India have the dubious distinction of not only providing the moniker for the book but being linked with Nazi Germany and America as the dominant locations that have bolstered the racist power structures and hierarchies that divide us today.
To put it bluntly, our centuries-old, iniquitous caste system is the mothership that has provided the inspiration for Nazi Germany and racist America. This egregious concept of social hierarchy goes back millennia and is thousands of years older than European racism and division by skin colour. But caste is not our only social deformity. Our racism is a many-coloured monster that goes beyond caste, embracing discrimination based on religion, on the colour of one’s skin and even one’s facial characteristics.
Consider the terrible discrimination faced by the people of the North-Eastern States who are routinely greeted with shouts of “chinky” because of their mongoloid features. It is with a deep sense of shame that one recalls their mass exodus from Bangalore in 2012 and the severe harassment that they faced during the pandemic, the most hideous example being the case of the brute who spat on the face of a Manipuri woman and shrieked “Corona”!
More than six decades later, I hold on to the belief that racism is still prevalent everywhere, only more subtle than before. Its universality renders it normal. That makes all of us complicit in a cover-up of the greatest evil in our country today. We all need to heed Angela Davis’s exhortation: “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.”
by Mathew John
03/06/2024