Incidents that recently occurred in Delhi have highlighted not just the extra-constitutional manner in which a Minister operated at night, but also the inherent racist nature of several of the local residents he was ‘fighting' for
Several years ago, a former female colleague, who was a smoker, was catching a Metro. As her bag was getting scanned, her cigarette packet was seen by the CISF jawans manning the security post. The security supervisor passed a comment about girls and smoking, implying that because she smoked, my colleague was a woman of loose morals.
My colleague flipped her lid, justifiably so, but that did not take away the basic problem. People have fed on a diet of old Bollywood movies where it was only the vamp, the villain’s moll, who dripped sexuality and smoked. For women in India, smoking and sex became, at least to a large part of the population, co-related: ‘She smokes, therefore, she is a slut’.
This column is not in defence of smoking. In fact, if one were to criticise a smoker by calling him or her habit unhealthy, which it is, they might ignore you. But the comment is not prejudiced (unless you consider smokers a prejudiced minority). To question a woman’s sexual character because she smokes, is downright obnoxious. It is no different to the bans imposed by over-zealous administrators of colleges on women wearing jeans, because Western wear, even full-length jeans, are considered ‘immoral’.
This example is not of one obnoxious individual, but of a mindset that pervades the aam aadmi that a certain political party claims to represent. It is a mindset that was made amply clear when Mr Arvind Kejriwal in a pathetic show of arrogance as Chief Minister, went on a protest, in order to protect a clearly racist Minister in his ranks.
The video the Aam Aadmi Party has released to defend the reprehensible actions of Somnath Bharti and his cohorts plays into these prejudices. Condom wrappers are seen lying on the ground along with stripes of ‘drugs’. The only crime one sees is that a person is littering. However, Mr Kejriwal’s and Mr Bharti’s defenders are up in arms; they have dubbed all Africans as sexually ravenous drug-abusers. Forget the fact that Indian companies are trying to expand in Africa, forget the fact that India’s future energy and natural resources depends on Africa.
It is possible that there are Africans who are drug addicts and pushers and they live in Delhi. It is also possible that there are some women of colour who prostitute themselves. However, that is far from usual and it is also far from unlikely that the proportion of Africans involved mirrors that of the society they are living in.
But the fact that the ‘aam aadmi’ is a horrible racist is not just in the way we treat outsiders such as Africans. It is also evident in the reprehensible way that many of us look at people from our own North-East States. While many Indians may not be aware of the negative connotations of the term ‘Nigger’ — and as television channels have shown us, the term is freely used in places like Khirki Extension — the term ‘chinki’ ought to be buried once and for all. We have forgotten about the race problems that took place last year in Bangalore, where people from the North-East fled back thanks to local political goons, who remain unrepentant — indeed some of them are celebrated.
And, of course, there is the entire rush to look fair in India. When an Indian-origin girl, Nina Davuluri, won the Miss America title last year, there were uncomfortable questions asked about whether such a dark girl would win the Miss India title. Several Indians took umbrage at the suggestion and duly rolled out a list of dark Indian beauty queens and actors. Yet, when these darker actors appear in adverts, some of them happy to shill skin-lightening products (even darker male actors are guilty) and others appearing a ghostly white on screen, the question about the way we treat dark skin sufaces.
The Indian Penal Code punishes casteism, but our racist illusions continue. Yet, when an Indian — a rich, privileged Indian — faces race abuse in the West, we protest. Remember Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty’s treatment at the hands of Jade Goody in the British version of Big Brother. It created a diplomatic incident, when then British Chancellor Gordon Brown was forced to answer questions about the issue when he visited India.
Far from being a party with a difference, the Aam Aadmi Party has decided to play into the mindset of the ugly Indian to gain votes. It is apparent that they feel that this is a more secure way to get votes quickly than deliver good governance. Feigning ignorance about procedures does not make for a good excuse.
Changing the parochial mindset is a challenge that politicians in India have universally failed to address. Kangaroo courts exist throughout the country and the ‘judgement’ passed by locals in Khirki village that fateful night was no different than that of a khap panchayat. Morality is a strange thing, and arguably there are limits. Fortunately or unfortunately, parts of India remain deeply conservative and afraid of the ‘outsider’. Talk of unity in diversity ring hollow when members of particular religions find it difficult to rent accommodation in certain areas in large seemingly cosmopolitan cities.
This mindset has to change, because 65 years after a Constitution that ostensibly makes everyone equal in India was adopted, India has not changed. We may scream bloody murder when an Indian is strip searched at an American airport due to hidden racial profiling, but the actions of far too many of us makes that look extremely hypocritical.
If we make our own, and those who have come to study or work from outside like a majority of the African residents of Khirki Extension, as some news reports have pointed out, the targets, then we have little right to criticise others.