Racist Indians

We are the ultimate kiss up – kick down people. What it means is that we do our best to please whom we deem superior and inflict on whom we deem lesser. I guess the class system instilled into us by the Mughal and British rule combined with our own caste system created a perfect storm. This forces us to misbehave with anyone who is remotely different from us.

I sat on a lunch table in Thane where a man who has a PhD proclaimed all north Indians are bastards. He of course is a Marathi. He said that in front of a person who was from the north. That there no fisticuffs or curses exchanged clearly indicated the “non-bastard” like behavior of the north Indian – a point totally lost on Dr. Marathi. I was also in a gathering at a work place in West Bengal where in presence of a person from UP, this Bengali lady (I use the term because I have to) proclaimed that everyone from UP and Bihar are idiots. The man from UP had a degree from one of the original IITs and a degree from an established American University. But that did not deter this Bengali lady who clearly was an intellectual inferior to make her proclamation. People in UP have been known to refer to everyone from south of the Vindhyas as a “Madarasi”. They mock the heavily accented Hindi of South Indians ignoring the fact that their own knowledge of Tamil or Telugu is less than zero. Indians in the south repay this favor in kind to anyone from the north visiting Chennai or Madurai or any of the great tourist or holy destinations.

The aforementioned examples were made to highlight the ugly Indian behavior but all the name calling and put-downs are nothing compared to violent behavior against people from the great Indian North East. In the current economic climate in India it is impossible to hope to stay in your own home state. You go where the opportunities are. We all do it and should expect others to do the same. India belongs to all of us – every inch of it. We should feel safe and protected by the system no matter who we are and where we are. Classifying Indians as Chinkis (“Oriental looking easterners”), “bhaiyyas”, Gujjus, “Mallus”, “Gultis”, “Madrasis” etc. betrays our own insecurities. This behavior is a detriment to the unity of the nation. Our PM goes to the UN and talks about the Hindu ethos and the concept of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” and we can’t follow his advice at home? Indians who go to the west and complain about racism at the drop of the hat continue to misbehave grossly at home. One would think that serving as slaves to the British and paying Jaziya to the Muslims would give us a better understanding of basic human rights. We have learned nothing from the history and that is why we continue to be such kiss up – kick down people.

Xenophobia, the fear of the unknown and skepticism towards the different are part of human behavior. It is in all of us to do what I have talked about so far. We are all capable of racism and casteism. The tribal mentality is part of our genome. However if we really want to be different from the primitive and the animal then we have to teach ourselves to do what is right. What is more important is that we teach our children that such behavior has no place in India. If we want to become a great nation and take our rightful place in the world then we must shun this divisive behavior. Knowing the first name should be enough. Insistence on the last name / surname should be avoided at all cost. India is our tribe. We are Indians first and everything else much much later.

I hope that the Home Ministry would initiate an ad campaign highlighting and talking about the great North East and the problems facing them. We all should know exactly what is going on in those states. More knowledge, increased familiarity will definitely solve a lot of these problems. The criminals who hurt our fellow NE Indians need to be punished to the full extent of the law. But the real solution lies with us. We need to believe in the concept of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” rather than using it as a catch phrase to earn applause in the west.