My first years of college in Delhi had me in a fighting rage every time I heard the word ‘chinky’ uttered around me. I’ve had doors physically slammed in my face and even my top ranked college hostel racially profiled me in an incident that had me in tears. I eventually learned to laugh it off as parochial mind-sets that needed exposure and would eventually see the light. But the light continues to elude us Indians, if anything xenophobia is growing uninhibited by written law or human decency.
The number of molestations, harassment, rapes and other such crimes reported against the North-Eastern community lately is disheartening. Such instances are ever-present in our newspapers and we have learnt to look the other way and point fingers at other countries, calling them racists and what not. Wow what hypocrisy!
What disturbed me most about the recent case of Rachel Sangliana, where she was physically assaulted in a supermarket, is its blatant explicit violence against the ‘outsider’ who must be ‘taught a lesson’ and that too by women against a woman. Let us not even get into the issue of mute bystanders, they are the norm in such instances and unfortunately are plenty.
Rachel during the course of her horrific experience defended herself saying she was an Indian, born and brought up in Bangalore. Not that it helped but really is that the point? Are we as patriotic Indians entitled to beat up anyone because they are not Indians or because they don’t look like what we think an Indian looks like?
Honestly, I have always derided those among my people who choose to place their regional identity above that of the nation. It isn’t that I’m a saffron bleeding patriot who stands at attention every time the National Anthem plays but if I know anything as a student of history, it’s that modern day ideals like patriotism, nationalism, self-determination, etc. have this tendency to be manipulated by those with vested interests. It is such distortions that have people like that woman attack Rachel in the supermarket for being an ‘outsider’ and ruining the country.
The circumstances that brought about this country in 1947 were complex and have their ramifications even today, we have to accept it and make the best of what we have. The answer does not lie in petty identities or violence.
To those reading this who think that such actions are justified, and that outsiders or certain groups and communities are ruining our great country, I am an Indian from the North East and I will tell you that my India is greater than your India. Is your idea of India so fragile that it requires you to physically attack another person to defend it? My India is a country that accepts the diversity of cultures, religions and peoples living in it, it is bigger and stronger than the myriad evils riddling its existence and others are not the problem, YOU are!
Image courtesy:BCCL
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