The recent attack on Nigerians has raised two issues. One, drug peddling is on the increase, not just in Punjab, but also in Delhi and Bengaluru. In fact, in Bengaluru, four cases relating to drug abuse near schools and colleges were booked in the first three months of the year. The Karnataka government admitted in the Assembly that there were more Nigerians than any other African nationals involved in these cases.
This means the law and order agencies need to pull up their socks. Unfortunately, the whole Nigerian community in India, including about 5,000 students, has been maligned and that’s what led to the racial attacks in Greater Noida recently. And that’s the second issue — we are racist. Our obsession with fair skin has spawned an industry which some say is worth ₹3,000 crore a year. Our film stars affirm this: I can instantly remember at least two Bollywood stars who look much fairer today than they were earlier in their career. But this fixation can take dangerous forms. Friends from the North-East are often called ‘Chinese’ by their countrymen from the ‘mainland’. Bengaluru has witnessed a spate of attacks on students and professionals from this region.
Most of the baddies in Indian movies are dark-skinned; even in animation films and series. Glance through the matrimonial page and scores of ads show fair boys looking for fair girls, and vice versa. And there is a marked difference between the way we engage with a ‘white’ foreigner and a ‘black’ one.
It is futile to give a nationalist spin to the Greater Noida attacks. A post on Facebook post saying “Don’t blame India, it is the most tolerant country, Jai Hind”, shouldn’t blind us to the reality. Sure, there’s racism in other countries. But by shifting the blame on others, we can’t excuse ourselves. Racism is deeply entrenched in our culture because of the caste system. But it hasn’t helped that the Government has flip-flopped on the issue of equating caste with race. Recent governments have sought to draw a distinction, even as we agreed to an equivalence between race and caste in 1965.
Prince Mathews Thomas , Deputy Editor