Recently,when i was in a yahoo chat room(My login name is si_skill) trying to discuss some recent political issues,I mooted up the issue of the recent attacks on Indians in Australia.We were all typing on and as well as talking over the mic.But when people in the room became cognizant of the fact that I am an Indian who was uncomfortably alone, they spurred up immediately onto the debate.And when questioned of their nationalities,they voiced up in an expected pontificating tenor.I started by saying,"What are the reasons behind the inhuman racial attacks on Indians"? The first one to shoot me down was a sexagenarian woman.She said, "We are not racists and the attacks on Indians in the recent past are not race-related.Most of them are the extensions of petty quarrels and road-side brawls amongst the Indians themselves who belong to different rival castes".She added on "You Indians carry over all the differences within yourselves into some other nation, fight against each other and demand anti-racist attitude that you are not worth of!". And when i started to defend our victimized brothers and sisters,she stopped me and said,"If you guys want to study,study in your own godforsaken,third-rated,stinky,over-populated,black assed country".These were exactly the words that came out from an Australian woman who was in her 60's.I was taken aback.I was highly infuriated by her arrogant,insolent,sarcasm-filled epithets and the derisive giggles of her American friends that sounded like "touche".I put down my head with the feeling of the greatest ignominy i have ever experienced .For the first time in my life,i went through a racist remark. After a 5-min long battle with my emotions,i wiped off the tears that rolled over my cheeks and I became man enough to go on over the mic.All i could say is ,"Please don't make your words typify your place.Each country has its own ethos".Immediately,a man in his mid 30's beamed up over the mic.I was praying for a rescuer or at least an Asian who could back me up.He introduced himself and all i deciphered from his accent was that he was an American of Israeli origin.And to my misfortune,he was an anti-semite turned anti-oriental christian.He started off well by meticulously greeting people and then spotted on the issue with a fact that he claimed it to be.That was really shocking and moreover,its disclosure in a place filled with people from different places turned out to be a series of slaps across my face.He addressed me and said."si_skill,this aint typical westerner attitude but typical westerner frustration.And before typifying our countries do you know the fact that your brothers and sisters who are supposedly your fellow country people are treated lesser than animals in the middle-east.They clean camels,wash toilets,sweep roads and u can seldom find one dignified Indian over there.When you guys have your own caste,creed or other differences within your country which is completely immersed in kleptocracy,corruption and internal caste-based riots, isn't it foolish to claim racist remark in some other nation? The first thing you gotto do is sign out off this chat and go ask your government to stop internal racism within your own class-based,caste-divided and "a wannabe super power" country ". I could not talk.I shut down the mic and i heard people saying,"si_skill? u pressed the mute button? ran to your mummy who is cooking food for your daddy? Is your 8-year old brother working in a building company to renovate the stadium for commonwealth games?" Not even a single muscle around my mouth moved.I wanted to lambaste each and every single person out there with boomeranging diabolic words but in vain.All their points seemed to be correct.I came out of chat,not out of embarrassment or predicament that i was experiencing but only because of the thought "My country has failed me for the first time".Till that evening I believed in the fact that my country "INDIA" has never failed me.Only then,when I realized there are million others who are failing ,have been failing and who were failed by our own wretched alignment of constitution and social jurisprudence,the inane feeling towards my fellowmen started to sprout qualms in my heart.
"Racism is any unpleasant remark,action,deed or even a stare at some other person based on his/her colour,ethnic,culture or somatic differences."
Racism is an issue but the problem is when internal racism and differences are encouraged in our country are we really entitled to claim the place of sympathy and empathy from the anti-racist groups?
When our brothers are still cleaning toilets and camels in some other foreign place,we pity their case-based status than their social status !
When small Indian kids shed their blood,sweat and tears out there under the hot sun at construction sites,fireworks factories and "Commonwealth Stadium,we see only the child's caste or creed under pain and not the kid's individual moral aspect"
Do these pave the path for a prosperous future India?
Whenever a low-caste person is deprived of his basic rights, whenever an under-privileged dalit is bereft of his basic needs,whenever a poor brahmin is pushed back in the rank list, we say 'hi' to Racism.
"If each caste denotes a race,then the reservation policy becomes the biggest Pro-racist policy wherein it makes all Indians racists"
Whenever someone debunks the correctness and authenticity of our legal and moral constitutional system we blame the government.We have got many other ways for a fruitful outcome and answer."Right to Vote" is the best possible panacea which is still so shockingly considered futile unanimously .A small change may spark a revolution.The change which is inevitable will happen from young,pristine Indian hands which might blossom the harbinger of overall success and inclusive growth in an egalitarian economy.
As for now,we are running the gauntlet for the miserable internal social divisions that our ancestors created and felt proud of."Ethnic racism outside India is condemnable but Internal caste-based racism is government-authorized". There is no wonder why people laughed at me in that fateful chat room!
