Opinion The inscrutable Indians

When it comes to introspecting on our own behaviour towards foreigners,we tend to turn a blind eye.

New DelhiJune 30, 2009 04:02 PM IST First published on: Jun 30, 2009 at 04:02 PM IST

When abroad we Indians are apt to see racism and slights at every turn. The waitress was deliberately ignoring us,the saleswoman was talking in a superior manner because we were Indians and so on. But,when it comes to introspecting on our own behaviour towards foreigners,we tend to turn a blind eye. Perhaps we need to remember the words of the poet Robert Burns about “seeing ourselves as others see us.”

I was amazed to learn that at the recent Cricket World Cup when the English team came onto the field at Lords stadium in London to play the Indian team,it was booed by an audience made up mainly of British citizens of Indian origin. After the match,which England won,the captain of the English team said his team had felt so angry at being jeered at on home ground that they were extra charged to avenge the insult.

Imagine the outcry if the situation had been reversed and it was a Pakistani team playing in Mumbai’s Wankhade stadium and a section of the audience had booed the home team.

The Shiv Sena and the MNS would have been baying for blood and charging that there were traitors in our midst. Whenever a fire cracker is burst after an India- Pakistan match in which the latter wins,it is always attributed to Indian Muslims celebrating the Pakistani victory. And yet it never strikes us as odd that our NRIs make no bones about the fact that their first loyalties are always with the Indian team rather than that of their adopted country.

Another annoying aspect of Indians settled abroad is that the first generation makes little effort to adjust into the society of their adopted country. They continue to cling to the dress,language,culture and social norms back home. They stick to their fellow Indians and remain in ghettos. Can we blame foreigners for looking askance and wondering why they should tolerate immigrants who view their adopted country as simply a place to make money and do not have a sense of belonging?

Migrant Indians refuse to appreciate the sensitivities of their foreign neighbours,who are taken aback by their unusual and gaudy clothes,perturbed by the pungent odours of the curries and spices emanating from their homes,their loud voices and tendency to play their televisions and radios at the highest decibel level. There is also the stereotype of the sharp-nosed Indian salesman out to make a fast buck selling fakes and duds with a straight face. Another frequent complaint against Indians is that they tend to clutch their purses and bags very ostentatiously and act as if they fear they will be mugged at any moment,whenever they see Africans or Afro Americans.

Chief Minister of Mizoram Pu Lalthanwala recently observed at a seminar on water in Singapore that that he himself was victim of racism in India. He pointed out,”In India people keep asking me if I am an Indian,they forget that the Northeast is part of India.” There is no doubt that those who come from the Northeast find themselves discriminated against in many parts of India whether over jobs and houses. Mizo,Manipuri and Naga women are subjected to far more eve teasing and harassment and are often derisively referred to as “chinks.” Muslims,particularly Kashmiris,are another group habituated to discriminatory behaviour.

And if this is the attitude towards our own citizens,foreigners will naturally be treated even more shabbily. Which is why we have little moral authority to accuse other nations of being racist towards us. Because of our bias towards fair complexions,visitors from Africa have a particularly rough time in India. So do foreign women. Female tourists return home with ugly stories of eve teasing and lewd behaviour. The large number of foreign women who get raped and molested is a blot on all of us.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd points out that over the last decade over 20 Australians have been murdered,assaulted or sexually assaulted in India. “We don’t blame the people of India for these incidents. These are things which regrettably happen.” Rudd’s remark was in reference to the recent spate of attacks on Indians in Australia. He wanted to make the point that the attacks are not “racist”. Australia is a multi-cultural society and the much-publicised brutal attacks on Indians in Australia are simply stray attacks by “social misfits”.

Whether it is racism or not,we Indians are certainly being singled out for punishment. There have been 1,300 police complaints registered by Indians in the last year in the province of Victoria. Students of other nationalities such as Sri Lankans,Chinese and Indonesians have not been similarly targeted.

While there is certainly no excuse for brutally bashing up Indians,if we look at it through the eyes of the Australians,we would perhaps see they have cause for concern about the large number of Indians suddenly flooding their country. The number of Indian students in Australia has shot up dramatically in the last six years. In 2004 there were 10,000 Indian students studying in 39 Australian universities,in 2009 there are 97,000 students. Sixty five per cent of Indian students join Vocational Educational Training institutions of dubious academic merit. In fact these VET institutions have a network of agents,many of them Indian,recruiting students from different parts of India such as AP,Gujarat,Delhi,Tamil Nadu,and Punjab. And the purpose of most of the VET students seems not to get an education but to procure jobs illegally and stay back in Australia.