Racism is one of the top subject lines of page 3 glitterati pow-wow at ‘The Crystal Room’ on a Friday evening or ‘Dosa-pe-darbar’ at Madras Cafe in Matunga on a Sunday Morning. Instances are quoted on how a United Airline staff called a passenger names, how Juventus striker Kean was subject to abuse by fans, how Priyanka Chopra was subject to racial slurs in US and so on. Then there will be discussions, quotes-unquotes, experiences, hear-says going on till wee hours of Saturday morning or till ‘please-come-for-lunch’ calls, as the case may be. Yes, exaggerated or otherwise there is an element of truth in all these and most of us, the Proud Indians who have travelled to these continents would have experienced such bummers. But, how clean are we the Proud Indians? We the proud Indians are the biggest racists in this World and there is enough evidence of this in our everyday life.
Like when a child is born, health of the child becomes less important than the complexion. Faces fall if the child is dark. Moms and Dads and the great Indian family forget that once Sun goes down everything is dark and colour is more of photo-receptivity of the eyes. So colour lies in the eyes of the beholder…
Like when a child is growing up, choice of friends is decided by parents based on the social status, based on which child’s parents exude the same snob value as them, who lives in apartments of the same size (give and take 10 sq ft) and whether the parents take their child on vacation to Maldives, Munnar or Mahabaleshwar. Social status is something which I never understood. Simple learning during my school day was ‘man is a social animal’ and then when did status get added as post-fix?
Like when you get introduced to the person, the second question will be typically are you a Marwari (or Gujju or a Mallu or whatever). We postulate this based on the family name and sometimes just the name. Just to supplement the postulates with theory we then ask from which part of the country you are ? A Marwari from Delhi is the ultimate crook - he is a a ‘mercenary’ and a ‘crook’ - deadly!! Why tax the brain so much, should be easier to ask him straight - are you a mercenary and are you a crook and then tell him how it impacts your existence
Like when a single girl comes to city for her professional compulsions and is hunting for leased apartments more often than ever there is a ‘nay’. Because it is assumed that she will be a party animal, because it is assumed that she will bring her boy-friends home late night, because it is assumed that she and her friends will scream and disturb the peace in the neighbourhood in the otherwise peaceful society where a married man abuses and beats up his wife because she extended her business trip by one day and her male boss was with her.
Like when we board a long-distance train, you get restless because person on the berth above you does not belongs to a religion you do no like. So you start getting vivid pictures of this person jumping down from his berth and throttling you to death. Never mind, when you were fast asleep and shivering in cold, he asked the attendant for an extra blanket and wrapped it around you.
Like in a Corporate set-up, there is a tendency for colleagues of same linguistic origin to flock together irrespective of which city they are in. If they are in the city of their own first language then it would be possibly caste or creed or breed which huddles them together.
This is process driven and it kind of happens automatically and however much the HR gurus try to bring together people from different culture, they will mostly remain immiscible. Worst case scenario is when each group having lunch in their own group, sharing food that they would have carried and if by mistake somebody from another group happens to be sitting beside, then tiffin boxes are surreptitiously covered with one hand and head will sink into the tiffin box when taking a morsel, not to expose the super-healthy-food that is consumed. Best case scenario will be a get-together of multiple brands (of colleagues), cross-talking across with people who speak their language leaving the poor minority totally clueless about even the subject line of the conversation leave alone the body of the conversation. Theory of ‘Lowest Common Denominator of Language’ in a group situation goes out of the window
In our minds we have made compartments based on colour, caste, creed, cult, sect, religion, language, domicile, gender, marital status and every possible attribute on which a person has very little control. Then we dig into recent and past history to collate all the crimes apparently committed by people belonging to these colour, caste, creed, etc. Then we point a finger at this person who belongs to Caste A, Gender B and Religion C and so on and so forth and call that person a Sinner. He is the sinner and we are the ones without sin whom Jesus has been searching over last 2000 odd years and so we have the right to cast the stone. Then we cast the stone wrapped in paper of abuses, expletives, threats, and ultimately abetment to suicide.
Forget rest of the World, we Indians are the biggest racists in the World and we need to set our house in order before pointing westwards. Inclusivity has become a political term and it is time to make it the only real-life axiom leaving behind the maxims of divide. Hopefully newer generations will soon inter-mingle so much that there will be no caste, creed, community and other fragmentations and polarisation. There will be just one race the human race which loves other races and let there be one temple where everybody prays - Temple of Hearts. And the foundation stone for that temple has to be set by the parents and grand parents of future generations.