‘Racism’ In Delhi-NCR

The protests have probably descended from the crescendo stage but the anger and belief persists in India that ‘racism’ is behind most of the attacks on Indian students in Australia. The matter has been big enough for Australia to dispatch its top leadership, including Prime Minister Kevind Rudd, for discussions with their Indian counterparts and assure them that Australia is not ‘racist’.

The ire of all of India directed against attacks on Indian students in Australia looks unjustified when almost similar kind of ‘racist’ attacks—and against own citizens—in the national capital and the national capital region are taking place with alarming frequency and no serious attempt seems to have been made to check them. The nature of violence that the young citizens from the North-eastern states of the country face in Delhi and its satellite towns has a disconcerting similarity with what has been happening to Indian students Down Under.

While the violence directed against the youth from the Northeast, many of them students, is bad enough, what is more shameful is the apparently casual attitude of the authorities to their plight. That would further increase the anxieties of these students and their friends and relatives at home who would have surely noted how the Australians at least took some very visible and prompt steps to reassure the Indians. These steps in Australia may not have brought the desired results, but they do suggest that the authorities are not totally smug about the predicament of the Indian students.

Deplorable as it may be, calling the denizens from the Northeast as ‘Chinky’ or something similar may be accepted as a bantering peculiar to the ignorant and the uneducated. Where it becomes totally unacceptable is when these youth from a very sensitive region of the country are subjected to various abuses, verbal as well as physical, and nothing is done beyond providing routine assurances.

No thought has been given to the fact that there is already a strong feeling of alienation among the people of Northeast. The reports of maltreatment of their youth trapped in the national capital can only increase the distance between Delhi and the Northeast, a region which has long been politically sensitive.

Both male and female from the Northeast face unprovoked violence in the national capital region. Some media reports in the past have suggested that nearly half the rape victims in Delhi and the NCR region are young women from the Northeast. Everyone knows that the area, which should have been the pride of the nation, is not safe for the fair sex as a whole. Women who have to move unescorted at night or have to trudge lonely roads to their home or place of work or entertainment are often sitting ducks for the vultures who lurk everywhere in Delhi after sunset.

The danger for the women from the Northeast would appear to be higher because of two reasons. One, they can be easily spotted because they generally look ‘different’ from the local populace. Two, because they are considered easy prey since most of them are not in a position to pull strings or muster some powerful local support. On both counts it is highly opprobrious.

In white-dominated Australia the brown-skinned Indians also look ‘different’ but the Indians and the government of India maintain that to attribute crimes against Indians to the ‘difference’ in the colour of their skin amounts to an act of ‘racism.’ A similar charge can surely be hurled against those in Delhi and nearby towns.

This business of someone looking ‘different’ is at the root of racism. It betrays a failure, whether in India or Australia or anywhere else, to accept belief among the majority population in the process of integration and assimilation. It also suggests that the leaders of civil society and the government have not considered it a serious enough matter to take measures that help harmonise relations.

In fact, the authorities have used the word ‘different’ to shield their own acts of omission and commission in dealing with problems such as the violence directed at the young from the Northeast on the streets—and even homes, offices and restaurants—of Delhi and nearby towns.

About two years ago after a particularly bad phase of violence against the Northeast students, particularly women, the West Delhi police had brought out a brochure containing ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ for the victims. It analysed that one of the main causes that invited trouble for the Northeast youth was their ‘carefree’ lifestyle. That is astonishing. Youth everywhere is known to be carefree; perhaps a degree more when the young are away from home and the gaze of their own elders. In any case, the youth in Delhi seem to be no less ‘carefree’ as the increasing nocturnal crimes in the city would suggest where victims and perpetrators have often been members of the ‘elite’.

Another reason was stated to be the ‘provocative’ (though not the word in the police brochure) manner in which the women from the Northeast dress. By prudish standards the overwhelming young local women in Delhi are dressed provocatively.

The ‘don’ts’ recommended in the police brochure were no less objectionable: avoid disturbing neighbours by cooking ‘smelly’ dishes and holding parties, dress like the ‘Romans’ (saree, salwar-kamiz or burqa?) that are not ‘revealing’ and avoid moving on lonely roads when dressed ‘scantily.’ In case of trouble do ring 100 but always carry a pepper spray.

The manner in which these ‘don’ts’ were couched invited protests, even if the intention behind prescribing these ‘don’ts’ was not to offend. It was, of course, ironic that the police officer in charge of West Delhi at the time was an IPS from Nagaland.

The wayward and errant ways of the youth can always be an invitation to trouble. But it cannot be assumed that all the youth follow that path. The advice on the ‘smelly’ food was uncalled for when the food cooked in these parts can also be ‘smelly.’ Many Indians who have lived abroad would also be able to tell stories of how their cooking and the ingredients in seasoning upset their neighbours. The old slogan of ‘unity in diversity’ sounds hollow if food and dress code are going to spell trouble for some citizens of the country. The young from the Northeast have to be made to feel that they are as much part of Delhi as the typical ‘smelly’ Delhi food.

- Asian Tribune -