Right said Gasolinejunkie. Have always been skeptical about the news media. They are a sellout. I dont subscribe to their point of view; only to the information they serve .
Cliche as it may sound, I very much appreciate the role of xBhp in being a pan Indian biking community & thinning the racial divide, in all its capacity it has been able to. A pair of wheels is the binding thread here.

Well I am guessing none of u wer stabbed with a screw driver and wer in a coma fighting for life just bcoz u wer an immigrant.. just think of the people who have been thru this pain.. and to top that i dont think those miscreants have been arrested yet..
Instead of standing for our own countrymen its a shame to see ppl dig out our own backyard to justify this treatment given to our own brothers..

Wat ever may be the god damn reason.. I dont think any act of voilence against any innocent human can be justified by any means

Yes these types of things are not actually justifiable. I do not justify it. Those miscreants must be brought to justice. That is because they have broken the law.

But, it is we, Indians who have provoked them into doing these types of things. So, it is not that only Australians are responsible for this. As is being said again and again, first we should correct our own behaviors before pointing fingers at others.

If the situation is reversed, and takes place in India, I am sure no Indians will come out in support of the grieved parties. The only point we will make is such a case is that - "We did a little damage, so what? We did not invite those guys to our country!" Heck, we can not even tolerate our brothers and sisters from different communities in our country - there are enough proofs about this. Think about it. We, Indians are much more racist and we need to change ourselves. Till then, morally, we have no right to point fingers at others.

As OF said - we only know to live life vacillating between being the hunters or the hunted.

I think you misunderstood the point here, brother. It is not about whether you were stabbed or not with a screwdriver. Obviously, all of us are sympathetic to that poor guy who was in a life threatening situation (recently out of it now). But the issue is that whether airing a cheap gimmick of a show in a news channel where they clamp these visuals up with the Australian team pushing Sharad Pawar from the stage and making general comments such 'Australians are agressive' is a sensible thing to do. Don't you thinking it will create more of a divide than bridging it?

I understand the anger that burns you if someone from your race/country/ethnicity/religion has been mistreated. I am sure you would feel doing the same to the opposing race/country/religion/ethnicity. I frankly see it as a human beings attacking another human being blinded by their dastardly and narrow minded attitude/thinking. It is heinous, no doubt. The Australian government is responsible for maintaining law and order in the society. But how do we justify by generalising that all Aussies are like that?

P.S:- I know what it feels to be a part of a racist attack, because I have been on the receiving end of one ( I will not use 'victim', as I do not see myself as one). But I have never generalized, and never will too, because I know it is not the fact, and I have brothers from the same race/cast/culture/creed. I just pity the poor souls who attacked me are enlightened, because they need it and our world needs it.

I understand this is an emotional and sensitive issue, but if biking is a virtue, and bikes unite us, why categorise?

I have been living in the country for the last 5 years as an international student and so far i havent seen any racisim. i am extremely frustrated how the indian media has handled this as well. and i completely aggree with cultures not mixing with other cultures and locals . that extremely frustrates me when i see other international students hanging out with their own community. i understand its easier for them to do that coz they speak the same language but mixing with the locals gives you a great insight and opens up new opportunities

As for the attacks . they are a case of wrong place wrong time. A lot of the indian students here work late hours and live in areas that are known not to be safe. walking down those places in the wee hours off the morning is of course going to cause problems. it was only a matter of time.....

Well said OF: I was in NYC for sometime and there i realized that we as Indians need a whole course in courtesy. Irrespective of skin colour, people are extremely courteous and considerate. There are just so many incidents i have been a witness to when people went out of their way to help somebody.
Two right on top of my head among many:
1. In the bus terminal, there is a long corridor (PABT) which leads to the bus. An old woman was walking slowly towards the bus. The american behind her didn't overtake her. Instead he walked gently behind her and then held the door for her so that she could get up.

2. Same bus terminal, another day. Stairs from the building lead up to the corridor. An indian family had a toddler in a pram. When they came up to the stairs, the persons behind and ahead of them in the queue lifted up the pram and carried it up the stairs.

There were countless such things everyday to see in the city.
The stint at NYC was a real eyeopener for me. Frankly, we don't need a class in courtesy, we need a whole course in it.

I wish that we as a generation can teach our children "sensitivity towards others" as a prime value of good character.

I remember a speech by Shahrukh khan in the movie Swades, when the village elders derided America for its lack of culture etc. The only movie where i saw a foreign land being given some respect. Rest of the movies just feed on the notion of great india being the best country on earth.

Its time for some universal brotherhood (as espoused by Tagore) instead of just vitriolic and misplaced nationalism.

Oh no, you are wrong. Indians are a bunch of boisterous, ill-mannered people who are yet to learn the ways of the more 'civilized' world. They deserve it. My heart goes out for Australians. How tough it must be on their nerves to tolerate us!

I agree. In the Indian society, the lowest level man is one who thinks of himself only!

Then, he matures and thinks of his family. Then on, more maturity makes him think of the society's welfare,
Then on, the country's benefit ... But, it doesn't end here.

Unfortunately, only very few persons "RISE" to this concept, the "Universal Brotherhood" and believe in it really.

No comments on Australia as I don't have "ALL" details of it. But I agree to universal brotherhood.

Spot on !! I was watching how British Indians (Indian fans) were behaving in the T20 matches, they booed Eng. cricketers, they carried only Indian flags, they forgot that they left India in search of comforts,... and after getting comforts they forgot which country gave them all(UK)....suddenly they love India.. !! Definition of Hypocrisy !!

Spot on !!

My respect to the more illustrious members of this forum, but some of the opinions on this thread have left me amazed.

To the OP: you have valid points, and Australia is definitely NOT a racist nation. The Australian Govt does not a have a policy of apartheid and I believe the MPs there are prudent enough to condemn any such attacks. You (and others) are also right in pointing out that the Indian media thrives on sensationalism, and intelligent news is difficult to find, akin to the needle in the haystack thing.

The Orissa attacks were widely publicized and are still condemned today. People condemned them categorically. They still do. Everyone knows the MNS and their foul deeds. There were protests against that too. But, I do not remember anyone raising a flag in favor of anti-secularism or regional politics.

Everyone has a right to protest. What the students claimed was the dearth of Indians in the police force, and more patrolling in sensitive areas. Infact, even the Oz choppers accepted attacks as being racist. I dont think anyone on this thread has so far denied this. Yes, there were other attacks on people at that time, only some of which were Indians, and the latter attacks were also condemned as being racist, whereas many of them actually were not. Its a classic case of everything being dealt with the same hand: "stereotyping the attacks", if you will. Which brings me to something else on this thread.


We are making blanket statements: swooping sentences which encompass one and all and make the subjects stereotypes in their own right. If someone sees Indian students together, then does that make the entire Indian student community a closed group? Maybe, one would like to delve deeper and find the cause for that. There are many countries which still do not have the larger chunk of their population speaking fluent english (or hindi). European countries are nasty for such things. Not every Indian on foreign shores huddles around in closed "Indian groups", unless he is restricted by boundaries which prevent basic communication. If Indians were so close-knitted so as to avoid the other cultures altogether, that would spell doom for the plethora of people that work there. Even the notion that Indians "generally are like that" is debasing and primordial, IMHO.

Even if Indians are a "closed group", such attacks cannot be granted sanction. In fact, these aloof tendencies of Indians as a cause of the racism is a moot point. Racist people demonstrate a lack of common sensibility. There is no saying that Indians who are part of a multicultural group will not be targeted for their opinions.


We here are also ruminating on the ethics and manners of Indians. Surely, we cannot call ourselves uncivilized, uncouth and justify the attacks? I mean, such "uncivilized" people exist EVERYWHERE. Wherever you look, in any culture or country, there will be retards who play counterpart to the uncouth Indian. Besides, for each inferiority-laden, insecure, poor-in-the-local-dialect Indian, there will be a smart confident guy who mingles with everyone. And he may not be educated either. Its a case of picking out different samples of the human species: you'll find one of each type, and that holds even if the sample set is India.

My point is that there are plenty of Indians, who will be on the polite side of the fence as well. And I am pretty sure they can spell courtesy, and more.

People who have been to places outside India and are narrating such tales of Indian impoliteness would have, I am sure, been shining examples of Indian courtesies, or else they would have failed to see the wrong in their brethren.

As Nitingirish pointed out, if we have faults of our own(MA-Bihar etc), they are not reason enough for us to stop the protests in Ozland. In fact, the "right wing organization and the rape" analogy which he brings out is spot-on. If we start introspecting before protesting against such actions, we are dead already.

The guy in a coma sure as hell wont be wondering about the people who died in Orissa. He has a life: and its affected by something much more immediate. The LEAST we can do is support him, and others who may face such hate crimes.

Ashish,

You rock man. I agree with you every step of the way!!

yea i agree with you totally...it may sound clinched but " in ROME do WHAT romans DO"..

there was an article in the DC news paper describing about this incident..and many students had not faced this problem..because they told that they live according to the society ,they live in a very respectfull manner..and when we go to our realtions house we may not be free as we r in our house but we should maintain our calmness ...the same thing has happened here..

many indian students who had not been victimised..they say that fellow indian students call forieghners "GORE" ..and they live in the manner as if they r living in their own country..they travel in groups..speaking mother toungue loudly..and playing songs in publec places.....what happens in india is different...do all that things when ur in ur home country ..u r totally free...

but when we r the guests we should maintain good manners..

I agree Gasoline!

Rusell Peters says: "Indians are biggest racists". I could not agree more.

When I was in US, I never ever faced racism. Maybe I was ignorant or did not see subtle racist things. But I was greeted by smiles.

You have to adapt to their culture. May a times people from othet cultures either take too long to adjust to new norms or just do not like them. For eg. in most places (except busy Manhattan) you greet even starnagers with a smile while walking, a simple "hey, how u doing" to a shopkeeper or someone you just saw is not bad. Its s culture but some of my Indian friends thought 'kya bakwaas hai - jisko dekho saala bateesi dikhata rehta hai".

Once my roomies were talking about an Indian girl in their class. I had met most ppl in that class (at a diwali party) I could not place her. I asked who she was
she was described as "No, she was not there in diwali party. But kaali kaluti si hai, aisi hi hai". 'Kali Kaluti' (dark skinned but this term in hindi is rude) Tats how u describe a fellow Indian!

Also they had not invited any non-desi to the diwali party. It was strange becos whenever we had a indian festival in my college, we invited 'friends' not just Indians. Isnlt that wat festivals are about. and then they will complain about racism. even a small thing would be termed racists. First you stick out - moving around in packs, not meeting and greeting ppl, not introducing them to your culture (every non-indian at our coleges diwali party had a balst and loved to hear about the festival), snubbing at their culture (kya kapde pehenti hain yeh goriyan) an then you complain about racism.

Lets first address racism issues at home and then start ponting fingers at others! Why hasn't MNS ppl been banned/arrested - can there be more clear case of racism?

I think you missed the sarcasm in my quote. My bad.

+1. But I think rest of the people are too immersed in self-pity to do that. I used to wonder is the criticism against 'Macualy designed' education system in India valid. Now I see its horrendous effects on this thread. Forget self-esteem, it seems to have destroyed the internal essence of this culture

People cry about brain-drain. I say, people who go abroad, remain there. Whats the point of having intellectual slaves here? Like British, they will make us disown our own culture someday and sell us the plastic smile western culture.