Topic Approved

Very interesting and obviously sensitive topic. I would request only mature comments without any expletives. Any member using any kind of abusive language shall me infracted without any exceptions, so dont come to us after it happens. GasolineJunkie has done a very good job in portraying his views in a sane and praiseworthy manner. Expect the same from all of you.

No jokes or unworthy comments invited either.

It's like the rotten mango story. The moment one of them is found in a basket, the whole batch is blamed. Sadly, the one who blames is an opportunist that thinks peace is bad for business.

If a person wants to prosper, he can go anywhere in the world and do that irrespective of huddles like racism. Otherwise globalisation is not really worth the effort.

All we can hope is spread the message that when "we" are pointing fingers at other countries for being "racist", the remaining four fingers are pointing towards us. Unless we stop being racist in our own country, there's little hope for the person in question to go abroad and stop being just that.

A very wise saying comes to mind..."Be a Roman when in Rome". If we start flaunting our "culture" in places where it is not necessary it attracts not just annoyance of the people whose country we are in, but ridicule too. It's what I have experienced when I used to travel. If we mingle better, adapt to their culture (While still preserving ours) the path to success has one less obstacle.

Already much has been said about this, but I guess one thing sums up pretty much everything - control. Racial abuse is everywhere. It's within our reach whether to react to it. Violently or peacefully, then, do not remain necessary.

one thing that bugs me is how the upper class and elite people are protesting against australian government when the same things are happening in our own backyard . the mumbaikars are beating up the biharis , the n. indians call people from south all sort of names , people form the east are harassed even by the police i've noticed in delhi especially the men and not to mention students from african nations . there is no point of protesting unless we ourselves change our attitudes .
the thing with Racism is that it has no solution . humans are inherently dicriminative to feel superior over someone else due to a variety of factors.

Very well described and well written in your inimitable style Gasoline, with your caustic humour almost hovering at the edge! Loved reading through this. And it is totally true everything that you say. When I was in Hamburg, I saw Indians hanging out with only Indians and rarely with local Germans, when I was in Beijing, saw the same thing, when I was in Paris Indians with Indians. And this gets on my nerves. Despite a very seemingly cosmopolitan atmosphere, Indians do not mix easily. Though I appreciate the ones who do, someone like you for example. Someone who is outgoing, forthcoming and willing to mix and know other cultures.

You have summed up the entire story in a perfectly crafted write up. I hope it puts to rest all the spruced up rumors that have been floating around (thanks to the skewed media behavior). People are scaling unprecedented heights in passing country bashing remarks without being abreast with the ground-zero facts.

The hindi "News"(read cheap sensationalism) media thrives on middle class sensibilities. So there are innumerable stories of "rais baap ke bigde bete" and their ilk. These are guys the middle class wants to see put down(surely bikers have got those stares from such people). The "videshi" goras have for long suffered tremendous prejudice on our hands. So when the media gives a racist twist to the whole issue, it serves up and fuels the image that the average person wants to see; the stereotype white supremacists bent on abusing the innocent indian.
I have a friend who grew up hating these white supremacists(read:america and their ilk) A fierce nationalist. For the past six months he has been in Australia and i asked him about the situation there. He said, "Aussies are amazing and very friendly people. I feel safer in Sydney than in Delhi"
If i may go OT, sometimes i get confused about what exactly should i be proud of as an Indian. On my Rajasthan ride, i stopped near a village. Seeing me attired in riding gears, a village boy mistook me for a foreigner. He suddenly started begging in front of me saying "one penny... one penny".
I didn't know what to feel.. angry at him.. or pity at his situation. As a person of reasonable means, i know that i have the luxury of self respect, which that village boy or his mother/elders who taught him simply didn't have.
It gets disheartening at times when one hears stories of untouchables in orissa not being allowed to come near the village well. They have to still fend for themselves from the drain.
Xbhp is a reasonably strong forum of people with reasonable means and a zest to live life. Can it be a forum for change? Pour your thoughts into this one. Maybe even a seperate thread.

Desperate Journalism is the word for the Indian media these days. I remember reading UK newspapers covers with Jade goodys or Jordan’s tits all over. Cause they did not have news and that’s what they were thriving on.
Now here even in India instead of TITS they are on BILI chaje pe atki and SSP sahib ka kuta rocket GUM hua.

Only thing that I want to say with the above lines is that things have always been happening. But been highlighted because of Desperateism (new word for me)

***********************
some of us know about my brief stay in the UK for almost 2 years. Now out of this time I was in England the so called place of snobs and racists (Though I don’t think so). If I go to an alien land and take a native's job and leave him jobless. I am at fault here irregards of anything. Now just to get attention people ended up taking things to media.

Most of the guys there in the protests are from a certain community in India that I belong to as well (I would not like to name it).

question is are you not racists, how many times have you not sweared at a somebody from UP or BHIHAR to be specific who moved to your state for a better life, worked in your fields to help you make money, how many times did you think before you slapped or sweared at that domestic help who fetched your Luggage on your trip to India.

And I get to hear the Gora who jumped you just may be because he was drunk and he had lost his job to a Desi, he is a Racist. Oh common I am a racist I have to accept it you better do.

Thanks
DesiD

Just wanted to share link

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to share a link I was reading a few days back. I beleive this is true.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Indian-techies-under-threat/Racist-Australians-No-Indians-students-are-blamed/articleshow/4634087.cms

Cheers...Prashant

...and that is why 'Media' is the most powerful tool in modern day society. And there have been many over the years who use it without prejudice and lack of judiciousness.

Very well written article. Thought provoking.

Let me add one more thing - the 'mixing' or lack of it - happens all over the world.

Unfortunate it is, but all of them being racist...... I strongly differ.

We are calling names to others but we ourselves dont look deep into our soul. are we ourselves not racist. Perhaps not because we dont go about physically stabbing people from other caste, creed. But the way we hurt their sentiments, we sure are bringing in more injuries, more agony, more pain.

The change beings from us, as charity beings at home.

before calling a country Racist, lets try to remove this Rasicst Virus from our own selves. I have sympathy with all my Fellow Indians who have faced the attacks ever since, but my heart would also cry for all those Non-Indians who have faced the same kind of treatment here. drilling it down to some micro level, rather then calling some country racist, lets try to justify how have we been treating somebody who's not from the same State. we have been looking down on people, and each time some body else looks down on us...we start making hue and cry.

Stop separating each other on the basis of things that don't differ us biologically. Look at them as we want others to look at us.
the world has always been a better place...lets make it the best place.

dcs

^^ Really a thought provoking suggestion dcs..
Only if we try to see this world without differentiating it, then only we could make others also see like that.. Let Peace reside upon Earth

The major points that comes across in this sadly one dimensional discussion so far is that:

'Indians deserve this because (1)of their social behaviour. They have right to remain silent because (2)they themselves indulge in such atrocities in India'

How different is argument1 from what is said by right wing organisations in India with regard to rape of foreign tourists? They claim they wear 'provoking dress' and dont 'stick to local culture'. Why cannot they be draped in sarees they ask. The same line of argument is adopted here, isnt it?

(2) So, because Indians come from a land where there is ragging in college, inter-state disputes, regional tensions it gives everybody an unquestionable right to assault us. I never felt this good about being an Indian ever before

Globalization was the brain child of 'advanced' nations. When we protest it we are termed 'insecure' and 'regressive'. But when an Indian works in an 'advanced' economy/country' he becomes a nuisance/snatcher of jobs and a rightful target of hatred. Hmmm...It is interesting.

I do not want to comment on Orissa attacks. All I would say for anybody who is genuinely interested, read this book- 'Conversions: An assault on the Truth'. For the purposes of this thread the Orissa analogy as like others is irrelevant.

Personally, I dont care who gets beaten up where. If you go in search of greener pastures, you should be willingly to assume the risk involved therein. Thats my opinion.

But to say the victims are wrong and unjustified to raise a hand of protest is indicative of subservient mentality which unfortunatley appears to be genetic to us Indians

I guess it is more about ‘what we do’ than about ‘what we are’. Racism is like other ‘one word for a situation’ epiphanies that so proliferate the vocabulary of our journalists. It is so easy to just write or use one single word and convey the entire meaning, appropriateness to the situation be damned. Racism is not the cause but the result of the situation. People harbor sour feelings for others from a certain country, group or sect, and so to express their displeasure, they cast them as a certain ‘type’ and lo! 'racism’ is born.

The issue as Gaso and also Ken rightly point out is obvious groupism amongst their own ‘kind’. And this usually arises not from a position of superiority but from a background hum of inferiority. Fluent spoken English, affluence and fair skin happen to be great put-me-downs for most third world citizens. These three put them on the defensive and they can only hang loose amongst their own ‘kind’. This groupism is a great barrier to communication. Anyone not in the group is automatically an ‘outsider’, a fact that a few of the sensitive and volatile kind would surely resent. And so they in turn form their ‘own’ group. And the outlines of racism begin taking shape.

Another avenue where we Indians usually fail is in showing courtesy to and having consideration for others. The ‘thank you’s’ and ‘sorry’s’ are sissy things. As are giving way to others through corridors, allowing someone else to board the bus/train first and being non-critical about the other’s values if they don’t affect you in any way. Just see an unmanned traffic crossing in any Indian city or town and it will become obvious to the dumbest ass that no one knows even the ‘c’ of courtesy. People will break a queue to inconsiderately get ahead of others but will never show consideration for someone in a genuine hurry. We apparently live life vacillating between being the hunters or the hunted. No wonder the habits get carried with bags and baggage and we set up shop with the same display, whatever the nation or culture we are in.

And this acute awareness about our differences is a strongly emerging pattern as the materiel stakes become larger. The Maharashtrian/Bihari conflict is one face of it. A growing faction in the US resenting outsourcing of jobs is another example. The only way out is to reach out and communicate. Everyone lives the way he/she does by way of certain concrete reasons and values. Being judgmental or biased or clamming up will let neither of you become aware that you all are ‘people’. That and a visible expressed respect for others are the only sure-fire remedies to this ugly problem.

Well said Old Fox Sir
These are Golden Words
There is life in your words and it makes us think on reading...
Clearly a simple solution for a grave problem which many people simply doesn't pay attention. Dignity and mutual respect the words which need more importance in day today life..