Indians all over the world have expressed shock and concern at the way their fellow countrymen are treated in Australia. Our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, called up his Australian counterpart to express his concern over growing violence against Indians in Australia. News papers and television channels too were condemning these attacks and hosting discussions on these developments. Let us hope that these acts of violence against Indians will soon come to an end.

While we condemn these acts of violence as “racist” attacks, the Australian government sources were not so forthcoming in acknowledging the racial under-currents in their society that propels their citizens to do hate-crimes against Indian (and even Chinese) citizens. For us, the racist element is clear. The white people of Australia are looking down on us Asians. Somehow they want to scare people of other nationalities away. It would be fair on our part to admit that Australian citizens too were attacked, raped and murdered by foreign nationals such as Lebanese settlers.

While we cry ourselves hoarse against racism, it would be a great idea to examine our own racist biases. Deeply rooted in our minds are suspicions about people who do not resemble us, people who speak another language or live by another culture. It wasn’t very long ago that Indian Hindus referred to all white people as “mletcha” (abominably impure). For various reasons, we referred to Western colonialists as cruel “firangis” (our tongues couldn’t manage to utter the word “Portugese”). Even today, Indians who marry foreign women are considered to be stupid. (Women who marry foreign men, especially Caucasians are considered to be fortunate!) And our ‘Indianness’ doesn’t permit us to honour our “foreign” daughters in law. Why else would some “leaders” rake up the “foreign” origin of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi even though she had joined herself by matrimony to an Indian family?

Our xenophobia is not restricted to people outside India. India - though it is claimed that we are a nation - consists of different races. We are a country of different races and we, to a great extent, maintain our racial, linguistic and cultural identities. If we practice discrimination on the basis of a person’s race (or ethnic identity), we too are racists. A glance at the matrimonial colums of our newspapers will tell us how race conscious we are. It is our deep racist underpinning that make us refer to K. R. Narayanan as the first “Dalit” President; or Justice K. G.

Balakrishnan as the first “Dalit” Chief Justice of India; or even Mrs. Meira Kumar as the first dalit woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Why do we even have to mention that these eminent citizens are “dalits?” Can’t we see them as honourable men and women, as our own flesh and blood?

It is common knowledge that the Indian society was intentionally stratified into several castes on the basis of the colour of people’s skin, physical features and their occupation. This is nothing but a racial stratification sanctified by religious pronouncements. We call it by a pet name caste system or the varna system. A person’s caste is based on his birth, his parentage. A person born in a particular caste is generally confined to the occupation of his family or caste. He or she does not have a deliverance from this system except through an unverif-ied hope called reincarnation. If this caste system is not racism of an ingenious kind, what is?

For centuries, people of African origin were ill-treated, enslaved, trafficked and tortured because they belonged to another race. And yet, the caste system and the practice of slavery in India was (and is) worse than whatever happened in the West. A black slave in America could work in his master’s house. The blacks were bought and sold, tortured and molested. However, they were never regarded as “untouchable.” However, the “slave castes” of India were always considered as “untouchables.” They could never enter a Brahmin’s house. (The Brahmins and other upper caste men could however violate “untouchable” women at night!) If ever these poor people stood anywhere near the path of an upper caste overlord, they had to step aside and make way for the “noble man.” In Kerala, an upper caste overlord assumed the right even to cut off an erring slave’s nose! Every dalit child was named by some overlord; and the worst, derogatory names were earmarked for these children.

Race in India has an added dimension of religion. For example, people who follow certain religions often display homogeneity in ethnicity.

Zoroastrianism in India is an example. Many Muslims in India do have an ethnic connection with those who invaded from the west and central Asia. Not all religions are homogeneous in racial identity. Interestingly, even religious bonds are incapable to keep people of different races (or castes) together. The recent socioreligious explosion in Vienna and Punjab testifies to this. The “upper castes” Sikhs cannot tolerate the religious “presumptions” of the apparently “lower caste” Sikhs. Christians of “high origins” - say for instance, many among Syrian Christians - cannot think of worshipping God in the company of their brethren who came from a tribal or dalit background. The ethnic conflicts among dalit Christians is shocking; instead of being united - at least under a dalit banner - they fight among themselves.

The idea of caste-based racism is deeply rooted in the Hindu mythologies related to creation. According to these myths, Brahmins came from one part of the Supreme Being while other castes/races came from other “inferior” parts! Modern racists might search for legitimacy of their actions in the theory of evolution. Many evolutionists believe that different human races arose from different kinds of apes and monkeys on several different continents. They therefore justify their view that one human race is smarter than the other; they find one kind of ape to be superior to another. In order to fight racism of all kinds, we must distance ourselves from these erroneous and dangerous myths and theories.

The Holy Bible says that God brought forth all human kind from one man and one woman. This cannot be dismissed as an ancient myth written in Genesis. The apostles affirmed it. The Apostle Paul preached thus: “From one man (or, of one blood) he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth ...” (Acts 17:26a). Most importantly, the Lord Jesus attested the creation narrative in Genesis — “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female ... ?” (Matt 19:4) We have come from one man’s seed. We belong to one family. We have but one Heavenly Father. Unless we believe this, how can we pray to God, addressing Him as “our Heavenly Father?” Even as we point a finger at the Australians, let us take the log out of our eyes.
 

This page is updated on June 23, 2009