After the Nigerian Parliament passed a resolution asking its Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Committee to probe the 'racist' attack on its citizen in Goa, Indians are feeling ashamed of the 'racist' tag and voicing concerns. But do we ever address the systemic discrimination against the fellow Indians ? The clashes between Nigerians and locals in Goa hogged the headlines during the last fortnight. The crisis not only opened up a can of worms for the Centre and the local government after the national media dug up more dirt related to the Africans-locals' slugfest over the behind-the-scenes drug trade, it also earned India a racist tag. The Nigerian envoy's veiled repercussions to Indians in the African country and the Nigerian Parliament's resolution against India stirred an old debate: Indians' love for the White and disdain for the Black. A country, known across the world for its ancient culture of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, has played a good host to foreigners indeed, particularly those with white skin. And the Indian media has been successful in its endeavour to paint a rosy picture of foreigners' treatment in India. But it has miserably failed in highlighting the discrimination faced by the native Indians, particularly those with Mangolian features, and the members of Schedule Caste.
It was exactly a century ago when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi experimented with his philosophy of non-violence in South Africa before he returned to India during the early decades of the twentieth century. It was in South Africa that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism, racism; and his experience had crucial influence on his anti-colonial ideology and techniques. But in his own land, racism, intolerance and violence challenged his ideas and revealed the contradictions within. Race or racism has been defined by the United Nations as: "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life". In addition to these, we have several conventions and covenants to deal with racism or racial discrimination. For instance, the International convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, Article I specifies: "In this Convention, the term 'racial discrimination' shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life." Second Article specifies that this Convention shall not apply to distinctions, exclusions, restrictions or preferences made by a State Party to this Convention between citizens and non-citizens. And the third Article mentions that nothing in this Convention may be interpreted as affecting in any way the legal provisions of States Parties concerning nationality, citizenship or naturalisation, provided that such provisions do not discriminate against any particular nationality. And the list goes on. While writing on racial discrimination in India, Sarungbam Lucy (The People's Chronicle, November 15, 2013) analyses that racism has three main elements; i) a vision that society is composed of inherently different groups, ii) a delusional belief that due to the persistence and mutation of the race, people are different and should not interact, and iii) this 'difference' is what becomes into a programme of political action. The Constitution of India, foreseeing the distinct ethos of post-colonial political and public culture, envisaged several provisions for safeguard. Article 15 mentions that Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. And the clauses of this article reads: (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth or any of them; (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and palaces of public entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public. Yet, racist prejudices within India occur, violating the basic principles of the rules in the UN charters, and International Conventions. The attitude of Indians towards African nationals in India is alarming. In 2012, a student from Burundi was brutally beaten and stoned in Punjab, and was in coma for more than nine months. A Nigerian student was beaten at an engineering college in Greater Noida. A Kenyan student was denied entrance to a pub in Pune. As such incidents mar the urban public culture is subtle and overt discrimination against Indians and culturally marginalised suffer worse form of discrimination. The people from the North-eastern region across metropolis in the country, be it in Delhi, Pune or Bangalore, suffer several forms of explicit and subtle discrimination. While the violation of the basic human rights of the Scheduled Castes has became an act of everyday form.
Recent research and evidence shows that only two-thirds of atrocious cases on members of the Scheduled Caste are reported. On the basis of officially accepted data on the atrocities against these discriminated communities, the European Parliament had passed a motion for a resolution by the Committee on Development on the human rights situation of the Dalits in India on December 18, 2006. The gist of the resolution reads: despite the fact that many Dalits do not report crimes for fear of reprisals by the dominant castes, official police statistics averaged over the past 5 years show that 13 Dalits are murdered every week, 5 Dalits' homes or possessions are burnt every week, 6 Dalits are kidnapped or abducted every week, 3 Dalit women are raped every day, 11 Dalits are beaten every day and a crime is committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes. On one hand select criminal cases are sensationalised and grip the consciousness of the public; for instance Jessica Lall, Arushi and more recently Nirbhaya cases. On the other, the rape and murder of a girl from the North-eastern State in Munirka, or the Khairlanji incident of 2006, where four of the five-member Dalit family were literally eliminated, has receded in the public memory. The lopsided activities of the civil society and the media bias have reached an alarming level. Dharnas, bandhs, candlelight processions, peace-marches and fast-track courts follow a set of particular kind of incidents, while ghastly crimes against 'the other' are not considered worthy of even reporting.
(The writer is Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) (Courtesy : The Pioneer) |
