The Outsider

Say No to Prejudice

We all are very proud to be Indians. Our patriotism is showcased in various forms when instigated by a certain mega achievement by some Indian. For example, Indian cricket team wins the world cup, Handful gold medals at some international sports meet, some space mission or just Shahrukh Khan receiving an honorary award from the French government. That’s it. We all are proud to be Indians only then and rest of the times we treat one another just like an Outsider!!

We all know this fact but strangely shy away from that racism, prejudice and xenophobia are rampant in India. It’s a strange mixture of prejudice, ignorance and centuries-old discriminatory practices, when communities keep to themselves and there are dining taboos based on caste. Even today you cannot eat with people not of your caste or marry into their communities.

We are a huge nation with diverse cultures and heritage and as our pledge says ‘I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage’. We are a nation where culture and habits change every 10kms, spoken language and staple diet changes with them too. And that is when the problem starts. Each state is like a different country with diverse languages, cuisines, clothes, customs, and climate. Punjabis are closer in terms of their food and language to Pakistanis than to Tamils. 

All these differences make people fairly suspicious of those who are not like them. And ‘people like us’ close ranks and bond. These closed communities are naturally full of prejudices towards the other, the outsider.  Every state considers itself superior. We stereotype each other mercilessly and there are jokes galore about food, clothes and accents (how residents of each state speak English, actually!).

There’s a huge North-South divide too. Yet, in pre-colonial times, India was a haven for persecuted people. We gave refuge to Jewish people, Parsis from Persia, Armenians and later Chinese who ran away from the Revolution, and Tibetans who fled the Chinese. These people kept their distinct, separate identities but they prospered and loved India.

There’s another side to us though. As migration takes place, across state borders within India, a kind of xenophobia begins. In Mumbai in the 1960s, Maharashtrians were incited by politicians to drive out south Indians, Madrasis, they called them who were stealing their jobs. Sounds familiar? Recently, the same paranoid party called for North Indians to be thrown out. Many poor, migrant Biharis were beaten up, attacked and threatened as they went about their daily grind, often working for a pittance. In Bangalore too, there are rumblings of resentment over north Indian techies who have flooded the city with their loud, noisy, in-your-face manners. South Indians are relatively quiet, stand in queues and can’t understand the chaos of a northern railway station. Students from North East India are mostly dubbed ‘chinky’. People ask them if they are Japanese, Chinese or Korean. There is total ignorance amongst us in most parts of India about the culture, indeed about anything North Eastern.

That’s not it, we stereotype women very easily too. We rarely perceive beauty in black or far-eastern women. In fact, most of us look for pale-skinned brides to get married to. Bridal ads ask for ‘fair skinned’ girls. So skin color is important and you can’t be beautiful if you are not fair. Prospective bride seekers swarm into the girl’s house to ‘see the bride’. They have no compunction about passing their comments, in front of the bride and her family. Sensitivity, tact or even basic good manners are not common among average Indian families.

Now a little reminder from our National Pledge that we recited like parrots at school assembly.

India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters.

I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.

I shall always strive to be worthy of it.

I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders respect and treat everyone with courtesy.

To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well-being and prosperity alone lies my happiness.

 Where is this compassion that we promised towards each other? Why are we so intolerant about our own brothers and sisters? We want to fight rape, crime, terrorism, poverty and so many other issues but fail to remember that all of us are sons and daughters of the same soil. All these issues will be self-eradicated from the moment we stop the hardwired mentality of plain worthless prejudice towards one another and stop treating others like ‘The Outsider’! 

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