These self-serving and consoling argument about being resist, guided by ignorance and deep-rooted bias has neither compassion for nor understanding of a group of men in black skins, especially given their eccentric religious beliefs. Those dark skin from South India or Africa are far from 'racist Indians so they only exist in the eye of some distant cast system. You write from Hinduism so it means something to you. We rule the India based on Skin so what is Ours means the same to the world. Everything else means nothing. You world views lives inside the Beltway.
I remeber one respndent recently succently sumerised:
Another deeply rooted part of the culture of Indian racism is dishonesty and a lack of empathy for the victims of their racist abuse. Don't expect to evoke any remorse for it because according to the philosophy, you deserve to be abused and suffer. Do however; expect to be accused of being racist by them for NOTICING & SPEAKING OUT against their racism. The reason is two-fold, (1) It is a very effective tactic to silence and confuse any criticism of their culture of racism (2) Based on the philosophy of Hinduism, what we call 'racism' is actually a normal and healthy thing and is the foundation of their identity and therefore, your criticism is an attack on their 'identity' and therefore akin to racism to them. got it? It's a sick and sad reality but a reality none the less. Also, since Hinduism dominates the political & social spectrum of India, even though there are other religions such as Islam, Christianity etc...the 'culture' of racism has leeched into the general culture shared by all Indians to a large degree. This is why you have the same racism in Christianity, Islam etc among Indians...even when they convert to another religion to escape the racist caste-ism they replicate the same racist culture. There is a saying in India 'Caste first Christ Second"...separate churches, pews & even separate cemeteries for the black dalits. NOTE: Their racism is not geographic, it is a mindset that they carry with them all over the globe with pride and defiance.
This is a very old article. However, there is no doubt that India is a highly racist country. We fawn over white foreigners and despise blacks. This is a fallout of our internal caste prejudices wherein light skin is associated with higher castes and vice vers.
However, the article quoted in #80 has many anomalies. How many whites in the US would welcome a black neighbour? A country in which a householder is acquitted of wrongfully killing a Japanese student who rang his door bell because "his wife was scared of yellow skinned people" is deemed amongst the least racist!!! Tell me another.
Pakistan - only 6.5 percent of Pakistanis objected to a neighbor of a different race. Yeah right. Perhaps because they don't object, they just kill them.
A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries:
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/
Dear Deipiriye Kuku,
I'm surprised that you got this space even to express youself and your anguish. The country's media does not allow such room to those who are at the receiving end of the Indian supremacists, even many of them would be quite capable.
I can feel the sense of frustration at the treament you have been receiving from Indians. The Indians you have been meeting are not only admirers of white skinned men and women, they actually worship them.
Years ago I had read the following line by Patrick Tamayo, an African American:
"Wear my shoes, and be in my skin,
See what see, feel what I feel,
Then only you shall know
Who I am, what I am and why I am."
Hatred, discrimination, deprivation and inequality are enshrined in the scriptures of Indians. And they guide them as manuals in their daily life.
They have been polluting wherever they have migrated and doing what they do at home to their underprivileged countrymen. But they will speak in loud voice how a great ancient civilization they have inherited that have taught them love the humanity of the universe.
In my opinion racism does exist in India but most of the Indians (living in India) who behave like racists are unaware and uneducated that their behaviour is being racist. The issue is that the audiences of this article are the people who already know what racism is and that it’s bad. It’s the quasi literate victims of our education system who have to be addressed and be sanitized but
a) The ones mocking you don't get to or are inclined to read such articles. So it takes out the possibility of them getting educated and get sensitive about human equality.
b) They don't even know that what they do is racist, for them its just one of the free fun that life has provided them. This fact and their natural curiosity (borne out of lack of interest in books of knowledge) don’t abdicate them from their crime but it’s an indictment of our education system (if there is any).
c) Discrimination in clubs/ discos/ Malls/ ATMs arise from stereotyping of Black Men as a mugger and guy by Bollywood and Hollywood movies. It is grounded more on suspicion created by that stereotyping rather than racism. d) Similarly every white is a stereotype for being a rich person with lots of money to spare. Its not the color that gets them the offer of tea/ coffee or salute from the guard, its them being thought of carrying a fat purse. You know what, forget coffee or tea I don’t even get a smile from the staff at my bank :). And Last, all of above explanation is an individual analysis and not meant to downplay the author’s experiences. I am aware of the fact that how badly discrimination faced at individual level hurts one’s feelings. I feel bad for the author and also guilty.
Thank you for your comments and responses to the issues raised in this article. In response to several threads raised throughout the comments posted here, I would caution us not to blame poverty, but to look at our own relationship towards poverty, because we know that money is not equated with enlightenment. We do not have to be rich or harbor status to be smart, or compassionate, or happy. In fact, the competition for status would seem to be the real motivator behind the fair-skin madness- the idea that fair skin equals money and success – and perhaps even intelligence as some people believe. These are some of the ways that caste divides, not just through inter-marriage, but in our everyday notions of the institution.
We become not only divided socially, but on an individual, and inter-personal basis. This duplicity is never reconciled because we are ourselves so divided: Are we beautiful if we are not an ideal body type that at lest makes us look like a powerful social category? In America, we can look at our popular culture and see how pop icons mimic a narrow idealized body that is supposed to suggest wealth- literally command over money. So, whiteness, sexiness, slenderness and chiseled, super human beauty is all supposed to indicate wealth. In some ways it does, if we just consider to notion of beauty and how that market preys upon youth culture to sell products to older people- as if a perfume, a wrinkle cream, a slandering diet and a pair of jeans will all buy us a bit of youth. So, like the bleached fair skin of bourgeois cultures that signifies a life of leisure away from laboring underneath the sun, the modern chiseled, flawless look- the glamour girls in glossies and the metrosexual boys posing on street corners – you've seen them in the malls, too. They all reflect the leisure time and cash to commodify the consumer lifestyle. Just like the plantation economy, some amount of willing ignorance is sustained within the consumer classes such that we can ignore and reach of level of comfort with the conditions of labor that produce the cheap goods we barter over for status. It’s like those rich, luminescence saris woven in the bowels of Varanasi, the oldest existing city on Earth. Those who produce the luxurious goods will never be able to afford to wear one themselves, they produce and turn over their goods. That workers should be divided over the power to consumer is, in fact, vulgar. Caste is a form of Eugenics, the belief that some people are simply born with power, that it is written on their flesh, and that some people are polluted forces others to compete for purity.
India is an important example for all the world because the worlds hopes are with India, not against her. It is my hope that the people of India will take such scrutiny as further evidence of a global interest and fascination with India’s past, present and future. Certainly there is loads of love shared between people in India across all the differences, despite how divided some communities may appear. Just look at the increasing freedom individuals enjoy to choose a marriage partner. Indeed, India is a super power not because of financial capital alone, but also for the moral leadership it’s people and government show.
Moral leadership? Consider the state of gay rights as proxy for a modern notion of citizenship. See how – just today even- Britain and America are battling over gay marriage, and the churches have taken a stance to oppose these measures. Meanwhile in India, homosexuality was decriminalized in 2009, on the basis of the constitutional spirit of “Inclusiveness” set out by Nehru. Please understand that the notion of marriage is not separate from other aspects of law, but essential to how we imagine citizenship; we do not honor second class citizenship, that which is implied by civil partnership versus “marriage.” That piece-meal approach actually allows fundamentalist religious institutions to encroach further upon the democracy by bartering the rights of a minority that neither the conservatives nor the moderates will defend, while the left remains splintered. This puts India leaps ahead of any of the piece-meal bits of rights granted in America and Britain today. That queer people in India have constitutional rights is one of India’s moral coups. As far as I know, only Nepal and South Africa can boast of such a modern treat.
There is a similar article here covering how we discriminate people and be hypocritic about that http://www.heydesis.com/are-we-racists-and-hypocrites/
The reason : the "varnashrama" mindset imprinted in the average Indian and centuries of White Rulers.
There are many jobless and nothing to do men on the streets of India, more so in Delhi. So they vent their frustration on minorities. I have experienced in the streets of Delhi how a bulk of young and old men were following white tourist girls -staring at them and making obscene gestures. This was deeply disturbing. The rude,crude and uneducated behavior of some North Indians ("bhaias") are not much appreciated in Rest of India. I was physically mobbed in a bus in South India, because the youngsters thought I was from the North. Soon after they learned that I was from the East, they also stopped their sorry behaviour.
In the US of A several times thugs tried to rob me.Unfortunately they were all black men and were too drug addicted to be successful. However, since there are scientifically no races among humans, i have no grudge against those addicts.
I'm an East Asian student studying in India, been living in India for over 10 years now. Racism in India is just too much, it is almost to the point where Indians fail to distinguish racism with being rude as a general. Being rude in general does not rationalize the uniformly racist behaviours in Indian public. Obviously there are nice Indians, but we foreigners feel that those nice Indians are of the rarity. I have been called momo, chinki, chinkchong, hakka noodles, chowmein numerous times in the public by Indians. Usually for the sake of their entertainment bullying around the minority segments of the society. The case with Blacks in India facing racism is rightly pointed out by the writer. Crazy varieties of fairness creams and cosmetics like fair & lovely, Garnier light, ponds white beauty floods the market and tv advertisements. Indians extremly desire white and fair skin. It is usually the north India's case where most people prefer white skinned girls.
For the East Asian and East Indians, the influence of China on Indian society through the recent historical events plays a significant role. The whole Sino Indian war in the year 1962, case of Dalai Lama, and the brief period of hindi-chini bhai-bhai, and the whole rivalry of Asia's superpower position plus the regional tensions. All these factors adds to the genuine and uniform hatred or dislike towards the 'chinky' population by the Indian public.
The austrailian violence against Indians may have helped Indian masses realize that they face much racism outside India. But there is no initiative to even look into the reality of racism so widely spread out in the Indian society.
How much more racism should foriengers in India face? what hurts more is that India is not at all feeling guilty about racism against the foreingers, maybe because they are too busy controling racism against the regional groups within India. As much as I love India I really hope that India soon sees the reality of foreigners life in India.
I agree with Mathhuman.
Everything about India and its opposite are true---we are struggling to flip the coin the correct way.
Msg for the author:
I am Indian living abroad, and have friends of all nationalities, including Africans and I respect them all. Judgement is not an Indian trait itself. I experience comments againts Indians abroad, by those who know only of the over crowded, poor projection of India.
Having lived in Delhi, and experienced eve teasing, alike for all colours and nationalities, I can tell you, the naive or ill informed, curious people, behaving rudely to the world around them, dont hold true of how most Indians feel or believe.
I hope you would not judge the majority of Indians based on your experience with some judging people, who happen to be Indian. Hope your experience goes on an up turn from here and you have a rewarding stay in India.
@Diepiriye,
Several things are wrong with India---but I hope you do not mistake the racism of the socialte elite of Delhi with the curiosity of the majority. Contrary to the broad brush Dinesh below paints, and I am going on a limb here, a lot of India is rude, but not exactly racist. The trick is to distinguish between the two, and after several decades, I am still not always sure.
Most of India is shut off from the world (cost, visas), except via a colonial relationship (through the current crop of brown sahibs), and is struggling to get back its own identity and find out what it believes in. It is why some behave so badly in India, but at the same time, Indian forces as part of UN peacekeeping in Africa win the hearts of the locals. Like they say, everything about India and its opposite are true---we are struggling to flip the coin the correct way.
I hope you hold a mirror to us more, but not by looking at the elite in Delhi or the NW (the "punjabi" elite culture represented by bollywood). Go south, where colonialism has had a smaller impact. There is racism there too, I am sorry to say, but I also think you will also see the backlash against the implicit racism so ingrained in the North.
And a more nuanced opinion than the broad hate swipes some commenters have made below---little do they realize that it is exactly that trait that is the basis of racism.
@Dinesh, find me any traditional temple in the south which represents any diety or idol as fair. it is always granite, and most popular representations are black/green/blue.
I have British African and African American friends who have visited India and have pretty much experienced the same thing - without the need to visit a zoo. All my white friends complaint of the same treatment in India while visiting.
On a few occasions I have myself been witness of extreme racism they faced in India when the perpetuator did not know I was friends with them. I didn't want to translate some of the deeply insulting comments hurled at them under scorn, with no provocation or fault of theirs. Hotel rooms were denied to the women if they were on their own, they were constanly subject to molestation by strange men although they were covered and clothed conservative and behaving very modest. No one wanted to socialize with them either, including Indian women.
The blacks were completely denied accommodation, and even tickets for transport, services in restaurants and so on. It's disgusting. I felt soo deeply ashamed and the true reality of India and how backward it really is dawned on me to the max. Having been extremely well and justly treated in different foreign countries, my shame couldn't have been deeper at how they are treated back. No one can say this kind of racism exist in the west because it doesn't. If you hear of incidents they make the news because they are so rare and shocking to people.
India is the most racist country in the world, followed by Africa, Middle East, and China. Anyone who travels a lot can confirm that. That is why they blame any struggle they face in other countries, which may be nothing worse than anyone else, as racism. That's all they know and how they behave in India, so they assume the whole world has the same mindset.
67/D-124 - you sound like a bigot yourself. Stop blaming all your bad cultural qualities on some foreigner. Your crimes, racism, sexual offenses are not imparted on you from outside. India is too inbred, uneducated and uninformed about the world, and the country doesn't want to do anything to address these problems. In fact, no outsider is even allowed to criticize India without a backlash. These things have nothing to do with some foreign rule. Your obsession with skin color has nothing to do with colonialism either, but comes from your 5,000 year old Vedas where all the Gods are described as pale skinned with "skin as pale as milk" and the demons as dark skinned. The British didn't write that. Your own ancestors did.
As a dark skinned Asian Indian of Indian origin, and having lived in India until college age, I can recall times when references were made to the color of myskin in fun, by even some of my friends. In the U.S. having first come here in 1954, and experincing instances of discrimination sometimes, I know, as others who live here have noted, that it is not unusual to run into individuals sometimes who are racisit; the rpresence of all "foreigners" are held in low esteem by them. "Strangers" in may countries around the world experience the same.
Just why some people feel a dark skin is a defect is obvious. More than 500 years of colonialism has become ingrained in some minds that a lighter skin humans are "superior." Our movies, advertisements, marriage ads and racists perpetuate this notion.
Hi the article title itself is very very true.
Eventhough I am from India,I want to share something.Racisim is very high in India.Even we can't find humanity with certain regiones of the people.Even at topmost India's educational Institute particulary certain people are allowed to do research its because of their higher authorities are from their state.Certain regions of Indian people think and talk among themselves that they are very intelligent and reality is not like that .They just manipulate the datas and published the experiment results as they did.They always steal the creativity of others but project as like they did that one.They allot the fellowship for their state and regional students only.But they always talk themselves that they are inborn genius.But one thing is that they know how to made a show such a way that they did lot of work without knowing it.These people are only generating fund and utilizing Indian money for their pocket.Even many other region people who are dedicating and have creativity didn't find the opportunity to attract the fund.
Out Indian money alloted for research is eaten by certain region of India for manipulating the datas.
Racism in India is not just peripheral, It is deep rooted in almost all indians, I am from Africa and I face racism in nearly all my daily activities in India. For example getting a residential place has been a nightmare where the agents normally come back with the usual ear-itching slogans like SOCIETY, NEGRO NOT ALLOWED..
This racism, in India, is known to many and is not going to end, even If Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate highlights the issue.
Kuku, Indians in general are far more racists than what you have observed.
Indians take racism against black people to new heights.
It is all expected in a country where matrimonial ads look out for fair skin, where every second ad on TV guarantees a whiter skin instantly, where people joyously uses ‘kallu’, ‘kalwa’, ‘kalu’ to mock darker skin people and where religion has been a prime source of discrimination for ages.
Now Racism, discrimination and hypocrisy are the integral parts of Indian society.
Well written in a way that can only come from the heart. I can easily believe all of it. Racism is particularly common among North Indians as others have pointed out here. As an American of Indian origin, I can tell you that in many cases even living abroad does not cure some individuals of their ingrained racism. The habit of fawning over white men (and women) has become so pervasive that many whites expect that behavior among Indians. "What you're not going to fawn over me?" is the surprised look I get from whites who're clearly shocked. The fawning extends to whitewashing the Indian experience with colonialism when talking to whites. One VP of a major Indian engineering company declared at an SAE conference a few years ago that the British started the industrialization of India conveniently forgetting that they tried to (and largely succeeded in) kill Indian industry to keep India as a market for their goods.
There are exceptions of course. I'd visited Jabalpur in central India many moons ago and found that there were a large number of black students, both male and female who seemed to be quite at home. And certainly, the experience will be much different in Southern India but on the whole, many Indians have a long way to go before they are able to deal on equal terms with both blacks and whites. It will need both education and experience in dealing with all races. The sad thing is that, in India, there are not many who will publicly introspect about their own failings. It would be considered a weakness and shameful. So the prejudices just take longer to die out.
For this author, I would hope that his partner clearly demonstrates to the Indians they meet that he expects equally respectful treatment to Mr. Kuku. That should surely make a difference to how he's treated from that point on.
First of all, i would like to say that this behaviour is absolutely true toward the north side of the country, i want to thank you for bringing this into the open!
From my own experience i can say that racism is prevalent throughout india, but more so in Delhi. I am of fair complexion, but i did face racism, maybe not in the same way as the OP (Racism based on skin color) but in a different way. You would be amazed with this story. When i lived in Gurgaon and went out shopping, i would notice that i did not get as much attention from the sales folks in malls and the like, it took me a while to understand the stupid delhi mentality. Guess what? I had my helmet in hand when i shopped, and this was the reason i did not recieve any attention!!! Just to experiment, the next time, i left my helmet on the bike handle. Lo and Behold! I was the center of attention in the store!
This is also considered racism, racism is not just based on color, but there are several such incidents that are racism is some form or the other. There are several such incidents that i could narrate based on my experience in the North and i have started to hate all north indians due to this cheap behavior they had exhibited.
Mr Kuku,
First of all I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart on behalf of my fellow countrymen for the treatment meted out to you. I know the tendency among my countrymen to give preference to fair skin in every field of life. Being a North Indian, I am also well aware of the fact that this practice is more prevalent in North India than in South India. But there are some intricacies that need some discussion.
First of all, it’s not racism. It’s more a fascination for the white skin (which is exemplified by the fact that Indian Premier League (IPL), Cricket’s top tournament currently, has white cheerleaders of every team!). And the primary reason that this is prevalent more in North India than in the South is that an average North Indian is, so to say, fairer-skinned than an average South Indians. Also, over the past few decades, education has been held more important in the Southern states of India and has thus had a greater impact in South India than in the North. This is another reason for the backwardness of thinking of the people in the North.
Another important thing of note is that India is full of very different cultures, and you will find people with very different personalities and preferences over a distance of just a hundred miles. Not all cultures breed this exclusionary attitude. Hailing from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, and having lived in Shimla, Chandigarh, Indore, Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore, I can vouch for the fact the people from Himachal Pradesh, being hill people, or may be because of some other reason, are much warmer towards people and would go completely out of the way to help you out, no matter what is the colour of your skin. And I’ve seen it happen – it’s all there in the speech, in how strangers reply to you. It all comes across, and I’ve had the privilege to compare this nature of the natives of all the four cities. So when you say North Indian, let us not generalize. The same goes for New Delhi. If you feel people of New Delhi are more inclined in their preference towards the fairer skin, that may be true, but then there are a lot of people who will be very helpful and who will never discriminate on the basis of your skin colour. Delhi has a population of over 22 million, and people in Delhi come from all over, especially the labour class, most of which is a victim of urbanization from the poorer nearby states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the kind. It all depends on who you are interacting with. ATM people and autowallahs have very low education levels, as most of India is still very poor. Almost none of them have had any exposure to different cultures within their own country, let alone abroad. So it is their ignorance and naivete that comes across as “racist” to you. I know it’s very hard for you facing all this every single day, but I would like to ask you to forgive us for our poverty, which perpetrates lack of belief in basic education, which thus makes people behave like this.
We were ruled by Britishers for over 200 years. And this is the time during which poverty in India became widespread, as we were denied very basic human rights by the Britishers, and we were persecuted for a long time by those who forcefully ruled us and treated us like speck of dust on their shoes. Maybe this deep rooted preference for white skin emanates from this subconscious idea that was hammered into our minds that white people are superior. Who is to blame? Widespread poverty and a very late opening up of our economy to the outside world perpetrated this thinking and in a society where caste discrimination was already rooted since millennia, a new aversion towards darker skin was not difficult to assimilate. That said, I have to mention that it is a very sad state of affairs, and I feel ashamed of this bigoted behaviour on the part of my countrymen.
Specific to the problems faced by you, I think the gawking that you get is more out of curiosity and our own lack of awareness or access to the outside world. This is mainly attributed to the fact that there are very low Africans present in India. This goes for any place where an outsider comes when the people are not used to his/her presence. A white skinned person goes to Goa, and he might as well feel at home. Let him go to the north-eastern states of India, and see the kind of discrimination and gawks does he have to face. Let him go to a small village where people have never seen a person with such a fair skin, and then see the kind of stares and whispers and comments he gets. It’s all about how “developed”, to use a word that everyone here can relate to, the country is, and India, sadly, despite its tries of pomp and show in the Commonwealth Games and buys of the best of their kind military fighter planes, and it’s ambitions of being a superpower – notwithstanding all that, India is still a developing country and, with the kind of burdens and problems of population, deforestation, lack of basic education, or mass poverty that it faces, India will continue to be in the “developing” bracket, according to me, for many years to come. And a change in attitudes and acceptance of people of all colours, creeds, castes and communities will come with time, no doubt about that. What I have said in defence of my countrymen, in no way lessens the anguish I felt when I read your article and continued to read all the comments on it, and my sincere heartfelt apologies for all that happened.
Not justifying whatever happened to you, but there is racism everywhere. At some places (like in your experience) it is more in-the-face, and in some places, it is subtle (I'm in the US). Not that one warrants the other or two wrongs make one right, but I guess it is human nature to discriminate against those they consider are uglier. So while we fawn over whites because we think they're better looking than us, we cringe in disgust when we see blacks or our own Dalits or fellow dark-skinned Indians.
Only exposure and education are a solution to this. Countries in the west like the US have had a long history of exposure to people from different races, so have been better able to integrate them, India is only now waking up with more people from different parts of the world visiting and making it their home.
I am deeply ashamed of my people/ For my people. I dont know what else to say apart from asking forgiveness for our race. Sincerest apologies and big hug.
Thats why we are ruled by a white Italian
SIR
good article weare used to white colour for many years and now they have used to it. of course people from african continent a new human we are interacting more now on indian streets. Hence littlebit of curosity is there more of awe for the strong built and large frame normally please do not take it as racism from ordinary indians..once the ice is broken then i feel no problem
Mr.Kuku, "In spite of friendship and love in private spaces" as you have yourself said it , why should you think that Indians are racist?
Your experiences are almost like everybody's, I mean, every Indian's experience in some places when we go out for shopping or to meet some IAS babus or some big business men for example.
You would meet low paid shop sales men with crude manners in high value garments shops giving you a humiliating treatment ( depending on your clothes and style or your cell phones nowadays) and you get yourself epithets unimaginable to you when you try to meet Govt. snail keepers and fatty, lazy business tycoons. Most of them are , needless to say fools who cannot do their job. As for curiosity in general as well as menace of beggars and corrupt traffic cops it is all everywhere, throughout India , do not you think they are “racist”.
You have to travel more in India to understand Indians better and also to understand its greatness, its unique qualities and its friendly ,helping people. I just want to give you, one American's experience. He told that he was seeing beggars, dirt and lousy, selfish people everywhere. As I am myself a biking enthusiast I read his version with some interest.
Seeing the predicament of this American tourist, someone like me suggested to him to buy a bike and tour India ,instead of going by public transport like trains and buses . And once he started touring on a Royal Enfield bike the whole scenario ( for him whole of India ) changed !!!
People, wherever he stopped, on the National Highway offered him Chai and smiled at him. He found a crowd gathering whenever he was in trouble with the bike and they were ready with repairs. He found people well dressed, umpteen number of bike enthusiasts along the road, and he found Indian people in general are very friendly as well as happy by nature.
You wrote that you post on YouTube. I advise you to see the automobile accidents on YouTube. Any incident in India means so many people immediately gathering there and help the victim. Many times you see people, leaving their own "urgent" work, try hard to stop the road rage with all the effort.
Now, you compare same situations of road rage and accidents even in the heart of the city in Russia,USA, Bangkok and even in China!. People do not care even to look at a dying victim on the road and road rage incident goes to as much as trying to kill each other , while all other people just walk away.
So your idea of "racism" in India is almost non-existent. First of all travel all over India before coming to conclusions like Indians consider black people much more curious than a giraffe or some animal.
It is not jingoism but certainly you have not seen India at all.
Somewhat strange to see a three year old article evoke so many responses now!
Diepiriye Kuku, I personally apologize to you for the humiliations, physical or otherwise, you have suffered in this country and for the more humiliating and insulting comments made here. And I do so not on behalf of anybody else but solely of myself. What else can one do other than this! Fight against it perhaps but, as you rightly say, in India it will take god knows how many years more to turn this fight into a collective one. Somehow we are stubborn not to realise that the racism we accuse the white Americans of we are also infected by the same, let's call it, disease and will continue saying that if you don't like the way we are go and live in your native country peacefully as if standing in the long queue for hours to get a U.S visa, for academic purposes or otherwise, is exclusively our prerogative and is acceptable beyond measures. "The Wretched of the Earth" has been translated in many Indian languages and I suppose those who have made the comments here are well versed in English as well. I strongly reccomend it to you all. And please, for whoever's sake, if you can't fight back this social ill (in want of a better and intenser word) at least don't make the person feel more humiliated by passing irresponsible comments and pardon me as one of your fellow 'countrymen' for using these seemingly abusive phrases.
Just as I learned that L.A. is not of USA and USA is not L.A., you should travel some more to realize that Delhi is not representative of India and viceversa.
From my personal experience, even as an Indian, I've been treated like dirt in Delhi. People look at me funny possibly for not looking like a delhiite. Women have it even worse.
I often personify Delhi as an equal opportunity asshole. Every resident of Delhi faces the same problems to a certain extent inspite of it being their hometown. I don't know why it's like this, but it is.
Travel across the country and you'll notice a culture-shift (and language-shift as well) every few hundred kilometers, and your experiences will differ from region to region.
Don't be too quick to judge. There are assholes everywhere on this planet. I've had black people treat me real bad as a tourist in the US but I've also seen black men go out of their way just to help me out of a bad situation.
You're way too quick to generalize....and that's fine, as long as you're willing to accept other people do that to your countrymen as well.
who ever said India is racist is mistook caste for race and within India caste is not properly defined which is more used for political purposes than its practice.
The black American may have suffered humilation as his race is rare in india and people may have looked or even stared at him for being an alien race like how even whites are often ng new.looked upon or stared in India.this is nothing new.but before he has commented and our irresponsible media letting him go without asking him why he hasnt mentioned the racism of the christian whites who are troubling the indians globally.He dossent have that guts or will to talk about the racism of the Americaan whites.But two wrongs do not make one right.
looks lik our biased media want to highlight a foreighner saying India is racist or its majority is racist to mean.
Priyadarshi,
Your statement >>whatever is true of India, the opposite is also true<< is illustrative of a psychological fact that opposing extremist positions are psychological twins. Racist hatred of one kind goes with racist adoration of another kind.
Look what happened to the socialist of Baroda dynamite fame, George Fernandes who went from far left to far right (effectively anyway)
Now wait and see what happens with Prashant Bhushan.
Great job sharing your experiences with us. You not only highlight yours (and so an african's) but also that of our own north-east countrymen's plight.
All true! It will take time for us to behave better, and even more time to be completely free of prejudice.
If I may, I will only say this - whatever is true of India, the opposite is also true (not my phrase but I have found this very, very true).
So, there are millions of people here who would not mind your complexion. But there are millions who would. For most people at Lucknow zoo, you may be the first black person they might have seen in their lives. That does not condone their behavior though.
India has a country has been extremely open to everyone. For centuries, people have come here and made India their own. It is NOT a melting pot, but more like a SALAD bowl - each ingredient retains its flavor. I hope your horrible experiences do not deter you from making India your home if you so desire. YOU ARE WELCOME!
Another important thing of note is that India is full of very different cultures, and you will find people with very different personalities and preferences over a distance of just a hundred miles. Not all cultures breed this exclusionary attitude. Hailing from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, and having lived in Shimla, Chandigarh, Indore, Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore, I can vouch for the fact the people from Himachal Pradesh, being hill people, or may be because of some other reason, are much warmer towards people and would go completely out of the way to help you out, no matter what is the colour of your skin. And I’ve seen it happen – it’s all there in the speech, in how strangers reply to you. It all comes across, and I’ve had the privilege to compare this nature of the natives of all the four cities. So when you say North Indian, let us not generalize. The same goes for New Delhi. If you feel people of New Delhi are more inclined in their preference towards the fairer skin, that may be true, but then there are a lot of people who will never discriminate on the basis of your skin colour. Delhi has a population of over 22 million, and people in Delhi come from all over, especially the labour class, most of which is a victim of urbanization from the poorer nearby states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the kind. It all depends on who you are interacting with. ATM people and autowallahs have very low education levels, as most of India is still very poor. Almost none of them have had any exposure to different cultures within their own country, let alone abroad. So it is their ignorance and naivete that comes across as “racist” to you. I know it’s very hard for you facing all this every single day, but I would like to ask you to forgive us for our poverty, which perpetrates lack of belief in basic education, which thus makes people behave like this.
We were ruled by Britishers for over 200 years. And this is the time during which poverty in India became widespread, as we were denied very basic human rights by the Britishers, and we were persecuted for a long time by those who unrightfully ruled us and treated us like shit. Maybe this deep rooted preference for white skin emanates from this subconscious idea that was hammered into our minds that white people are superior. Who is to blame? Widespread poverty and a very late opening up of our economy to the outside world perpetrated this thinking and in a society where caste discrimination was already rooted since millennia, a new aversion towards darker skin was not difficult to assimilate. That said, I have to mention that it is a very sad state of affairs, and I feel ashamed of this bigoted behaviour on the part of my countrymen.
Specific to the problems faced by you, I think the gawking that you get is more out of curiosity and our own lack of awareness or access to the outside world. This is mainly attributed to the fact that there are very low Africans present in India. This goes for any place where an outsider comes when the people are not used to his/her presence. A white skinned person goes to Goa, and he might as well feel at home. Let him go to the north-eastern states of India, and see the kind of discrimination and gawks does he have to face. Let him go to a small village where people have never seen a person with such a fair skin, and then see the kind of stares and whispers and comments he gets. It’s all about how “developed”, to use a word that everyone here can relate to, the country is, and India, sadly, despite its tries of pomp and show in the Commonwealth Games and buys of the best of their kind military fighter planes, and it’s ambitions of being a superpower – notwithstanding all that, India is still a developing country and, with the kind of burdens and problems of population, deforestation, lack of basic education, or mass poverty that it faces, India will continue to be in the “developing” bracket, according to me, for many years to come. And a change in attitudes and acceptance of people of all colours, creeds, castes and communities will come with time, no doubt about that. What I have said in defence of my countrymen, in no way lessens the anguish I felt when I read your article and continued to read all the 44 comments on it, and my sincere heartfelt apologies for all that happened.
Finally, the people who cannot respect others for what they are; and cannot be proud of ourselves for what we are, will ultimately pay for it, just as we have done in the past millenium. Sad part is, we still haven't learned the lesson.
Dear Kuku, I am so sorry for what you are going trough. As a Indian, I feel ashamed. I always keep debating with my friends that we are the most racist country ( I think its true for most asian countries). We scream and complain when there is racism at Indians but ignore it when we do the same. I think its got to do with our society. We have so many 'black' jokes against people with color from South.They are ridiculed as 'Kala'. Fair & Lovely ads are racist - a guy rejects a girl because of her 'Dark' skin. Matrimonial ads are filled with racism - required 'Fair' guy or 'Fair' girl. I agree with you 100% that people stare at Foreigners all the time. I am ashamed - dont know what the solution is!
Dear Kuku,
Just in case you happen to be following up on your post...I am an African who happen to have lived in India and still do. What you expressed and as confirmed by Indian sisters and brothers, it is the reality. Before coming to India, I had another image of this country, as a fair country where democracy goes hand in hand with social justice and the population together peacefully with no harm to the other or with no discrimination.
Without being perfect and which is actually the solution provided by some of these who commented on your post, Indians in general need to get in touch with foreigners, and better, they need to travel and learn from other people and cultures in order to find a solution to an issue of discrimination.
I have been staying in Mumbai and I would say that I have not been a victim of any discrimination, which I think is because of how Mumbai is, with the number of foreigners there, and how multi-cultural and more open it is. In the South as well I was not discriminated, but in North - and it was in New Delhi as well, I remember one day when a kid was approaching and wanted to shake hand with me, I remember how his uncle or dad was looking badly at us, and told him something in Hindi on a bad intonation which made the kid stop and turn back. That was the same on the streets when you go out and people stay at you as if they are seeing a dark skin person for the 1st time, or when you are about to meet on a street alley, they turn (like a half circle) just in order to not cross each other and be close by any mean... Anyway, what I learnt from these experiences, a person just needs to be open and try to gain maximumly from the positive which every culture has, and try to ignore the negative one. With time, some of them will change I am quite sure!
A big up to the Mumbaikhar as I am proudly part of them and do have douzens of India friends who are fair skin but with no issue with me.
For Rita, when I read about her story how a 2 years story/relationship ended because the boyfriend's family found her too dark, do not worry, because I believe that that guy did not deserve you as he was not strong enough to fight for your love. I had neighbours which was a couple of a Senegalese and an Indian lady from Jaipur, they passed through a lot but it was a happy couple!! As Bob Marley said, 'Time will tell'/
Keep well good people.
Francis
Dear Dierpiriye,
Thanks so much for writing this article. Honest and a complete eye-opener to our own shameless, racist behaviour.
We clearly, as a nation, suffer from post colonial hangover and this behaviour is reflective of our obsession with white skin and poor self esteem where we think and feel white is superior.
As a dark-skinned woman who has grown up in India, I know exactly how you feel. Being physically attractive ( if i may so myself, haha!) I have often been given compliments like "you are pretty EVENTHOUGH you are dark, You are dark BUT gorgeous" asif being dark is a handicap. I have had a boyfriend end a 2 yr engagement/relationship with me because the family thought I was "too dark" and yes, we are "honest" and blatant about it. Shame!!
Our current bigoted views on colour make me wonder if we will ever change and I find that only when Indians go abroad and see multicultures mingling is when they open their eyes to their own disgusting behaviour.
Wish you all the best and hope you know that some of us will welcome you with open arms regardless if you are black, white, blue or yellow:)
very true observation kuku. But more than color discrimination India's racism and discrimination based on caste is so heinous and brutal ....
My sincere apologies to you, Mr, Kuku, on behalf of my insensitive countrymen. In India, there is an implicit acceptance of racism as enshrined in the caste system. As you have rightly observed, the lighter the skin tone, the higher the respect offered to the person. I recall a South African tourist telling me that there is more racism in India than was in apartheid ruled the roost in his country.
Very correct observation.
We who do feel this sense of shock and betrayal, can only offer our sympathy.
Dear friend, maybe this is where 'inferiority complex' makes its most open appearance and shows that we have coopted ourselves to the hierarchy of 'whiteness'.
Maybe a more regular and and much greater number of interactions with Africans (and Indians from North East) would be the only and partial solution at that, to the 'problem'
Not just racist but rapists and happier about it. Discrimination and hypocrisy is part of indian blood, it was always there for ages and Indians have never failed to glorify it and feel good about it. The heinous, shameful practices are so common place that we have stopped feeling bad about it but more disgusting is the self conceit. On films you can't show violence or smoking and it is okay to rape in delhi. Cases of assault on women, female feticide, caste based discrimination, extortions, non conformance of authorities to undertake their duty...it is so common that these have ceased to appear as crime, keep aside your discrimination based on you color. I just had a discussion with someone from a very reputed engineering college believing it is okay to rag students which includes physical violence and at times even sexual. Indians have lost the sense of right and wrong or maybe they never had.
So Mr Kuku as you have found that India as you had imagined is nonexistent, I would suggest you to pack your bags and get moving. ..thanks..Rohit
Mr. Kuku,
One can only helplessly apologize for travails that you have undergone in our country, especially in Delhi. Despite feverish denials from some of the posters, most of us can corroborate what you have written. And that goes for only what you could understand. It gets much worse in the vernaculars. Nevertheless, I am sure I speak for the majority of people that we are indebted to you for writing so eloquently about this disgusting feature of our society. As someone who lived and studied in the US for quite sometime, I used to find it surreal when some of my fellow Indians (and Pakistanis) went into apoplectic rage about racism without missing the irony. I hope your article would be a small step towards shaming our countrymen.
And please don't get fooled by holier-than-thou rants from some of our Southern brethren. They are equally racist, if not worse. Of course, they hide this behind a veneer of winsome politeness.
Oh it is not only reserved you sir. i have a friend who hails from Ranchi. has very dark complexion, and has curly hair, and one may not be able to guess whether he has african genes or not. a buch of us were once travelling to rishikesh, when cops stopped the bus for a routine check on the highway. till such time it was fine. once the cops came to the bus they made my friend stand up and checked him, (only him), much to the amusement of the other passengers, who for the next few minutes discussed how black people should be checked for drugs and everything, in a loud volume. which all of us could hear.
although at that time we all laughed and finally got all the passengers uncomfortable by having our friend sing loud crass hindi songs. But he said it was normal for people to gawk, point fingers, and pretend he didnt understand hindi even after he had spoken to them in his own country.
we are racist against indians, i suppose you muct be facing it even more
This is unfortunate, and is a call for self introspection in our nation, to say the least.
Its often very complex how racism is doled out in india. its nothing to do with nativity, and everything to do with your skin color and appearance. i remember feeling discriminated against several times at a rajasthan restraunt, where the bearer was like the author said, falling over my white friend to serve her, whilst being completely impervious to my needs.
to me, it seems asif people have historically internalised an inferiority complex. colonialism is the reason fair is beautiful here.
India is racist to the extent where the fair accuses the not so fair and the not
so fair accuses the fair.This is more a political setup than a reality.
thanks for posting this article. racism is a fact in india. KRISHNA means literally dark skinned. if he was in india today, most light skinned indians would reject him because of his complexion. ironically, the author of the piece suffers from white supremacist thinking and internalized racism. the whole planet is brown and black yet the author's partner is white!
I am a giraffe, and I find this offensive.
One thing that makes India unique in discrimi-nation is the fact that most of the mainland India which is predominantly Pseudo-Hindu has been corrupted in discrimination for millenniums’. It would not be wrong to say that we are the World Leaders in discrimination. The caste system was designed to oppress and enslave weaker sections of the society so what do you expect from such a country, it’s in the blood. I have faced three types of discriminations in India, i think one more than could be anywhere. 1) Caste discrimination (oldest and unique), 2) Racial discrimination, 3) Economic discrimination. And I laugh when people complain of racism abroad, that too Hariyanvi Jat, Punjabi guys who think that they are racially the next thing to a German. But the fact is that the best they could be nearer (racially) to is a pakistani or afghani not much further.
Mr Kuku: Unfortunately the entire Cow belt is prone to this. Not just Black Americans, but also South Indians broadly referred as Madrasis not withstanding our repeated corrections that South India HAS FOUR STATES NAMELY TN, AP, KK AND KL. People never want to aknowledge and will stay 'madraas ke paas hi naaaaa' type rubbish feigning complete ignorance.
We are dark skinned, lungi pahanke baath khaanewalla types also suffer huge discremination there...Especially true for Bankers who are forced to work there thanks to the transfer policies...we dont want to go there EVER but unfortunately forced to go and get hammered for no fault of ours...
however, it doesnt happen the same way here...South is different where I guess being polite is highly appreciated