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Loading ...she epitomises the indians who spit on themselves to earn a few brownie points from the white skins.
there are quite a few of them around, the sellouts, you just need to search and you will come up with even more pathetic rants than this.
Natural born prejudices?
By Will 7 months ago Leave a comment on this post
A thought-provoking piece from Soumya Bhattacharya who tells India to grow up:
I thought of it because in that swirl of emotions, we Indians have tended to lose sight of a problem we need to tackle: we are still in denial that we are a deeply racist country. Often, we are racist although we are not conscious of being so. (It’s time we were.) We, with our fondness for light skin tones, tend to be prejudiced against those with darker ones. We don’t think of it as racism. But the world does. And it is. It can’t go on. We need to grow up.
A few examples. In the aftermath of the overturning of the ban, a board administrator was quoted as having said something like: “We shall not stand for our boys being called racists.” Our boys? Racists? Gosh. Cue incredulity, shock, horror. (Denial.)
Don’t shoot the messenger, etc
Tags: Harbhajan-Singh, india, prejudice, racism |
9 Responses to “Natural born prejudices?”
February 11th, 2008 at 11.14 am
February 12th, 2008 at 11.23 am
Firstly, in response to the post above, Soumya Bhattacharya is a man. Secondly, as an Indian who grew up in Australia, I think that the points raised in this particular article are quite valid. Every culture in the world is racist to some degree. The problem nowadays is that these ‘traditional’ views (e.g. fair skin is prettier) conflict with what the world now collectively thinks is right (e.g. the UN’s definition of racism, despite its limitations). It’s time for Indians (and everyone else, for that matter) to get over their grievances over past perceived wrongs and contribute to, rather than impede, open discussion about something that has the potential to affect every single person in the world. Instead of taking it personally and responding with petty insults, why not think a little?
February 12th, 2008 at 10.06 pm
I also (mostly) agree with the article. As an Indian born and raised in Britain I have seen first hand the racism that exists in India. Whether people want these things to be said is irrelevant, the article is based on his experience which correlates with what a lot of others also see.
February 13th, 2008 at 8.50 am
All I can say is .. its unfair to generalize all Indians as racists. A few incidences here and there, do not make India a racist country. These things happen in all countries, because all countries have their fair share of brain less idiots .
February 13th, 2008 at 12.17 pm
Soumya wrote this piece for, if I am not mistaken, The Guardian originally. Let me clarify, we Indians do have our version of Racism- the evil and eons-old caste system. It still has a looming presence and dictates many socio-political trends in a large section of the country.
However, Racism as a western world understands is not really a common phenomena, as Soumya would want us to believe. We really are not into Black/White supremacy thing– Racism basis colour of ones skin is a supreme bane as far as Western Culture is concerned because this practise has been in vogue for them for a long long time. Hence this is a contentious issue. Maybe also the guilt of the White Race makes it such a sensitive issue. Here in India , we just cant make out why Monkey is a racist and seriously offensive term. While if Harbhajan were to be called by a “low caste’ name, all hell would have broken lose. Since we have endured the “Casteism” for a long time, this is a sensitive issue- not Racism or black/white conflict …
You must understand that what a UK/US/Aussie citizen may find offensive may differ vastly from what an Indian/South Asian- simply because of the diffrences in our history and course of social and cultural development.
Another eg is the word Bastard- bearing a child out of wedlock is a grave sin in our culture and hence we find tis word extremely offensive- where as a a Western-er would not even bat his eyelid at such words-because it isnt anymore a taboo in his country/culture.
Its wrong to label an entire nation as “Racist” when the whole rigmarole of aparthied never involved us. We have our own problems - we can do without some more thrust upon us
February 13th, 2008 at 10.08 pm
Sid, this was commissioned by Cricinfo and later used by The Guardian. Just to clarify.
February 15th, 2008 at 11.48 am
I agree with Sid’s post.
Sowmya is only looking at India through a one-sided perspective. To say that the entire country is “deeply racist” is as silly as saying that ALL Australians are racist.
Her article smacks of the pretty common “I’ve worked/lived abroad long enough to know what’s wrong with India” attitude.
Also, I find it interesting that there’s a post here on this blog about India needing to grow up, and yet no post about Ponting’s lack of sincerity and spirit of the game.
FYI, Symonds appealed and got another grounded catch in the ODI against Sri Lanka today. But we’ll leave that comment to another post.
As an Indian, I regret Sowmya’s words. I disagree with what she’s written because I’ve never come across any Indian with sharp racist prejudices like he mentions.
February 17th, 2008 at 4.38 pm
Gurdit, re Symonds: he had taken clear control of the ball prior to any contact with the turf, as umpteen angles and slo-mo replays clearly indicated. Don’t try to make an issue out of nothing.
I find it interesting that you still seek to vilify Symonds, yet when Saint Sachin didn’t walk the other day (in similar circumstances to Symonds previously), no Indian dared mention the obvious parallels. It appears that not only are you deeply racist (Sid, just because you don’t call it racist doesn’t mean that it isn’t racist), it appears that you are also opportunistic hypocrites.
February 21st, 2008 at 6.14 am
I know a few members of indian team personally as i have played with them in my younger days.
I’ll let you guys in on a an open secret.Right now the indian team thinks symonds & ponting ,mainly ponting were responsible for the sydney fiasco. They are mainly irritated by ponting’s behaviour & thus they step up a gear when he comes out to bat.
13th man:
There is othn daring in comparing the 2 cases.I know for a fact that sachin paaji didn’t walk because he was upset with the aussies for doing the same.
As you sow, so shall you reap.Why the hullabullo.Paaji wasn’t out against australia in the adelaide match.No 1 complained either.
BTW I don’t understand why symonds is made such a big hero in australia.He’s unfreindly ,never speaks to the media(which might be good),has no manners & i’ve met people who saw him in a nightclub with yuvi & sreesanth & I believe he was sulking & looked the other way when sree wanted to have a drink with him.Sreesanth might be rude on te field but so is every other aussie.Also sree is very polite off the field.In fact,I believe he referred to symonds as ‘andrew sir’.
Somthn to think about maybe in these days of “I’m indian , you’re australian”.??
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