Bangalore Racist Attack: A Reflection Of Sickeningly Racist Indian Society

By Saswat Pattanayak

04 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Torching down of vehicle in Bangalore of a Tanzanian woman on Sunday, who was also paraded naked by a lynch mob, is just a reflection of how sickeningly racist Indian society is. A racist lot, a casteist lot - but even worse, violently a in-denial lot.

This has happened way too many times now to invoke any shock. Students from Gabon and Burkina Faso were attacked by Delhi's dilwales a year and half ago - lynch mob with iron rods and broken glass pieces left African youths bloodied, while Indians shouted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” - that disgusting slogan identified exclusively with right wing Hindu hooligans.

Four African nations were again attacked nine months ago in Bangalore (Bengaluru, or else get Mumbaiied)- an utterly sexist, racist hellhole masquerading as cosmopolitan IT hub. Its police and administrators are more concerned about global images and impressing Thomas Friedman than protecting human beings. Even as video footages of attacks were made available, the police denied any assaults ever taking place.

The law minister of Aam Aadmi Party (political formation by the so-called noncorruptible meritorious) likewise had taken a gang of fellow Delhi residents to conduct a midnight raid, vigilante-style, on African residents - women from Uganda and Nigeria were beaten up by people without uniforms while the police watched on and the minister continued making racist remarks against Africans. And the boss of the party Arvind Kejriwal gave a “clean” chit to his party and the concerned minister - and his party won a historic mandate in the following year’s popular elections.

Racist, casteist Indian fanatics have a pattern of such conducts - they torch down vehicles routinely - Most infamously when Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his family were burnt down by a Hindu extremist Dara Singh, in Orissa - boastful of Jagannath, apparently a god of the universe. Its another matter, the dimension of that universe must be appallingly tiny.

Likewise, Hindu caste supremacists have a habit of stripping, beating and parading Dalit women to “teach them a lesson” every single year throughout India’s history. Because of international diplomatic concerns, the latest incident involving Tanzanian woman being paraded naked will thankfully gain due media coverage, but when will the Hindus admit the historical pattern in their conducts towards Dalit women (who are paraded and assaulted, without any media outrage) that was merely extended this time to the African woman? Atithi Devo Bhava, much?

In May last year, 15 Dalit women were beaten and paraded naked in Uttar Pradesh. In West Bengal, a 20-yr old Dalit woman was tied to a tree and raped by upto 15 men as punishment for “illicit liaison”. Inside casteist India, a crime is committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes.

Casteism, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and rape culture - if India, according to its liberals ranging from Javed Akhtar to Dibakar Banerjee is a historical land of tolerance, then these are things India has been tolerating for decades now. Its high time the charade of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (world is one family hindu cowcrap) is shed.

The bhakts are not in ABVP alone. Bhakts of all-was-well-before-Modi India are even more dangerously fanatical. While the right-wing bhakts have been justifying Indian greatness (sic!) for a couple of years, its the left-liberal bhakts who have been in denial of its intolerance for decades now.

Since patriotism triumphs over politics and religions, to all those who are proud Indians today hoping for climax of modi, or comeback of golden years -torch vehicles, parade women, and drop the pretense: All rise; Bharat Mata ki Jai.

Saswat Pattanayak is a New York-based journalist, atheist, feminist, LGBT ally, black power comrade and academic non-elite.