Polaris  

Why are we always so ready to play the racism card?

As a people, we Indians are swift to take umbrage. A film shows Indian boys running around mounds of trash. Must be anti-Indian. An airline passenger reports that attempted bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was accompanied by “a well-dressed man who appeared to be of Indian descent.” Must be racially-motivated. It appears the elephant analogy associated with our country is woefully misplaced: our collective skin is just too thin.

There is no doubt that reflexive anti-Indianism persists in the West, as does bigotry grounded in ignorance.  American television host Glenn Beck’s comparison of the river Ganga to a disease is clearly offensive, but it is a bigger blot on the American conservative movement—of which Beck, rather remarkably, is a leading ideological spokesperson—demonstrating the depths to which it has descended intellectually. The danger, however, is as soon as anti-Indianism becomes the default cry against any and all criticism of the country and its people, legitimate or otherwise, it begins to wear out its effectiveness.

Take a recent rant article by Professor Vamsee Juluri in The Huffington Post. Responding to an equally unreasonable piece by Barbara Crossette in Foreign Policy, Professor Juluri decries her use of “obnoxious cliches that have come to characterize Western discourse about the colonies for decades now,” concluding that “after a brief decade or so of somewhat unexpected “India Rising” stories, India-bashing is once again becoming fashionable.”

“India-bashing” is a term I had not seen in print for a long time.  Not that criticism of India has dissipated at all. In addition to Crossette’s piece, The Daily Telegraph’s South Asia correspondent recently felt obliged to write a blog post titled “The Smelly Truth of India’s Incredible Growth.” His motivation appears to have derived from stepping on dog turd during a romantic walk on Mahabalipuram beach. Now the correct response would not be denying that there are dog droppings in Mahabalipuram—as many self-proclaimed defenders of India might instinctively do—but to gently remind the writer that we have all stepped on animal feces before, in my personal experience while strolling on both Trafalgar and Times Squares. Also, to point out that filth, slums and creaking buildings can as easily be associated with Victorian Britain, pre-War America or Soviet Russia as contemporary India. All three—for the benefit of the historically-challenged—happened to be undergoing incredible growth stories of their own during those periods. So rather than Prof. Juluri’s tirade against Indophobia, it is much better to follow the example of the methodical repudiative treatment given Crossette’s piece by fellow INI blogger Nitin Pai.

The perils of instant umbrage are not limited to public debates, but also to policy ones. American officials have seen enough of India’s reactions over the past few years to be deterred from mentioning Kashmir in public fora—the “K word,” it has come to be known in State Department circles. But has anyone sat down to explain to them why its use is so damaging? Then again, why should we? Must be anti-Indian.

Addendum: I’m not sure how to interpret this, though: 8% growth by India, and it’s overheating; 8% growth by China, and it’s the saviour of the world economy.