Hindustan Times
Down under and all out
The Issue: ‘Racist’ attacks
The Soundtrack: The KKK took my baby away
Foreign tourists have to be careful. They can’t just do these things and then blame the government for the consequences.” No, that’s not a lager-fuelled Aussie who was on the train that had an Indian student in Melbourne being severely pummelled by three ‘racist’ thugs. That was Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat last year making his statutory comments about foreigners in Goa being susceptible to sexual violence from locals.
I dunno about you, but being Indian gets you a helluva insurance cover if you are ‘racist’, by which one means someone who targets a member of a particular race for being a member of a particular race. Remember the hullaballoo when Harbhajan Singh called (ironically the Aussie cricket) Andrew Symonds a ‘maa ki../monkey’ (take your pick)? It wasn’t so much about the on-field gaali, but about the impossibility of Harbhajan, by dint of being an Indian, being able to make any ‘racist’ comment. “How can a brown man possibly be even a weekend racist?’ went up that thunderous chorus. ‘If anything we have the right of maintaining racial victimhood status!’ It added for good measure.
I wouldn’t know whether Australia has its fair share of bigots. But to start a media-generated debate about whether Australia is brimming with sheep, crypto-bigots and — what I heard a New Delhi bureaucrat once tell me dead seriously over lunch once – “descendants of criminals” is as cogent as the one that White foreigners could jolly well start about India in general and Goa in particular.
Australian wolves in sheep's clothing
Which all reminds me of the song that Joey Ramone wrote when his ex-girlfriend was ’stolen’ by bandmate Johnny Ramone. In The KKK took my baby away, Joey is pretty much certain that it was Johnny’s rotten rightwing bigotry that was responsible for such an act of treachery. “Now I don’t know/ Where my baby can be/ They took her from me/ They took her from me…/Ringy, ringy, ringy/ Up the President/ And find out/ Where my baby went/ Ringy, ringy, ringy/ Up the FBI/ And find out if/ My baby’s alive…/The KKK took my baby away/ Away from me/Away from me.” Well, Joey may have metaphorised Johnny into a Ku Klux Klansmen, but in the case of Melbourne’s Clockwork Orangemen, they are really nothing else but ‘curry-bashers’.
Over 70 Indian students have been attacked in Melbourne in the last 12 months. Should we be concerned? Sure. But should we now start boycotting the Australian cricket, Kylie Minogue, holiday packages to Sydney, Foster’s beer and, lest we forget, all our Anglo-Indian friends who migrated Down Under because Australia has now been certified as a bordering on racist State? (It’s another matter that attacks on Indian students in Russia have had a longer, more violent history.)
In January 12, 2008 a 30-year-old British woman was raped in Panjim. Two British women were sexually assaulted by the owner of a Goa resort a few months later. A Russian woman was attacked by beach cafe owner in south Goa the same month that a Finnish woman was threteaned with rape by two locals at her beach shack. And, of course, there was Scarlett Keeling, 15 years old, was raped and killed on Anjuna beach in February 2008. The first reaction of the Indian police was that she had died of “accidental drowning”.
If being White and female is a ‘racial’ characteristic (which any anthropologist or porn site will tell you it is), consider what would have happened if a similar spate of violence was unleashed against “Indian females’ in another country? But then, there will always be a bright spark who’ll say that Indians are incapable of directing violence along racial lines. If White women are raped, it’s because they were probably “asking for it” or were stupidly “ignorant of the local culture” and goaded some lusty, repressed desis to pounce on them. If Brown students are beaten up, it’s because the locals hate brown skinned chaps.
So bottomline, it doesn’t matter what the cause is: Joey’s girl was taken away and that is rotten enough.
(8 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Indrajit Hazra on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Filed under Music · Tagged Aussie, Australia, Goa, Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, racist attack, sexual violence
Damn right, Hazra.
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indi Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Damn, Thank you Banerjee…
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And let us not forget the African students in India. And let us also not forget our castes…
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Narendra Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 11:35 am
ditto..we’re relatively less racist bcoz we’re so deeply casteist that we don’t have any time / energy left!!! And we really do react to situations such as ‘rape in goa’ as, ‘God only knows, she must have asked for it..’. Verges on xenophobia..
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fake Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Casteism is blown out of proportion in India. There is much less casteism in the metros atleast. I have not seen the discrimination to anyone because of caste only, may be because of their work or poverty but not caste. And no one from the educated class atleast , will share your views regarding rapes etc. we all condemn this and the main reason for it is the vulnerability of foreigners in India.
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indi Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Vulnerability, eh? It needs action to make a vulnerable person a victim. So the perpetrator is let off the hook, I guess? “Why did I rape that woman? Coz she was asking for it, of course.” It’s not someone else’s vulnerability alone that can get the perpetrator off the hook. To go for the most obvious example: Jews in post-30s Germany were a bloody vulnerable lot. Poor Nazis.
An impassioned post, good points all. I’ve heard the “it’s a country of convicts” arguement before. Of course, the attacks are hateful, maliscious and inhumane and definitely display a racial bias. The people who did this are completely depraved (the Clockwork comparison is spot on if you’ve seen the video of one of the guys getting beaten on a train). There have been racially charged tensions in Australia before, like the Cronulla riots in 2005 (this was two sided, though). I’m glad Indians are not pussying out from a response like we usually do.
But yes, like you said, it doesn’t justify our stance of self righteous indignation that Indians aren’t racist. We’re probably some of the most racist people in the world.
And we can’t go boycotting everything Australian because of it (except Fosters, that shit sucks), specially not Kylie Minogue (that adorable pixie with an *** that defies words in the English language) and of course their cricket – how can one hate Shane Warne? As for the Symonds thing, I’m no fan of Bhajji, but the man does look a bit like a gorilla, that sunscreen on the lips does it for me. And I really hope this racism stuff doesn’t cause a great divide between the two countries like it did between the two Ramones – would someone please think of the cricket!
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indi Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Lex, watch out for Kylie this Sunday.
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Wonderful and very thoughtful. Every word sounds so true
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indi Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Sounds? It IS true!
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Media coverage against the Indian students bashing.
These bashings have been rightly condemned and calls for strong actions to be taken on the perpetrators.
I also hope that when other nationalities in India are murdered must be given the same level of condemnation. There has been in the case of some Russian families trying to get the details into how their loved ones were murdered in GOA and the Goan police have not cooperated. Action must be taken on a lot of racism that is found in India for example, where were the Indian politicians and well known public figures when Biharis and other north Indians were thrashed in Maharastra. You guys have caste racism, regional racism, problem with another regional language etc. You have Police brutality, rapes, muders galore.
For crying out loud you people need to set example by cleaning up your own backyard first.
Where were these stars when a strong protest was required re Varun Gandhi and others made the hate speech? Is it the fear that if you make the comment against the politicians or your local goondas that you maybe beaten up or your house set on fire? I guess it is easier and safer to rev-up the sentiments when similar crimes are committed in a far away place.
Can any of you stand up and tell me when your nation is going to literally wipe out this caste based racism? Therefore there will be no need to have so called cast based quarter system in education, employment etc. I guess if you are lucky it will take more than 300 years to give fair go to your own citizens let alone outsiders.
Hypocrisy thy name is Indian.
You should take to the streets and protest 100 fold more strongly on all the issues I have mentioned.
Crime committed against any one must be strongly condemned not only when it suits one.
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indi Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Absolutement, Tom. Now to check which *******’s with the scraggly shirt has parked his scooter in front of my car!!
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I don’t think that attacks on foreigners in India are racist especially on the “WHITES “.These attacks or rapes are surely condemnable and a blot ,but these have not happened just because of any malaise towards the “Whites”. The main reason of these attacks is the vulnerability of Foreigners in India who are perceived as “soft ” targets and also their liberalism especially in case of Goa. Much is to blamed to easy access to drugs in Goa with rising crimes there. As far as “monkey” is concerned , isn’t it happens in India that whenever even small kids are fighting they use to call each other names like ” kaalu “,”lambu “, “bandar” etc. etc. and they are not aware of cast or creed of the other person. But in Oz Indians are being attacked for being blacks much like most of us behave with Africans calling them “negros” and other names. India is racist admitted but not towards “whites” I believe, but towards blacks. And it is a natural instinct in humans to dislike the blacks as can be inferred by a small child of 7-8 year old calling the word ” kallu ” to another black kid of his age.
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indi Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Check out what the Melbourne deputy police chief says about the attacks on the Indian students (It’ll be in my day job column, Red Herring, this Sunday). He says the EXACT thing that you’re saying fake: that the Melbourne attacks aren’t because of any malaise towards Indians but because they are perceived as soft targets. Hmm, who said long-playing records with a Side A and Side B are extinct…
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@fake: Agreed with most of what you say, except the very last one. “a small child of 7-8 year old calling (sic) the word ‘kallu’ to another black kid of his age” is mostly not spontaneous or caused by natural instinct. It mostly happens due to social conditioning, when the child hears other people or children call that other child by the same description (perpetuated since time). A child may get naturally curious (at times) about the difference in skin tone, but will probably not use a pejorative term unprompted or untutored.
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This one’s back. This biggest democracy of ours has always been famous(read infamous) for bigotry. Which one of us doesn’t know that? I have got friends studying in Russia and hence I know about the gory tales from the crypt. Media attention seems to be the priority for all. And they are getting it. And Mr.Hazra, I sure am glad to have you back on the track.
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