EXCLUSIVE: Indians Prejudiced Abroad, Share stories with Youth Ki Awaaz
On 28th May, 2009, Youth Ki Awaaz had reported an incident of Indian students who were assaulted in Australia. This was a result of racism being rampant there. (click here to read the article) The article received a number of comments and most of them presented the outrage. The article also received comments which narrated real life incidents faced by Indians abroad. These were first hand experiences. Two avid readers of Youth Ki Awaaz had shared their experiences. This is the anguish that our fellows abroad are facing.Read on as Youth Ki Awaaz uncovers the reality of the discriminatory world.Anubrata a reader of Youth Ki Awaaz shares her first hand experiences while working with an Australian company. "Having spent two years working in Australia, I have experienced first hand xenophobia towards Indians living or working there. I am writing this article to share my experiences at my workplace (ANZ) in Australia. In case you are not aware, ANZ has an IT operations and development center at Bangalore where it has been steadfastly outsourcing jobs in the last decade to cut its operational costs back in Australia.However, racial discrimination and abuse towards Indians is so rampant at ANZ that I can't help writing about it, in light of the recent racial attacks on Indian students in AUS, when I quit ANZ; the primary reason was hostile work environment and total lack of respect for me by some of my Aussie counterparts. This was born out of racial prejudice. This racial mindset is so deeply entrenched in ANZ work culture that it is now accepted as coming with the territory for all those poor Indians who unwillingly choose to work for ANZ. Indian staff is looked down upon and treated as second class citizens in the so called ANZ family. On most occasions this racial treatment is subtle and disguised in order to evade attention, nevertheless it does exist. It is not uncommon to be confronted with situations such as the ones described below:1. If you happen to scan through email trails, you would often come across Indian staff being referred to as bangers, bloody Indians, bastards, slumdog, etc. Over a period, you will probably learn to handle such things "professionally" and turn a blind eye to such derogatory remarks. Any work that you do would be subjected to endless reviews, a witch hunt would commence to expose every possible bug or flaw that might exist in your work, which would then be magnified and escalated to various levels. No matter how good a job you might have done, you will never be given recognition for your work. Your Aussie counterparts would take delight in taking potshots at you at every possible opportunity.
While I would condemn the attacks on Indian students in Australia (racist or not), what do we have to say about our track record on racism? The burgeoning fariness cream business is a testimony to our "racial impartiality". These cream ads showcase a dark-skinned person as unsuccessful and insecure, while a fair-skinned person is successful and confident.
And the matrimonial requests in arranged marriage. The less said about them the better. We demand a "fair looking" groom/bride. Dark-skinned girls are described as "wheatish" to boost their value in the marriage market.
While we blame the whites for their racism, are we ourselves trying to eradicate it from our own country?
While I neither condone nor deny the racist nature of attacks on Indians in Australia, I think that as a people, Indians are amongst the most divisive and communal populations. We may not be racist in the strictest sense, but we sure are casteist and communal. The same government that plays one caste against another now publicly condemns racism. Is this a matter of mere semantics? Indians need to clean their own backyard before pointing an accusatory finger at others. Though this is the gist, I have written my entire piece on my blog. If I post the link here, someone will accuse me of "shameless self-marketing," so I won't. :)
I agree with what you have said. We are all very well aware that there are problems in India and abroad. There are problems that Indians and others face due to the behavior of some Indians. But there is another point which we all seem to have missed.We are talking about a particular recent incident which occurred in the train in Melbourne. If we look at the past there will be a million cases where Indians are at fault, and similarly there will be a million cases where Australians will be at fault.If adaptation by Indians there is a problem then I agree that we must adapt. But, if someone is not able to adapt does that mean you will stab him in the eye.And mind you, misbehaving with a girl is a heinous crime, whether committed by an Indian or an Australian. My sister is an Indian in the UK, and the kind of behavior she receives from boys who are sitting on the road is unbearable. Laws are same for all.And this is about racism sir, not about misbehavior or the behaviour by Indians. We can start a whole new discussion about misbehaving Indians abroad and those who come from Australia, UK, Brazil and Ethiopia to India in order to indulge in sex trade. I hope you get the point.If Indians are at fault, so are the Australians.And mind you there are good and bad people everywhere.If there are Australians who misbehave, there are Australians who have a golden heart. Who are like angles.
If Indians indulge in Racism, can we in any way justify that Indians should be treated the same. I bet you have never indulged in racism, what if something similar happens to you and someone posts a comment saying "we must look at ourselves firsy"?
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