Opinion Attacks on African students exposes our denial and double standards on racism

Gautambudh Nagar: African nationals meeting SSP Dharmendra Yadav regaring the suspected racial attack on them by the local in Greater Noida, Gautambudh Nagar on Tuesday. PTI Photo (PTI3_28_2017_000160B)

Referring to the FIR registered by the neighbors and parents of the deceased teenager Manish Khari against the five Nigerians living in their locality, Samuel Jack, the president of the Association of African Students in India (AASI), told The Telegraph, “They accused them [students] of being cannibals. That is the kind of ignorance against black people”. Another few innocent Nigerians were beaten up by a mob elsewhere. The apparent crime of all these Africans in Greater Noida: nothing at all. 

Racism in India tends to be viscerally ingrained as a part of the system, rather than as an acknowledged problem. It doesn’t raise enough eyebrows and goes largely unchallenged. That is perhaps due to the fact that racial violence against black people and Indians from the north-east fits right in with other forms of violence rife within segments of the society — against other groups with a high vulnerability quotient such as white women, Indian women, lower castes and various regional/religious minorities.  

We refuse to acknowledge racism’s ugly head that lives amongst us, perhaps because it fits right in with a bunch of other stereotypes. Indians may have been mistreated by the colonial masters, but once the British Raj ended — we ourselves usurped those roles and internalised that blatantly unjust mentality. Color and complexion-based discrimination in the Indian society of course predates the arrival of the British, back to the vedic caste system that favored the fair-skinned Aryas over the caliginous Dasyas. The descriptions of what a raakshas or a demonic, negative figure looks like is often closely associated, particularly in the minds of the older generations, with the color and features of black people — in no less part due to the visual representations of demons and villains over the years in television and cinema, that have only reified this established, grotesque equation. Consequently, the unwitting foreigners get embroiled in the land’s centuries-old discriminatory practices and Africans are treated like third class — like the bottommost, expendable rung.

Due to the lack of quality education options in India, especially in terms of its access to foreigners, and an increase in prosperity in African nations which has increasingly put Europe and North American Universities within reach  — education in India has been a declining attraction for African students, even though the Indian government provides them many scholarships and grants. Most of the African students who come to India are attracted to the opportunity of cultural exchange with the Indian community and that is precisely what they don’t get. Bollywood is a huge cultural export in various African countries and it fuels an exciting image of the country and its people. Not to mention, there are also sizeable and well-integrated Indian diasporic communities in various African nations that sustain the goodwill. But such hope are dashed very quickly when they meet the upsetting reality on ground.

The caste system’s prolonged maintenance of a socially unjust order was made possible by the silos it created to isolate sections of people by demanding a cut-off in interaction between different rungs of the caste ladder. It is well known now that isolation fuels prejudice and ignorance, which in turn stoke violence. Africans, including students, by various accounts, are isolated by the Indian communities residing around them. Barring individual exceptions that exist everywhere, people are generally reluctant to interact or involve them in the community. Sure, there are “good Africans” and “bad Africans” just as much as there are “good Indians” and “bad Indians” but ugly stereotypes like “drug peddlers”, “prostitutes”, “violent” and “criminals” irrevocably cling to and follow all Blacks in almost any corner of India. 

An African woman walks through one of the few neighborhoods that rents apartments to people of African origin in New Delhi, India.  (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)

Ignorance, lack of acknowledgement and denial

“In most nations, the path of ending gender, race and class discrimination is unpaved. In India, this path is still rural and rocky as if this nation has not decided the road even worthy. It is a footpath that we are left to tread individually”, wrote Dr. Diepiriye Kuku-Siemons, an African-American, erstwhile PhD. candidate of Sociology at Delhi University in 2009, who analysed his experience with racism over a period of more than 5 years as a black man in India, in his Outlook India article titled “India is racist and happy about it”. People don’t want the attitude to change, he observed.

Eight years have passed since then and unsurprisingly, nothing has changed for black people who spend time in India, because the biases are so deep rooted and no efforts have been made to loosen them. While handling the murder of Masonga Dtonda Olivier, the 28-year-old Congolese student who was beaten to death in Vasant Kunj, Delhi in May 2016, External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had said, “India is the land of Gandhi and Buddha…we can never have a racist mindset“. “Criminal, not racial”, they say. But how clear is the same ‘race’ and racism when Indian-origin students suffer unprovoked attacks in majority white countries.

What do motivated international students and immigrants look for in their host country? Tolerance, acceptance, opportunities to experience, interact and exchange with the local people and to feel safe in making a home away from home, amongst new people. Indian immigrants and students abroad certainly expect that and it is worth remembering that Indian diasporic population happens to be one of the largest in the world. But there can be no home when one is constantly on tenterhooks, forced to seek safety by residing in numbers and withdrawing into its fold against pervasive verbal and physical hostility outside. African students are typically not accepted by the local communities living around them and nothing good can come out of such social isolation, where the newcomers are not even given a fair chance and expressions of hatred against them seen as normal. “Anyone can do anything here”, said Abdou Ibrahim, an Architecture student from Chad at Sharda University and the former president of Association of African Students in India, in the wake of violent attacks on Nigerian students at Ansal Mall in Greater Noida.

“A lot of these people ignorantly believe that Africa is a country – instead of 54 sovereign nations, each with a distinct history and culture. They cannot even imagine how big Africa is. Tanzanians are not the same as Nigerians or South Africans”, says Ibrahim, “There is no other reason. It is always about education. When someone calls us “kaala”, “habshi” – whatever name they can call you … imagine you are going out in the streets and kids come and call you these kind of names. From where are they getting this kind of information as a kid?”, says Ibrahim, “If you look around no one talks about it”.

Jalandhar: Foreign students protest in Jalandhar on Wednesday over the recent attacks on African nationals in Greater Noida. PTI Photo

It’s pretty clear that ‘education’ here should not be confused with literacy, matriculation or even a college degree. It’s a mindset — a limited and ignorant one that is all too common and thrives even in some school textbooks and politician utterances. Further, the absence of recognition of race-based hate crimes are not recognised in India — which is understandably seen by the victims as an insulting denial. One flummoxed Ghanaian national recently wrote in a heart-wrenching Facebook post: “The government of India will only speak for matters to cool down but will not pass laws to condemn racial abuse. It’s not even a case of only blacks, the case of North easterners as well same people who come from india are even hated. What else are you guys looking for. But yet you apply for H-1B to live in another man’s world and no one harms you (sic)”.

The violence against students in Greater Noida and the bizarre ignorance such acts reveal on the part of co-residents is downright deplorable and shameful in 2017. It would be a huge mistake to permit enervation of India’s historically good relationships with African countries, which actually rose from a shared experience of subjugation and anti-colonial struggle against imperialists. Going forward there is a lot of work that the Indian central and state governments need to do to strengthen law and order to protect international students and simultaneously raise awareness in India about various African countries and peoples without limiting that to neighborhoods with African residents.