Students from various African countries residing in India carry a palpable, visceral fear. In January 2016, an angry mob set a Tanzanian woman’s car on fire in response to a Sudanese running over an Indian woman in Bengaluru. Back in 2014, the capital’s law minister, Somnath Bharti, led a police raid on the African community residing in Delhi’s Khirki Extension, under the belief that it was a drugs and prostitution camp. The African women belonging to various countries including Uganda, Nigeria and Congo were arrested and humiliated, many of them compelled to urinate in public for drug tests.
India has a racism problem, particularly against Africans, and it is in denial. This racism does not stop at Africans alone. At its most fundamental level, our racism is essentially, a “dark skin” syndrome.
If there was any doubt, former BJP MP Tarun Vijay put all confusion to rest. In a panel discussion on Al Jazeera’s The Stream, the former MP who heads the India-African Parliamentary Friendship Group, spoke about how Indians could not possibly be racist, since they were once victims of racism under the British rule. When an African student on the panel, Mina Wumbey, commented that Indians attacked Africans solely because of the colour of their skin, Vijay appeared calm and distant. As a perfunctory remark, he conveyed that he could understand Mumbey’s anguish, but soon after went on to rubbish her accusation. “To say that Indians can be racist is the most vicious thing,” he told Wumbey. It appeared as though he was taking a personal umbrage to what she had said.
It’s important to note the strong, loaded adjective Vijay used to describe her acquisition – ‘vicious’ – a strategic maneuver to shift the focus from the main issue and turn the tables – in this case, against the Africans.
But Vijay’s disrespect is not limited to Africans alone. To assuage the rage held by the Africans in India, Vijay tried to build appalling equivalencies between them and those who belonged to South India. “If we were racist,” he argued, “why would we have all the entire south, which is completely – you know Tamil (sic), you know Kerala, you know Karnataka and Andhra – why would we live with them? We have black people around us.” His response is a dangerous affirmation and double-edged too. First, it is an egregious insult on the people from the South, some of whom are dark-skinned; and underscores how deeply entrenched the idea of ‘dark-skin’ is in our psyche. Second, it alarmingly reiterates the government’s unwavering stance that Indians aren’t racist.
Those who challenge this stance are often ridiculed and then questioned about their patriotism – a classic modus operandi employed by the government in the recent past. Keep in mind, Vijay is a spokesperson of the BJP. Photographer Mahesh Shantaram has befriended, closely followed and photographed Africans living in India . His series titled, The African Portraits, which has been widely exhibited, has tried to use his work as the means to give a voice, an agency to his African friends. When Shantaram openly challenged Vijay’s default assumption that Indians weren’t racist, Vijay’s first attack was to question whether Shantaram was Indian. Shantaram pulled out his passport to confirm his nationality. Then, Vijay went on to berate Shantaram for counter-arguing him.
“You are denying your whole nation, you’re denying your ancestry, you’re denying your history, you’re denying your culture and you’re trying to be ‘good’. That’s very bad,” Vijay told Shantaram, in a paternalistic, authoritative tone.
“Don’t spread poison and divisionsist (sic) attitude,” he continued. “It’s very easy to spread poison, it’s very difficult to start healing. This is a moment when we must be healing the wounds, occurred because of any kind of bad behaviour or mistake.”
Vijay’s language holds a magnifying glass over the government’s indifference to the situation – he calls it a “mistake”. This incident however, cannot be trivialized as a mere mistake. It is a grievous crime and should be looked at as such. What Vijay carries is a hazy vision of “healing”, for healing can only begin when the country, more importantly its government, accepts the problem that challenges the very essence of humanity. Unless we accept the problem, there can be no solution. Until the government remains in denial, the attacks against Africans will continue.
