Random thoughts 28032017

The attacks on African students in NOIDA brings to fore the fact that racism is a blatant fact of life in India along with casteism. Basically Indians are enamoured with white skinned people , and behave like doormats in front of them. For many Indians the word "foreign" Europeans or white skinned Americans only. Africans and Asians are routinely treated very badly by the Indian society. It is a shame that the dark skinned people are still equated with low life in this country.

Africa is a place where many Indian origin people live to earn their living and make their pile. By mistreating Africans in India we are only making the lives of these PIOs insecure. We should realise this. Moreover, with the rising incidents of hate attacks in the USA , there was a lot of  hue and cry. Don't we understand that we Indians are largely classified mistakenly as blacks and muslims in that country. At least all these incidents of physical abuse should teach us the value of empathy towards all  and take strict action against all incidents of racism. Or is it our great show of strength , as always to bully underdogs and people coming from poorer countries.

And why should we mistreat anybody for that matter. Do we want to project our country and society as a closed one instead of an open, cosmopolitan place ? Don't we aspire to be the thriving  hub of world culture. As I wrote in a previous post, our country was probably far more cosmopolitan, tolerant and multicultural in the 18th and 19th century than it is today. And surprisingly we were ruled by the Mughals when probably the maximum number of foreigners ( in proportion to the total population) lived in India. 

Some people will still argue that the African students are connected with crime and drugs. This is the same mentality which marks some tribes as Lodhas, Bheels , Pardhis and  Nomads as criminal tribes for their customs and a different way of life. This is the same overbearing mentality and superiority complex that brands all people from North East as Chinkies , little knowing that the difference of a Lepcha from a Bodo or a Naga from a Chakma.

I personally think that all this is happening because of the race and the stress on making children into engineers only . Sometimes I feel that there should be a ban on engineering colleges for the next five years which is making our country into a dustbin of morons for whom the joint entrance test is the only goal of life, both for the ignorant children and their equally, if not more foolish parents. Study and research of History, Geography and other Social sciences like Anthropology are also important. But who is listening ? Who bothers about all this irrelevant thoughts ?