India’s proud boast of Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is like god)
lies exposed -- not for the first
time. The spate of recent attacks on African residents in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi has laid bare the naked prejudices, fears, and all the ugliness that comes in its train.
African missions stationed in New Delhi were quick
to condemn the attacks as “xenophobic and racial in nature” and talked of raising the issue at the UN
Human Rights Council. The Indian
External Affairs Ministry promised quick action against the perpetrators
of the attacks, describing them as “aberrations
that represent the actions of a few criminals.” Public debate that followed
found its echoes in Indian Parliament with MPs from all sides condemning the
attacks on foreigners.
The sting in the tail, as it were, came with the
unintended self-goal by Tarun Vijay, a
former parliamentarian and ex-editor of a journal of the ruling alliance, who tried to counter the charge of racism in
India by saying:”If we are racist, how is it that we live with South Indians
[for they are black too].” Mr Tarun’s reference to India’s diversity where people
from the north, like Mr Tarun himself, are of lighter complexion than those
from the southern states of Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, seems to have opened another can of
worms, despite his immediate regrets on Twitter and in media.( laying bare
inner black/white colour coding.)
Mr Vijay’s remarks came when he was being badgered
on the charge of racism against Africans in India was quick to regret his
choice of words : ” From Tamil Nadu to Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra, we live
together as one people . Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the right words to
convey what I was trying to say and it ended up conveying exactly the opposite
... No arguments there. And I immediately apologised on Twitter.”
Accepting the foreigners as equal citizens, far from
honouring the atithis, has been a
difficult test . It looks a case of failure yet again. Over 4,000 Africans, mostly
students at various private institutes and colleges, stay in the area, out
of about
25,000 all over India. Many of them hail from Nigeria whose envoy in
India was promptly assured of swift action by the External Affairs
Ministry top brass in Delhi. Police
action on the spot has seldom, if ever, saved the situation. The cops stand,
watch and wait for orders to come from
somewhere above, after the damage is well nigh done.
The Noida incident, which has become a cause
celebre, happened following the death of a local 17-year-old
class XII student Manish Khari on a
Saturday (March 25,2017) after cardiac arrest. The Africans came under sudden
attack by local residents who blame Manish’s death due to drugs allegedly
supplied by the Africans. Local anger turned into violence on Sunday but the worst came on Monday at the local Ansal Plaza mall, following a
protest by the Africans over the detention and later release of two of their
colleagues by police. The release of the duo on bail ignited the mob attack in
which six African students were injured and later treated at nearby Kailash
hospital. Two of them, including 21-year old Economics student Endurance Amarawa, were treated for head injuries.
The list of attacks on guests from the continent of Africa is
shamefully long. The National Capital
has a history of its own. Three of them since 2014 stand out as sharp reminders.
The 2014 incident of AAP MLA Somnath Bharti leading a midnight drive, with
police in tow, to bust an alleged drugs and prostitution racket involving an
innocent Ugandan woman living in South Delhi’s Khirki Extension area
tops the list of vigilante actions of local leaders. The same year in September saw three young Africans , two from Gabon and
one from Burkina Faso, beaten up by a mob
right outside Rajiv Chowk Metro station in the heart of the capital in
full view of police who after a year of investigation closed the case for want
of a single witness despite video footage going viral. In the third incident, a
23-year-old Congolese national was beaten to death with bricks and stones in
Vasant Kunj area after, what police said, an argument with some local people.
In the aftermath of the Noida episode, the Association of African
Students in India took to smart phones
and sent out an advisory to fellow students to stay indoors and not venture out
– even for food and water. The association
was arranging “free food and water supply to the needy ones at the
doorsteps.”
What messages the students sent back home to Africa is anybody’s guess.
The reaction of a Nigerian resident in South Delhi’s Khirki area to a
reporter’s question is bitterly instructive:
”Why do you remember us only when something like this makes headlines?
We are nothing more than ‘black monkeys’ for Indians and we know it now. You
will forget us tomorrow... I do not feel safe in India at all.”
India’s diplomats, ministers and other leaders may
do their best to save the country’s reputation but damage control in the era of
smart phones is damned difficult. Short
term, it is simply impossible. The long term answer is even harder.
Let there be no pretence that
it is a clash of cultures --
other people’s food habits, love for loud music or even drug problem
of a minority among them. The hosts too have different food habits; music broadcast on loud speakers from the
top of temples, mosques, gurdwaras, barat ghars and marriage venues that
is no less shrill than any one else’s.
Nor are the hosts completely
innocent about drugs. A minority among all sections is
victim of the same weakness. For all these deficits in any community,
including the foreign guests, let the law take its course. Go and report it to
police and other authorities, once , twice or as many times as it takes. But no
vigilante mob action, please. Taking law
into your own hands is the road to anarchy.
What is
needed is a mindset change. Let
it be admitted that there is a deep set prejudice when it comes to a question of
colour. Matrimonial advertisements Indian newspaper columns reveal it day
in and day out. A massive long term
educational drive among all communities would be a first step.
Neither last
nor least is the requirement of special hostel accommodation for foreign
students who are often at the mercy of private landlords and their prejudices.
Wherever feasible foreign students should be provided rooms in normal
hostels of colleges, with common rooms, libraries and other facilities. Delhi University alone has 60 colleges , many
of them with hostels. A few rooms for foreign students can always be reserved.
That way the foreign guests could get a chance to interact with Indian
students. The walls of separation need to broken down. Too often the African
students are lost in ghettos. That leads
to alienation and mutual suspicions and prejudices. Urgent steps are required to maximise foreign students’
interaction with the host community. Not just by arranging annual functions but
by arranging common living facilities. Both the Central and state governments
need to spend thought and money to provide such accommodation to make the
foreign guests feel at home and welcome.
Time also for
pandits, moulvis, padres, teachers and all leaders to sit up daily and look
inwards to fight the apartheid mindset by sending out the message of
brotherhood, the true path of all religions.
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