It is sad but true that we Indians are racists in our own way (Our True Colours, Jul 6). From time immemorial we have been slaves to fairness. In our obsession with gori chamdi, we fail to realise the charm of dark skin. Bipasha, Deepika and Rekha are considered hot, sexy, sizzling but the epithets are always preceded by the word ‘dusky’. Why can’t we look beyond skin colour in our quest for good looks?
Smita Shenoy, Chennai
Of course we’re racist. Sexist and casteist too. But will that make us stop pointing fingers at others? No, because besides being all of the above, we are something else too: hypocrites.
Ishtyaque Ansari, on e-mail
It’s heartening to see Outlook expose the inherent racist tendencies of Indians and their prejudice against dark skin. But how come it has an ad on Page 5 for a fairness cream for men in the same issue? A gap between what your lead article says and the magazine’s need for ad revenue?
Ketaki Chowkhani, Pondicherry
There is one basic difference between Indians ridiculing dark-skinned Africans on the streets of India and Indians being beaten up by white-skinned racists in Britain, Australia or Canada etc. The attacks on Indians in the West are not provoked only by the colour of their skin but their success. And while we don’t need a cover story to tell us of our inherent prejudices, we seem to have developed our own brand of anti-white sentiment, in the rape of white-skinned women. They are violated simply because of the confidence in the minds of our men that this sport is free and the law can or will do nothing.
B.N. Datta, Chandigarh
Discrimination on the basis of colour has been in existence in this country for hundreds of years. It is in our nature therefore to prostrate ourselves before the white westerner. This was why we let ourselves be ruled by the whites (and still seek their approval) with no sense of pride and self-respect for our own thousands of years old civilisation. As for racism in Australia or anywhere else in the world, Indians bring it upon themselves in large measure, forgetting that much useful aphorism, "While in Rome, behave as the Romans do".
Ramon Terence Iyer, on e-mail
When it comes to divisiveness, Indians are past masters at it. Already inheritors of the varna system, we nutured caste and communal hatred further through state policies and public intolerance. Be it Bal Thackeray or his nephew Raj, Narendra Modi or now Varun Gandhi, it is a political sport to prey on the deep chasms of society which sadly are only getting deeper in the world’s ‘greatest democracy’. Trains are burnt if one community gets more benefits over another, brutal caste murders and rapes are committed every day, and whole villages are burnt to ashes in blood-curdling acts of caste reprisals. Our own peculiar socio-cultural-racial problems are far more frightening and subversive to our democratic ethos compared to a few Indians being subjected to racial discrimination abroad. The latter are perhaps more a manifestation of current socio-economic crises than a deeply ingrained mindset as in our case.
Sharad Rajimwale, Jodhpur
Fair and Lovely ads were never considered controversial till in the recent past. If they are today, it is a good sign. It shows that greater education and exposure to the world is helping change people’s mindset.
Arti Dangwal, Ramnagar
In the US, many Indians routinely call African-Americans/Blacks ‘Kalua’. Interestingly, many of them are dark-skinned themselves! I have personally seen bank tellers behaving rudely with African students for no reason a t Benares Hindu University.
A.R. Chaudhury, Columbus
Rather than introducing the article with "Before we rush to castigate...", perhaps you should have said "As we rush to castigate...". The former gives the impression that Outlook is excusing moral relativism, which would be unfortunate, if not downright stupid, given the circumstances.
Raveesh Varma, Michigan, US
There is no doubt that South Asians, along with the Chinese, are the worst racists in the world. Racism in the form of casteism is so deeply ingrained in our society and religion that even after 60 years of ‘independence’, there is not much change in the material/cultural aspects of our hierarchical caste system. The tragedy is these upper-caste folks abuse all the freedom western societies offer while denying the same to the lesser souls at their mercy in their own country.
Sathish, Pune
I lived in Africa for a number of years and rarely saw any Indian inviting Africans to their parties. We tend to be clannish and refuse to be part of the mainstream in countries where we have lived for decades and made our fortunes. This explains the treatment we got in countries like Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Surinder Kalia, Gurgaon
I’m sorry that Diepiriye Kuku had to go through this, but I have to admit I’d stare at him too, he’s a striking man (‘India Is Racist, And Happy About It’). While the behaviour of the people he describes is indefensible, one, he does not describe ever being physically assaulted because of his colour. Indians have been physically assaulted because of their ethnicity in several countries for many years. Australia’s being picked on now, but similar attacks occur in the US and UK. Two, the problems he describes at the end of his article about being called a ‘faggot’ and the way the private school dealt with it had to do with homophobia, not racism. That is not acceptable either, but please don’t conflate the issues.
Nayanika Barat, Toowoomba, Australia
What Kuku says about the "aggressive, crude curiosity" of the Delhi public, which brands Indians as racists (and happy about it!), is applicable to the average citizen of any country. Let Sania Mirza or even Shabana Azmi walk around on the streets of Ndjamena or Lusaka. They too will be objects of aggressive, crude and lecherous curiosity. If fondness or preference for a fair skin brands one as racist, then most of the world is guilty of it.
C.V. Venugopalan, Palakkad
But Indians are completely, insanely, blatantly, unapologetically, nauseatingly racist. I may run out of adjectives, but most Indians don’t. Fair, very fair, very very fair, medium, wheatish, wheatish brown—oh, we have many colours to our racism. But there is, surprising as it may seem, something yet more loathesome than our racism: our denial and downplaying of it. Thank you, Diepiriye, for shining the light of truth on our oh-so-carefully hidden disgrace. Write more—write angrily. We deserve it.
Pubali Ray Caudhuri, Newark, US
As an Indian, I’m ashamed to read this article of anguish and hurt from an Afro-American PhD scholar. On behalf of Indians, I offer him my unconditional apologies.
Prof G. Niranjan Rao, Vijayawada
While racism is deplorable, one wonders if the preference for fairer skin has some evolutionary aspect. Anthropologists report that even before the advent of Europeans in Japan, Japanese women preferred being and endeavoured to be white. The same was true for Polynesian women. In China, fair skin meant that the family was rich. Darker-ski nned people came from the working class labouring in the sun.
Anwaar, Dallas
Though Kuku’s comments are nothing new, as an Indian I couldn’t help feeling, once again, deeply ashamed. He’s absolutely right and that hurt.
Percy Aaron, Vientiane, Laos
Hiuen Tsang, the great Chinese traveller, and many like him before, both Greek and Chinese, did not dwell on any racist views of Indians towards them, like the current word "chinky" which is used to casually describe (denigrate) people with Mongoloid features. India of those times was a confident civilisation, an economic, scientific and cultural powerhouse and it boasted of many great rulers, many of them dark-skinned, from the Mauryas in the north to the Satavahanas and Cholas in the south.
Vikram Chandra, Visakhapatnam
There are habits, thoughts and behavioural patterns that change over time. But this facet of India steadfastly refuses to budge, leave alone change.
Shyam Mukundan, Bangalore
Oh, and how racist is Outlook itself if it should introduce Kuku as a Black American scholar instead of an Afro-American one?
Soundarya, Hyderabad
Both Black and Afro-American are accepted terminologies in the US. So there is nothing derogatory about using the term Black. Incidentally, Blacks themselves have many organisations with the word Negro as part of their names. After all, Negro does mean Black in some other languages. But racism is another issue altogether. In the US, Indians prefer not to stay in areas where Blacks are a majority. Some of my friends in white majority areas were alarmed at the influx of Blacks because they thought it would drive down the value of their property. And the whites in Edison were getting alarmed due to Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis flocking in as they thought it would push down property prices! Indians would fulminate at the latter as racism and do exactly the same to others.
Suresh Kamath, Edison, US
That a human should not consider another human with the same respect is the end of civilisation, of sanity, of the first basic upon which the world can successfully create and sustain itself.
K.K. Krant, Gurgaon
I am sorry about what Kuku has had to go through. Racism runs deep in Indian society but it is not colour-based against the foreigner. While the English ruled India, they were not allowed beyond the lounge of Indian houses. And if they were offered food inside the house, their crockery was not washed by the regular maid of the house but was stored separately. It could still be so in the interiors of India.
A.B. Upadhyay, Bath, UK
As an Indian living in a white European country, I can well empathise with Kuku.
Santhosh, Aachen, Germany
It’s amazing that in a country as diverse as ours, parents seldom teach their kids sensitivity or respect for diversity.
Rajiv Varshney, Las Vegas
Sanjay Suri’s Brownian Notions seem to reflect his own complexes which he is trying to thrust upon the entire nri community.
Hul Khan, Hyderabad
Apropos of Red Corner Notice (Jun 29), if the Outlook reporter was truly unbiased, she would have mentioned CPI(M) misrule and the terrorism practised by the West Bengal police against poor tribals.
Raj, Chicago
The ruling class sustains and strengthens its anti-democratic, fascist rule not by its brutality but by our silence. It’s the government’s old mantra—democratic mass movements must be crushed to establish democracy. Successive ruling parties have raised mercenary forces with taxpayers’ money, to kill taxpayers and exploit the weak. Now the regime has called in the services of animals, reptiles and even deep sea species, respectively called the Greyhounds, Cobra and Octopus. Add to this the ‘propaganda journalists’ who claim to be the bulwark of an independent media, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Saraswathi, Zurich
It’s a shame what the Communists have come down to. That said, atrocities against adivasis are not necessarily confined to the CPI(M)-ruled Bengal; it’s true also of Chhattisgarh which has been under BJP rule for a number of years.
Pinaki S. Ray, Adelaide
Apropos of A Faded Star (Jun 22), the fact remains that the catastrophic events of Operation Bluestar continue to haunt the community. I wasn’t born when the attack took place in the ’80s. But my generation, to the last one, is no less anguished by the desecration. Governments must respect all people and faiths, they cannot falter.
Jasleen Kaur, Amritsar
The Secret Diary series is hilarious. Especially the one on Arun Jaitley (Jun 29).
Mathew, Dubai
Neelabh Mishra’s The Ulcer We Love To Hide (Jun 22) was a very interesting and highly relevant piece. There was a small error, though. The number of Dalits should have been 260 million, not 26 million.
Maria Schleimann, International Dalit Solidarity Network, Copenhagen
Neelabh Mishra’s piece is a revelation as far as Tamil Nadu is concerned. All that the Dravidian movement in the state under the crusade of E.V. Ramasami Naicker achieved was the elimination of Brahmins and their domination in certain areas of administration here. Being just a minuscule percentage of the overwhelming population, the Brahmins offered no resistance and moved out of reckoning. This was no big social revolution. It just happened. Upper-class non-Brahmins who needed more manpower for easing out Brahmins joined hands with the lesser privileged and succeeded. This did not include the Dalits. Many of the upper-caste non-Brahmins managed to get included in the obcs, mbcs and so on, leaving the really backward Dalits where they were a hundred years ago. Our CM, who styles himself as a low-born whenever it suits him, has been able to do nothing to eliminate the caste equations at the Dalit level. Discrimination of the worst kind takes place where no Brahmin is involved. Even the lowest of the lowest discriminates against the Dalits. Unfortunately, Dalit leaders like Dr Krishnaswamy and Thirumavalavan prefer to align themselves with the more privileged political groups and ltte issues rather than fight for their own people.
T. Santhanam, on e-mail
Competition makes everything beautiful but the way Chinese products (Shanghai Surprise, Jun 29) are swamping the Indian market is not a joke. Earlier, we were competitors, but now it seems to be just a one-horse race. Still, there is a gathering feeling that Chinese goods are a short-term fix compared even to the quality of Indian products. But the government still needs to recast its exim policy.
Vineet Bhalla, Bhilai
Apropos Climb Down to the Table (Jun 29), the author’s personal biases are quite evident. In diplomacy, sometimes you need straight talk. The PM’s comments were no more than that.
V.K. Chopra, on e-mail
In a variation of Bellman’s principle of optimality used in decision-making processes in the corporate world, Pakistan seems to believe in wiping its slate clean everyday, obliterating its dastardly deeds of commission and omission of the previous day. How else can one explain the vituperative outrage of sundry Pakistani intellectuals at the facts in Manmohan Singh’s no-nonsense plainspeak?
Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai
No doubt the mandarins at the pmo and mea scripted the blunt message Manmohan delivered to Zardari. I for one, see no wrong in this. Pakistan is universally acknowledged as a terror hub and "an international migraine". There is no more room for diplomatic niceties with such a reckless neighbour. But I can’t stop wondering how the story would have developed had it been Musharraf facing Manmohan!
Dr M.K. Bajaj, Zirkapur
Apropos Toasts That Burned (Jun 29), M.S. Dhoni certainly is the ringleader responsible for our early demise in the T20 World Cup. Another perpetrator is the bcci itself. That said, Indians play the maximum matches in a calendar year and injuries are an issue. But no one seems to care.
Mithun Dey, Bongaigaon, Assam
I am surprised to find the media deriding Dhoni’s decision to send Ravindra Jadeja before Yuvraj as the catalyst for India’s ouster. Strangely, no one had objected when he did the same with debutant Yusuf Pathan in the finals of the same championship two years ago. The real reason for the lacklustre performance was a team exhausted from the IPL. I hope you are happy still counting the moolah, Lalit Modi.
Sunita Dube, Mumbai
India’s bane has always been its pathetic fielding. Every run counts and every dropped catch hurts, sometimes grievously. In the ’60s and ’70s, we were well served by outstanding fielders like Pataudi, Solkar, Abid Ali, Venkat, Wadekar and even Gavaskar. The fact that India has been winning since 2000 has been largely due to its powerful batting. If we were a fielding side as good as, say, SA or Australia, we would have won many more matches.
Dilip Mahanty, Sydney
Those who were unfit should not have been included. You cannot produce good results with imperfect tools. Team India never looked like the defending champs.
Prem K. Menon, Mumbai
Cricket is doing more harm than good (The Dark Side of Cricket, Jun 15). Children must understand that if sports be their cause, there are many more avenues to explore. Look at Saina Nehwal who’s done us proud.
Gayatri Gahlaut, on e-mail
It was painful to read about the sad stories of so many cricketers whose career went haywire. I hope people will follow this sport not only with their heart but also mind. Please do a similar story on Bollywood, which too has a dark underbelly.
Ranvijay Yadav, Pune
Vinod Mehta must not blame L.K. Advani for his ‘strong vs weak PM’ strategy (Who Killed the BJP?, Jul 6). In an interview to Impact, an ad fraternity magazine, he had said he’d like to see Advani become prime minister "because he’s got an eye on history, has no more mountains to climb, might make a good PM, keep the loonies in his party in check, and do something good for the nation". And then he’d added that "Manmohan Singh is too locked up in Congress politics, he’s not his own man, everyone knows it...." We know, Mr Mehta, that you do some roaming to survey the national scene with a card-carrying pseudo-secularist’s eye. But for the ad fraternity, you drop your pseudo posturing and come clean! That’s 360 degrees roaming!
A.S. Raghunath, New Delhi
How can the BJP be dead when it is ruling some important states? Unlike the Congress, it’s not a family party; unlike the Left parties, it’s not subjugated by oligarchy. What’s happening within the BJP is democracy—not the spectacle of a queen making a Rajya Sabha MP, the prime minister or a king from the south getting his son and nephew ministers’ posts.
Akil, on e-mail
I’m a staunch supporter of the Congress, but I’d like to see the BJP remain a strong party, a strong opposition. Otherwise, India runs the risk of one-sided thinking.
Ajaykumar, on e-mail
Mr Mehta, I’d like to take you to court for prejudice! You mentioned Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, M.M. Joshi and others as responsible for the BJP’s decline. But you forgot your "family friend", Chandan Mitra.
Kel Shorey, Glasgow, UK
The BJP is one of the few democratic parties in India, while the others are private limited companies. The chaos you find in the BJP today is an indication of that. The silence in many other parties is the silence of the grave.
Raghbendra Jha, Canberra
Before elections, I discussed with friends the right strategy for the BJP. We concluded it would be best for the party to keep quiet and let the Congress self-destruct. But these guys had to go and do what they have done—and look where it has left them!
Lakhu Khushalani, Mumbai
BJP leaders should stop conducting a post-mortem of the election defeat and start being a constructive opposition—for the nation and for democracy. Why should they feel so ashamed of sitting in opposition in a democratic country?
M.M. Sujith, Kannur
If the BJP wants to extricate itself from the quagmire it is in, it must rebrand, revitalise and reform itself from the narrow "for hardcore Hindutvawadis only" party to a broad-based one.
Sanjeev Mehta, on e-mail
It was nice to read Anwar Alikhan’s food review after a long time. Reading his views is like being taken to the restaurant by a knowledgable, sophisticated host and having an enlightened conversation. They are different from the usual superficial food reviews.
Nikhil Paul, on e-mail
A blurb going with the survey of educational institutions says "10 of the top 15 dental colleges are in south India and eight of them are private institutions". Statistics can be misleading. Please note there are some 280 dental colleges, of which 36 are government-owned. In the top 15, seven are government-owned against eight private ones.
Dr Puneet Gupta, on e-mail
Congrats on your special issue surveying and ranking our educational institutions. You deserve appreciation for covering social work, a comparatively new and upcoming field.
Pushpanjali Jha, on e-mail
The concept of deemed universities is good, provided all the norms are followed in letter and spirit. But so-called educationists are making the most of it by capitalising on the deemed university tag.
C. Deendayal, Kakinada
Your survey of educational institutions deserves praise because probably this is the first time such a survey has looked beyond the conventional professions like engineering, medicine and law.
Mayuri Gogoi, Guwahati
Practically an entire issue on India’s top professional colleges? A bit too much for a general reader. Outlook is a political newsmagazine and should necessarily devote itself to politics and what’s happening around the country and the world.
Nirmal K. Sircar, Calcutta
