Sep 2013: An American girl was crowned miss America. The entire world was covered with controversies - at-least USA and India were. The reason? She is a girl of Indian origin. Where some US citizens are criticizing this move, lot of Indians are responding back. News channels and news papers are full of this coverage. Indian media and Indians are blaming US citizens being racists. After all she is USA citizen and crowning her miss America is absolutely justified. People in my friend circle are also complaining and mocking about people of other country on their behavior. This gave me little unrest. How we, the Indians, are so mean and have double standards. We ourselves are most racist race in the world I believe. We ourselves are divided to the last level. A Sindhi cannot marry a Gujrati, a Marathi cannot marry a Bihari. Or to make it worse - there are divisions within state - based on cast, based on sub casts, based on God we follow etc. I remember a Telgu girl who wanted to marry a Telgu guy of her own cast. She was not allowed by her parents just because her parents were supporter of Telangana and the guy was from 'pure' AP. Is it not racism? Are we not divided by states, languages, religion, casts, place of origin etc.?
Are we not those who talk to each other using words like "south Indian, north Indian, Bengali, Madrasi, Punjabi" etc.? Do we not address any south Indian as "Madrasi", any North-East Indian as "Chinks" or anyone from UP and Bihar as "Bhaiya"? Where whites do racism against blacks/Asians/outsiders, we are racists among ourselves. Doesn't it sound more weird?
Though I am not supporter of Congress or Gandhi family or per say any political person/family/party but were those not us who created a hell when Congress party wanted Sonia Gandhi to be Indian PM? Are we ready to accept her as PM if she is eligible as per Indian law? Even Fiji had made PM a person who was Indian origin during the same time when Congress nominated her as PM candidate. We didn't utter a word then.
I have been to USA, Australia and New Zealand. I have seen people there wishing "Good Morning" to strangers (even Indians) when they see them on jogging track. Indians on the contrary wish all others except Indians. Are we scared of ourselves or is it kind of racism? We are treating ourselves as superior race and fellow Indians as "bloody Indians". I would like to quote a doha which saint Kabir had written:
Bura jo dekhan main chala, Bura na milya koi
Jab man khoja aapna, mujh se bura na koi
Which means - When I went in search of evil, I could not find it. When I introspected, I found that there no evil bigger then self.
There are people with different ideology in each part of the world. This does not give us right to finger point them. We should introspect ourselves. It is we who are racists. Let us first come out of the mental block and them complain about others.
I am not supporter of racism or per say election/selection of a person for any particular title based on a race/community/cast etc. I am also a human who is not perfect. I will also raise my eyebrows if I got to know that someone close to me was impacted by such behavior. But then I want to introspect and want to eliminate the racism in self which may hurt someone more than others hurt us.
Are we not those who talk to each other using words like "south Indian, north Indian, Bengali, Madrasi, Punjabi" etc.? Do we not address any south Indian as "Madrasi", any North-East Indian as "Chinks" or anyone from UP and Bihar as "Bhaiya"? Where whites do racism against blacks/Asians/outsiders, we are racists among ourselves. Doesn't it sound more weird?
Though I am not supporter of Congress or Gandhi family or per say any political person/family/party but were those not us who created a hell when Congress party wanted Sonia Gandhi to be Indian PM? Are we ready to accept her as PM if she is eligible as per Indian law? Even Fiji had made PM a person who was Indian origin during the same time when Congress nominated her as PM candidate. We didn't utter a word then.
I have been to USA, Australia and New Zealand. I have seen people there wishing "Good Morning" to strangers (even Indians) when they see them on jogging track. Indians on the contrary wish all others except Indians. Are we scared of ourselves or is it kind of racism? We are treating ourselves as superior race and fellow Indians as "bloody Indians". I would like to quote a doha which saint Kabir had written:
Bura jo dekhan main chala, Bura na milya koi
Jab man khoja aapna, mujh se bura na koi
Which means - When I went in search of evil, I could not find it. When I introspected, I found that there no evil bigger then self.
There are people with different ideology in each part of the world. This does not give us right to finger point them. We should introspect ourselves. It is we who are racists. Let us first come out of the mental block and them complain about others.
I am not supporter of racism or per say election/selection of a person for any particular title based on a race/community/cast etc. I am also a human who is not perfect. I will also raise my eyebrows if I got to know that someone close to me was impacted by such behavior. But then I want to introspect and want to eliminate the racism in self which may hurt someone more than others hurt us.
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