Being Right, Being Fair , Being Indian

Few days back , Mr. Tarun Vijay of BJP (India’s ruling party) phrased a comment during a television interview which irked a significant section of India’s informed population. For the uninitiated let me explain the context and state the comment before proceeding further.

Recently , there were a couple of incidents in Noida (close to the heartlands of Indian National Capital), whereby Nigerian students faced mob attacks and were left brutally injured. The attacks were condemned globally and there were strong views expressed that tagged India as a xenophobic and racist nation. Of course Indian government would not lamely accept such allegations. They were proactive in denying any form of racism in India . So far so good. Then hell broke loose …

Mr. Tarun Vijay was representing BJP at a discussion aired by Al Jazeera. During the discussion he went tad overboard and commented, “ If we were racist, why would we have the entire south, which is complete, you know, Tamil, you know Kerala, you know Karnataka and Andhra, why do we live with them? We have black people around us”. All of a sudden entire India ( including members of his beloved party) are up in arms against him , leaving him face to face with the premature end of his political career.

Poor Man! He has suffered enough in the last few days and I really don’t want to add to it. Instead I would like to elaborate why Mr. Vijay’s comment is not a statement stemming from an individual’s narrow-mindedness , rather it is an insight about the Indian way of thinking for generations. If you hate Mr. Vijay, for what he said — you better start hating a whole bunch of other people around you.

A research by Hindustan Unilever (the Indian subsidiary of Unilever) states: “90 percent of Indian women want to use whiteners because it is aspirational, like losing weight. A fair skin is like education, regarded as a social and economic step up.”

Since 1971, HUL holds the patent for Niacinamide (a melanin suppressor) and has been monetizing India’s obsession with fairness through their brand “Fair & Lovely”. You never felt insulted by watching a fair&lovely ad. You never questioned brands that reinforced bleaching as a method of cleaning up (in the process equating darkness with dirt). You never questioned the typical Indian parents who would go around scouting for fair brides for their children .

You have lost your right to get offended on the topic of fairness today.

Mr. Vijay, however uncouth he may sound, spoke the minds of an average Indian. For an average Indian , being fair is aspirational. India looks up to nations where the population is dominated by the fair ones. The dark people are unclean , scary and dangerous ! Mr. Vijay, just exposed an usual conversation that’s locked inside the premises of your home — don’t hate him for that !

Now comes the bigger issue . Mr. Tarun Vijay used the word — “we”. Of Course that leads to a question: Who are “we”? Now that opens up the second important insight. When you say that “we have been living with the south Indians” you must be referring to yourself as someone NOT affiliated to them . In other words Mr. Vijay’s India & South India are different entities peacefully coexisting with each other. Fair enough! But I have a question …

I want to know what Mr. Vijay’s India is all about.

India today is aggressively defending the “national” flavor that unites her twenty nine states & the seven union territories. For an outsider India is more diverse than Africa as a continent or EU as a union of countries. India has 18 official languages and at least another 18 more unofficial ones. Any argument with the pro-national Indian ends up in discussions about how hard the Indian Army is fighting at the Kashmir border. Kashmir, happens to be a state where a significant section of the population is keen to secede from the Indian union. India doesn’t want that to happen. During the course of history there have been other states too ,who have expressed dissatisfaction with the Indian union. Last year a few students of an elite Indian university were arrested for apparently claiming: “Bharat tera tukde karenge” (India , we will rip you apart!) For an average Indian, these fellows were as bad as international terror organizations.

For the great Indian majority nationalism is important. What is important along with it is State-ism, Religion-ism , Language-ism & Caste-ism. We have groups vouching for individual states and languages — who are a part of the ruling government (which is supposed to be heavily nationalist). Irony, Indeed! Despite the fact that there are 18 official languages, most of central government work happens in just 2 of them : English & Hindi. So undoubtedly those who are Hindi speaking are the most nationalist of them all (since English is a foreign language). This exposes the “we” as per Mr. Tarun Vijay.

What Mr. Tarun Vijay meant is simple : “We are North-Indians who speak , dream & rant in Hindi or languages that are similar to Hindi”. The ones who are speaking languages of different origin should be happy that they are allowed to co-exist peacefully.

Again don’t you dare abuse Mr. Vijay for what he said ! He simply spoke the mind of the average North-Indian for whom all South-Indians are Madraasis, and North-Eastern’s are Chinkis . Rest are Indians or Partly Indians. Yet, they shouldn’t dare to contemplate separatism !

Mr. Vijay or as a matter of fact most other BJP leaders speak their mind. What is important is that their minds are reflective of the opinion of the majority. If you hate what you hear … you better start hating the thinking process of the so-called majority.

The so-called majority hates Muslims , hates non-vegetarians and hates separatists! Hating Muslims is indeed an effect of xenophobia which has been re-emphasized by minority appeasement policies by previous governments which includes irrational policies such as allowing triple-taalaq and providing hajj-subsidies.

Now comes the topic of hating non-vegetarians. For many this is a battle between Hindu’s & the rest. The reality however is more complicated. Hinduism isn’t about being vegetarian. Vegetarianism is more of a upper-caste-Hindu thingy ! Now BJP has finally allowed the oppressed( thanks to 60 years of lower caste reservation)upper caste Hindu’s to have a voice and they are all yelling loud! They want entire India to eat veg just like them and they hate reservation because it impedes the career growth of the more deserving upper caste engineer or doctor. However they are perfectly fine with the fact that 100% of Hindu priests in India are Brahmins(the highest Hindu caste) .

When it comes to imposing vegetarianism , BJP has indeed bowled me over with their political correctness (I guess Tarun Vijay wasn’t allowed to talk on the topic). In UP they are leading a crusade against the illegal slaughter houses — when the truth is that “a legal slaughterhouse in UP” is as probable as my ass turning green one fine morning.

So in short being Indian implies being a “fair Indian upper caste Hindu”. Rest are either separatists or burdens that the “Indians” supposedly carry.

Because of the statements that I scribbled above I would surely be tagged as a “Leftist” (usual phenomenon). In today’s India leftism isn’t an ideology but it is supposedly as abuse. Infact the majority have their own beloved synonyms for the same : Libtard (“someone who is a retard because he/she is liberal), Sickular ( Someone who is sick due to the fact that he/she wants all religions to exist peacefully) & Leftard (self explanatory). While I would never associate with social right-wingers anywhere in the world , I find the tagging rather funny. I am supposed to be professionally helping “venture capitalists” take better investment decisions — yet I am a communist ! I find it funny …because I don’t subscribe to stupidity, yet .

I am looking forward to comments … and critiques! However comments that begin with “what about” may be disregarded …. I think my opinion was balanced all through !