BJP Politician's Statement Proves How Clueless We Are About Our Racism

As disgraceful as the attack on Nigerian citizens earlier this month in Noida has been, what is perhaps even more shocking is the continuing denial of numerous government officials of the existence of racism in India. The African envoys in India released a statement regarding the incident, calling it a “xenophobic and racial” attack, only to be quite sharply countered by officials at the External Affairs Ministry. Listing out the various steps undertaken by the government, while also pointing out that they’ve condemned the act from the beginning.

Now, while publicly condemning an act of violence is all well and good, seeing real on-ground measures taken to ensure the safety of all people in India would do us a great deal better. We can’t call out the government here, actions have definitely been taken against the perpetrators of the attack (we await the follow-through), but what’s more eye-opening in terms of the Indian mindset are the statements being made by officials aggressively defending India’s problem with racism.

Most recent and abhorrent is BJP’s Tarun Vijay’s reaction while participating in a panel discussion regarding racial attacks in India on Al Jazeera. “If we were racist, why would we have all the entire South (India) which is… you know Tamil Nadu, you know Karnataka and Andhra… why do we live with them? We have black people all around us,” said Vijay when photographer Mahesh Shantaram’s stated that he believed Indians to be racists. What’s ironic is that Vijay is the President of the India-Africa Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Watch his statement in the video

“To say that Indians can be racist is the most vicious thing because we worship black gods... Krishna is black. And we have been seeing the descendants of the Africans living amicably in states like Maharashtra and Gujarat,” he further added, the descendants he is probably referring to are the Siddis, a group whose existence has long remained unknown to majority of the country.

Now, we don’t know what to be more confused about - his complete denial of racism in India, both to foreign immigrants and our own countrymen, or that he has referred to south Indians as “black people.” He seems to have confused racism with colourism, and we’re as baffled as you are at this moment. It’s also abundantly clear that his ignorance far supersedes his ‘racism’ given that he probably doesn’t fully understand the implications of the latter.

India’s fascination with white skin is no new phenomenon. It continues to be a dominant thought in society. Vijay has since apologised for his statements via Twitter, yet it’s unfortunate because seeing our politicians and officials make such statements and hold such misguided beliefs will only further carve this ridiculous notion of white skin-good dark skin-bad into the minds of people who look to our country’s leaders for direction and guidance.

To further understand India’s long-standing relationship with Africa and its people, we recommend you read about Malik Ambar, a powerful African ruler that once governed our land, as well as about some of the most prolific African rulers of our subcontinent. You can also get a better understanding of the situation from this African-American’s account of his experience in India, and read more about the Siddi community here.