Sun is shining and the weather is sweet, so lets talk about racism in India. This is not a debate on if it exists, it does. The kind of blatant racism in which a POLICE DEPARTMENT issues “Security Tips for northeastern students/ visitors in Delhi”. Issued in 2007, the booklet advises people like me to- “Avoid wearing revealing dresses. Avoid lonely roads when dressed scantily. Dress according to sensitivity of the local populace”. They also tell me, “Bamboo shoot, akhuni and other smelly dishes should be prepared without creating ruckus in neighbourhood”.
And the ‘local populace’ wants to know WHY people from the north-east feel alienated from the rest of India? You assume that we dress ’scantily’, that our clothes beg for rape, that while you ‘acquire’ taste for stinky blue cheese, bamboo shoot and fermented tofu cooked by us creates a ‘ruckus in the neighbourhood’ and you still ask why?
For late comers, I am from the northeast of India, connected to mainland India by barely 20 Kilometers of land. The region is populated by indigenous Asian tribes bearing stronger genetic and cultural similarities to bordering countries such as China, Burma and Bhutan.
I lived a fairly insulated life, safe within private boarding school walls in a region where everyone looked Asian. I was aware that the rest of my country ate curry, wore dots on their forehead, had brown skin, prayed at temples, mosques , churches and *gasp*! ate vegetarian. I knew that we are all members of a big united family called ‘Indians’. I was always just an Indian, until ‘Indians’ made me realise that to them, I am a ‘Chink’ first.
Delhi, the capital of my motherland is where I went to college. It was there that I was called ‘Chinky’ for the first time. Not much offence was taken at first, not until I realised that being ‘Chinky’ meant we are easy, promiscuous, drinking, free sexing, tribal dancing harlots, prime targets for molestation, street harassment, racial slurs and prejudices. That renting apartments would be tough, that we are considered dumb hill people fit only to be waitresses and bahadurs. Ironically, Bahadur in Hindi means ‘brave’, but is used as a derogatory term for ALL Asian looking watchmen and cooks. Many Indians didn’t know we existed and called us Nepali and Chinese.
In Bombay, racism manifested itself in ‘CHINA’ carved on my door- this in the posh Pali Hill neighbourhood, home to the rich and famous. At business meetings, people would ignore me and talk to my assistants, on realisation that I was the boss, their faces would first drop with surprise and then turn red with embarrassment. ( This part I enjoyed – a lot!)
In general, the northeast is more liberal than the rest of India. I say this in the broadest sense possible. In contrast to the rest of India, our women do not cover themselves in veils, there are no socio religious taboos on drinking and dancing, men and women mix freely without segregation, virginity is not a prized virtue, women are not burnt for dowry- in fact in my tribe the man pays dowry, premarital sex though not encouraged is not considered a SIN.
To sum it up, we drink, mix freely with men, we don’t cover our bodies according to accepted norms of modesty in mainland India, so all chinky women are sluts. Most tribes like mine practise animism or paganism. Having no gods that will accept coconuts and incense sticks to forgive our sins, we are considered the unholy beef and pork eating social pariahs. We are discriminated on the basis our looks, our food laughed at, our culture frowned upon, our race considered dumb. The media candy coats it with words like ‘alienation’ and ‘cultural differences’. Legend has it that a nightclub called ‘Ghungroo’ in Delhi had a board stating ‘Dogs and chinks not allowed,‘ this was in 1996.
On the streets enquiring eyes give me a once over, poke me with their finger and ask ‘Which country? I am so used to feeling like a guest in my own home, I think I will be quite comfortable being an immigrant. My caucasian, blue eyed fiance on the other hand faces beneficial racism in India. His white skin opens doors and shortens queues. Even Indian women with paler skins are prized more than the brown. It is no surprise that the largest beauty brand here is ‘Fair and Lovely’ a skin whitening cream. White skin is called ‘fair’, any deeper shade is unfair.
One incident in particular haunts me. During one of his visits, the fiance fell very ill. The closest hospital was a subsidised government one. A long line waitied to meet the emergency doctor, but we were wheeled in. It was filled to capacity with not a single bed to spare. A nurse simply yanked a patient off a bed to make place for my fiance. Shocked, I asked the nurse to find him another bed. The nurse said “Don’t worry madam, these people are used to lying on the floor”. That night in India, my fiance’s white skin saved his life.
I moved to a new apartment and the fiance was visiting again. Soon enough someone doodled a dick and vagina on my door and wrote ‘White man fucker’ on the freshly painted outer wall of my new house. When asked about my race, these days I simply say, I am a White Man Fucker. It saves me time from having to explain my 100% Asian but 100% Indian identity. It will also says that my yellow skin which these racists hate so much, gets some good ol’ fashioned loving.
[...] June talks about racism in India: In Bombay, racism manifested itself in ‘CHINA’ carved on my door- this in the posh Pali Hill neighbourhood, home to the rich and famous. At business meetings, people would ignore me and talk to my assistants, on realisation that I was the boss, their faces would first drop with surprise and then turn red with embarrassment. ( This part I enjoyed – a lot!) Linked by kuffir. Join Blogbharti facebook group. [...]
@June:
How awful – and to experience that in your own country. I would probably have gone completely hysterical if I woke up to find someone had doodled profanities on my door.
If it’s any comfort, you’re unlikely to meet such blatant racism here, but do expect the “mail order bride” assumptions. I’ve never experienced them here, but boy were they abundant in Switzerland. I’ve experienced racism in Denmark just 5 times in the 30 years I’ve lived here – all verbal. 1 x “Why don’t you go home to where you came from?”, 3 x “Perker” and 1 guy who assumed that because I looked Asian, I was willing to dump my then boy friend and move in with him, because he had a higher salary.
I experienced racism signficantly more often when I lived in Switzerland, first time was when a friend of mine sent a birtday card to me, but got the house-number wrong. The card was returned to her and someone had scribbled “Hier wohn kein scheiss Ausländer” (No f****** foreigners live here), worst time was when someone rolled down their car window when driving past to throw water (at least I HOPE it was water) at me and my family who were visiting from Malaysia.
Of course this raises the question of whether the Swiss are more racistic than the Danes or if I somehow excrete some kind of recognisable “Danishness”? I certainly don’t look more Danish than Swiss. The Europeans can’t see that I’m a mutt, but believe me 100% Asian. On the other hand, all the Asians recognize a mutt when they see one, most of them even being able to pinpoint that my mother is Chinese. :p
@Eva
I remember Jakarta 1998, those were terrible things happening. We got most of our information from my family in Malaysia, who were very shocked and concerned, especially by what they had heard from the many Chinese were fleeing to Malaysia.
@may: I thought “perker” is only “used” to call those dark-skinned middle eastern / African people. I never knew people in Switzerland could be that racist, perhaps it’s because I don’t know much about the country except for chocolate and wristwatches
To be honest, you look like 100% Asian to me in your fb profile, but maybe it’s because it’s just a pic – maybe I’ll recognise the Danish heritage on your appearance when I meet you for real LOL
…..and as for the 1998 tragedy – the worst thing is actually about how our government deny such things ever happened and dismissed the facts and the pictures as fakes. It’s a big hush-hush affair in my country.
Eva, May- lets form a MALE ORDER bride brigade. I dont know what our agenda will be, but it will be against everything that mail order brides stand for. We could eat lots of cake to begin with.
LOL great idea. we should come up with a catchy slogan like what Dansk Folkeparti has stolen from a song lyrics
I’m all for the cake! Maybe we should add some snacks and beverages to that? *grin*
@Eva
Heh, yeah who’d have thought “perker” could be so widely used? Or maybe I’m merely a “perle”? *grin*
*lol* you’ll probably notice the Danish parts when we meet. It’s usually my hairs and eyes that tip off the Asians. To my mother’s despair, these are light brown and hazel, but this is not easy to see on a photo.
Covering up something like what happened in 1998 is shocking! In my opinion the right course of action would be to admit and take responsibility for what happened and thereby take measures to prevent something like that from ever happening again.
June, your story is very similar with mine. I’m a Chinese Indonesian and never really accepted as a citizen in my own country. They always think that we’re far rich than them hence taking money from us (begging, stealing, robbing) is considered a fair act and they’re blaming us for the collapse of their economy (they as in the brown-skinned native who looks like the rest of the southeast asian citizen not us the pale oriental looking with slanted eyes). I wonder when they’d start realising that they’re poor because they’re lazy enough to work not because of their skin colour.
Try google “Jakarta May 1998″ to see what happened in my country at that time. Thousands of us (the Chinese descendants) were killed and the women were raped and I start questioning whether my country is a civilised one.
This was a powerful post, June. I’m so sorry that you’ve had to experience these things. I can’t imagine how denigrating it feels.
All the talk of the wonderful salad bowl of India is a crock of crap in today’s situation where minds are narrow and prejudice and non-acceptance are rife.
the Viking and I have had similiar experiences of queues shortening and doors opening and the like, and I’ve had the odd “whore” look and comment when we were backpacking through the South. But come to think of it, i’ve had similiar experiences in Norway too, when I landed here, where people looked at you like you were a gold-digger entering a pro-forma wedding (what gold? dirt-poor. no car, no own home, nothing!). Just the assumption that you were just in it for a better life, because a better life, as everyone knows is reserved for the Good Europeans, and others must beg and humiliate themselves en route to one.
LOL! @your body getting some loving! Only way to respond to these *******(insert gaali of choice).
MGM the problem is, India never accepts that is is a very very very racist country. The mindset is, who racist? Us? NO WAY- we were VICTIMS of racism. Victims dont abuse others.
@Twisted DNA: COuld we possibly be related? Cos I have a few of those crawling around as well:-) They treat my white husband like royalty purely because of the colour of his skin (and the fact that he will chew down curry leaves). They will not hesistate to let me know how lucky a dark person like me is to have a “fair” husband and aren’t I lucky my children won’t be “negro-looking”? Normally, these people aren’t so fuckin’ pretty either – or fair for that matter.
Luckily for me, I’m just dark, but obviously culturally and morally superior to the Norwegians, being a sambar drinking, Carnatic music appreciating kutty an’all:-) What is it that makes Indian and Chinese such cultural supremists?
@ Juna and MGM
Is the fact that there is racism in India suppossed to be a revelation? It exists.
I’ve lived in the UK for the last 36 years, Germany 1 year and travelled on business to every country in europe, including your new homelands of Denmark and Norway. If you think your experiences of racism in India are bad then they would pale into insignificance if I had the time or inclination to describe what coloured people in Europe have had to put up with.
I come back to my point which is that Indians are not unique in this area. In my experience 90% of the time racism is subtle and rarely blatant and in your face. The little smirk here or the nod of the head or the inability to look at you when you talk to them.
Still, you two have escaped Indian racism. I guess Danish and Norwegians are indeed more evolved than the rest of europe! They certainly think so and Norwegian patriotism during WWII was very helpful to the jews. I guess the fact that they have managed to keep most non europeans out of their countries has nothing to do with this.
I hope you continue to blog from Denmark. It would be interested to read about how you settle in.
Great post. It was like a mirror being shown. The first time I realized that Indians were racist was during the whole Sydney gate incident during test match. Alienation against NE Indians is very strong. However racism is engraved in us from a long time. Not like the one where we subjugate the other community. But something like calling every south Indian a madrasi. Walking into a room and scanning people as sardar, madrasi, chinki, bangali, bihari. These are some of the things which we have to learn. Great post once again!.
You got it right Nimit. In India, no one is an Indian, every one is madrasi, gujrati, marathi etc.
Great post June!
Back home in Sydney, which likes to prides itself as a multicultural, open and accepting society, I get turdbags assuming that I am Vietnamese/Japanese/what have you, but no way am I ‘Australian’ because I am not blonde haired, blue-eyed and I certainly can’t surf!
When my Polish man went over in February for a holiday, people would come up to him and ask him for directions, without so much as glancing at me (even though it was his first time in Sydney). He’d say he didn’t know, and they would walk away even before I could give them the right directions. They could have been assuming of course that I was FOB (fresh off the boat) and wouldn’t know a thing about Sydney.
Here in London, I get people talking to me SLOOOWLY and LOUDLY because obviously, with my slanty eyes and yellow skin, I must not have a good grasp of English. The good thing about people thinking I can’t speak English though, is that whenever I get a really annoying salesperson/Mormon who starts by asking ‘Excuse me, do you speak English?’ I simply say ‘Of course not!’ in my best indignant manner and trot triumphantly away!
Oh, and its just ‘wonderful’ when telling people that I’m from Australia and have them go ‘But where were you originally from?’ because slant eyed chinkies are all invaders trying to take over.
Woah, sorry for the long comment, June! Love your posts!
I always feel India is a land of ‘hypocrites’, the same people who called you Chink will raise a huge cry about racism if they are faced with similar situation. I see we ‘Indians’ as very narrow minded and low Moral people…basically a land where there are no principles left. I admire that you wont give in to such lowly souls..as for me I will try and stop the next person I see calling someone a Chink.
Hey Vikdes, great, yes stop racial abuse, but I have to disagree with your statement that Indians are narrow minded and have low morals. For every chootiya in this country, there are usually 4 good people.
If I nod my head in agreement any more its going to fall off – you read my post on this topic didn’t you?? You know what’s funny – I don’t look the typical North Eastern-for starters I have dark skin.So at time I am privy to some amazingly racist comments by “indians”.
Can I link up to this post sometime?
I just can’t believe that White Man fucker comment.WTF..And that too in Pali Hill
You know,sometimes out of frustration I say out loud “I am an Assamese first, Indian later”. And the reaction I would get is that I am so ungrateful!!!!!!!So I should be grateful for the crumbs being doled out to us?
Hey, yes I had read your post. I think any north easterner with a computer writes on this topic, but I guess that goes to show simply how much we are affected by it. But all said and done, bombay is way less racist than Delhi. Delhi was bad, every day there is news of girls from the northeast abused and raped. Feel free to link. I dont know any people from the NE here, but I would love to hear from them.
I never knew NEs are treated this way. That is such a shame. Some of the biggest racists I met are desis, who, ironically, keep reminding everybody that we are the “highest culture” in the world. My post about it:
http://www.twisted-dna.com/2007/05/31/these-bigots/
I’m sorry about what you have to go through. I have few Indian friends from work and they tried to explain the languages in India once. I must say it’s quite complicated. Anyway, racism is the most absurd social issue because it’s difficult to understand that a country will treat their people so badly, based on the colour of their skin.
Keep us posted about India because it is a very interesting to learn more about your country. *hugs*
June,
I’m really sorry you had to go through that, the citizen of a country where the mainstream ignores you. I can’t count the times I’ve told my friends off for using the term ‘chink’, even though I think they did it more out of dumb ignorance than malice. At my university, we had a black student from the West Indies. He was a nice guy, and since we both spoke french, we ended up becoming friends. But my classmates made fun of him because he was black! I can’t tell you how ashamed I was! Even my professors made disparaging statements about him, frequently calling his abilities into question because of his RACE! I seemed to be the only one outraged by this, and instantly became the loose city girl who hung out with foreign men, who were (gasp!) black!
Grr. Mainstream movies and serials depict the average indian family as rich, lily white, bordering on caucasian, with an entourage of about 6 maids each. Deluded, is what we are, with our heads stuck so far up our asses that we’ve lost our handle on reality.
I can completely empathise. I’m Indian, live in Melbourne, and am so used to people (who’ve never been here) go on about how ‘racist’ Australia is. The truth is, I feel far more discriminated against in India (and I definitely look Indian) than I’ve felt anywhere else in the world.
Wow, it just goes to show that human beings, no matter the nationality or ethnicity, will always discriminate and find dumb reasons to be rude and insulting. I’m a minority in my own country and a complete freak show in India. Oh well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity right? When Hubby and I first got married, at Indian functions the stares I got practically came out and said “bad enough he married an American, but couldn’t he find a white one?”
Era, I can completely imagine Indians at your wedding wondering why your husband didnt bring a white american bride. People still call coloured people or anyone 2 shades darker than brown ‘negros’. The point is, Indians are never taught not to be racists, because we refuse to accept that our country is racist. I guess the healing comes only after the diagnosis.
So far out of all the countreies i have been to, found Indians as most racist. I am a south Indian married to a North Indian. So i met a punjabi friend, her first remark on seeing my baby, “oh he is far cuter than i imagined, he doesnt look like a south indian at all”, my IL’s feel that we south indian dravidas are inferior to the north indians aryans are superior. i have to fight every moment of my life, but i love kicking butts, every north indian asks me, can your son speak hindi, i am like no, he is not talking hindi, neither he will learn, will the world stop there, if yes, let it stop.
This makes me so ashamed. And you’re bang on when you say we’re so unaware about being racist that no measures are taken to rectify the situation.
I was once asked by my mother not to walk in certain areas of Bombay with an Indian-born, Nepali ethnicity friend, lest we get “the wrong kind of attention”. She sure as hell got the wrong kind of attention from me that day.
In not-so-metropolitan cities and small-towns, this is obviously very common. However, I’m surprised/shocked you had to go through this in Mumbai, of all places, and in that kind of neighborhood (actually Bombay, that is
)! It’s quite a sad state.
I think if Indians spent half the time they spend mouthing the “unity in diversity”, “mile sur mera tumhara” and all that, thumping our chests for our “sahishnu” (liberal?) traditions, our inclusivity — actually thinking about how much of it they’ve actually internalized, I think there might be some hope of a change. But then, Indian past-time is to talk about our cultural superiority as a civilization. And in believing that there is nothing wrong with us. Never was, never will be.
It’s good to hear from those for whom this “idea of india” is just that — and idea, while the ground realities depict some other picture. Still, I’ve realized, that people don’t even feel there is anything wrong in their attitudes, even when pointed out. You meet with a variety of denials: “that’s not racist”, “i tell you ‘those’ people are like that only”, or even complete and total ignorance, as if the protests are not even worth consideration. And highly irrelevant.
I though the answer to it was more cosmopolitan localities, but even that seems to not work, going by your examples!
Sigh. All I can offer, is empathy. Not because I’ve been through it. But then, you’re always an outcast one way or the other. And it’s not pleasant being one.
I hope, more such voices will at lease make people more aware of what they’re thinking/doing. For without that hope, what else is there?
regards,
asuph
Asuph, Loved your comment. Though you wrote it on a serious note, I laughed like a maniac at ‘Mile sur mera tumhara’ and ‘unity in diversity’. Do these ads still play? They always looked the same, 1 bharatnatyam dancer, 1 kathakali, someone with feathers in their head representing the NE and bamboo dance. Lol
Gee that is so true! I am a brown skinned Indian and I get taunted for that by people. Wait a minute – by my own relatives! I mean what the hell?! I didn’t choose my skin color. And I am very comfortable in it. Come to think of it – it’s pretty attractive. Whatever. I have a lot of ‘chinky’ friends too. Some of them started responding to the word ‘Chinky’. Like many others even I am guilty of calling my friends that but had no idea it was so derogatory. I am an expat – that’s my excuse. But yes, rasicm does exist in India. We can probably see we’re the most racially discriminative of the lot…
I’m sorry you had to face all that – it’s disgraceful. I never faced much of it, ‘cos I dont ‘look’ Assamese and even my name sounds Bengali. But being told I don’t look like I’m from the north-east is NOT a compliment.
[...] is our joke? Posted by lostonthestreet under Uncategorized No Comments This post by ShetalkslikeJune and MMs links ( I knew there had to be a story about NE even before I clicked on them) made me [...]
i’m glad you wrote this… sometimes people dont like the mirror being turned on to them
Its true that people from the NE face racism or whichever word you want to call it. But it is not just with them. This is a problem throughout India, against all Indians who is not originally from that particular state. E.g. Anyone from the south is a Madrasi in north, anyone from north is Hindustani in south/east (and I thought we all are Hindustanis). I’ve been called Madrasi despite the fact that I’m from Kerala and not even the same state. In Calcutta where I grew up, if you spoke Hindi, you were called as Hindustani. So I’ve been called/abused as both at different points of time. I had a hard time explaining people that the traditional male dress that the men from south wore is not ‘lungi’ it is a dhoti. ‘Idly-sambar’ is another way to abuse. Again, I don’t get the point. Idly is a very healthy food.
Everyone knows about protests against North Indians recently in Mumbai. Long back, Thackrey Sr. had launched a similar campaign against people from south.
One of my friends was on vacation in Goa. While resting on the beach, a drunk guy from probably Haryana asked my friend because of his dark complexion, “Are you Indian or are you South Indian?”
This kind of treatment is everywhere in India because there is a huge cultural divide between every province. And while I wish you didn’t go through getting treated differently and I don’t justify any of the racists acts, I’ll say its nothing different that you got treated differently. Ultimately, we all end up that way.
And why take a look at the matrimonials all looking for
“A FAIR” bahu,and we call others Racists.
A dark complexioned baby is not heralded a big welcome and this strange custom i learnt about pregnant women eating cocnuts and almonds so that the new born is “fair”. While also a lot has been said and written about the caste system as well……….
wonder how do we call our self worshippers of shyamsundar which “paradoxically” means black and handsome…………….
“RACISM begins at home”
A hard hitting read…sad but true to tee
Thanks for this post. I thought of commenting, but it became a post so I’m putting it up on my own space.
Background – I’m Bong, but I wear a bandanna. Which gives people the right to assume(in my own city dammit) that I a) am a foreigner, b) don’t speak Bengali, c) am Christian, or d) have a cut or bald patch on my head. It’s interesting, to say the least. And annoying that while Americans and Delhiites could pronounce my name – Sukhaloka – just fine, Bongs turn it into whatever suits their fancy.
hey…as an indian i really feel great to be a part of a society which supports so many diversities….meeting ppl from the north east for me is a part of an enriching experience that is india..
anyways the point i wanted to make was that the notion of racism is different for different people..i never knew that calling someone a chink would count as racism. i guess using phrases like bihari,chink or wtever without any malice or without an intent to degrade someone is ok…
A ‘Bihari’ is someone who lives in or has ties to Bihar. It identifies people belonging to a region. It is not a derogatory term. Chinky is. I cant decide which is more worrisome…that you are ignorant about chink being a racist term, or that you think calling someone ‘Bihari’ is derogatory.
first…for me calling someone chink was more about how someone looked and thats about it…never to categorize someone to be looked down upon. me being from a part of india where you don’t find too many people from the north east i never knew much about it and neither could i imagine racism against people of the north east could exist..
second..never said i thought ‘bihari’ was derogatory..with some of my closest friends from bihar…i could never think like that
and yes..u do have an interesting blog
My cousin (pure Maharashtrian) married a Manipuri and upon meeting his family and friends at their wedding I decided they were far more friendly, civil, polite, social and well-dressed than the Maharashrian brigade, who were surly, rude and boring. And racist, yes.
Hi
Once in a office function we were to sing. During discussion someone said lets sing “hum bewafa” hargis ne the. And turned towards me and said, probably u shud do the jinga lala hu part.
Racism is a human condition and it will never end. India is actually a very racist country, especially to the north-easterners.
But just like any other nationality, you can’t paint everyone with the same brush. A lot of us actually don’t think of the north-easterners as foreigners.
Also, “chinky” isn’t really a derogatory word in India. Its like calling someone “blondy”. You can’t possibly tell me that I can’t ever refer to a blonde friend of mine as “blondy”.
Err, June. Can we adopt the kids instead? I certainly lack the courage and confidence to let a human pop out from me. Giving birth gives me the creeps LOL