are we racist?

In baroda and mumbai, the only non-white member of the australian squad, symonds was ragged by the spectators who called him a monkey and accompanied it with ape-like motions. The police in baroda had another explanation for this – they were supposedly praying to the simian god, hanuman.

Sharad pawar went to say that it was not racism and just cultural differences amongst us and the visitors. He actually quoted ponting in this regard who unfortunately had used the term in an entirely new context – sledging being a part of the game and the actual upbringing of the australians.

Was it racism or cultural differences or anthropological differences?



This is where the photograph by hamish blair comes to the picture. Taken as it is, it just paints a comic picture of 2 guys with hands about them like apes. But put the picture in context, symonds walked in and he was exposed to THIS!!!! Agreed that it is entirely normal within us. How many of us have heard someone saying –“avan maadu madiri irukaan” (he is built like a bull). But its racist connotations can not be denied. Nor explained. Actually I can probably understand it. As a country with a rich heritage of caste bigotry and centuries of experience of racism (at the wrong end), we know how to dish it out and do it well too, since we know how it hurts.
The fact that the mumbai police have caught four people for such acts is commendable. Four people, one of them a woman (a woman for godsakes, where is our country heading to?). for a country which is growing leaps and bounds in all facets of life, to be branded a “racist country” would be suicide.
God help us!!!!