Shilpa Shetty and Racism in India

to the people of India

I appreciate the article that notes that racism also happens within India itself (and I had the honour to spend two months in your country in 1990, meeting with a huge amount of kindness and generosity) but I wanted to write to you as a white a British-borm woman living in Scotland, UK: please believe me when I tell you that it is not only people of South Asian origin who are offended, angry, upset and complaining to the television company about the appalling treatment of the very beautiful, honourable and amazingly dignified Shilpa Shetty!

I have personally complained to Ofcom, the media 'watchdog' and made several calls to the television company and I know many other white British citizens have complained; I believe that the television company may even be breaking the law by using the footage of the bullies - Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Dannielle Lloyd - as I believe that it may be seen to promote racist attitudes. I used to be a Big Brother fan but I now hope that they lose their right to broadcast.

On behalf of all the decent, respectful people of the UK, I would like to express my shame at this treatment of Shilpa Shetty and offer my apologies for this shameful behaviour.

Yours sincerely

Patricia Rodger


--
patricia anne rodger BA (Hons) MSc

racists are scum

Hmmmm...so its okay for an Indian who is offered a job abroad to be treated as dirt because "hey Indians are prejudiced too"?

A bit sick, don't you think? All people are prejudiced - in different ways and for different reasons. That is why we work so hard to control ourselves, have laws and social checks.

But simply saying oooh, we Indians have issues about colour does not make it right to have a person abused for their skin colour or ethnicity anywhere in the world.

Btw, where do you think this idea of "light skin" is better came from. All classical texts (yes, including the Kamasutra) list all kinds of skin colours found in the subcontinent as attractive. Read Jayadeva - he talks of all sorts of "beauty" and it isn't about fairness. Skin colour doesn't become an issue until it is linked to power and class - REMEMBER we had colonization? And to be light skinned was seen as superior? So do you mind contextualising the issue a bit?

Also, take a trip outside India. When you get abused, attacked and beaten up for being "a dirty Indian" or "a Paki", not even having Punjabi fair skin and light eyes will save you.

Mahesh Bhatt had it right - this is the daily reality for many Indians who travel or live abroad, ESPECIALLY when they cannot protect themselves by spending money to buy themselves a safe polite space - that is one reason why we Indians like living in "posh" neighbourhoods and driving fancy cars. It insulates us from the racist abuse we would face on the streets of some nasty economically deprived ghetto/village/small town in America or Europe or Australia etc.

And that is exactly what the people who are recent migrants, or not well off face when they get here: it may be worth a full anthropological study as to why "Asians" work so hard - may well be to make enough money so we can protect ourselves from racism.

This issue is never ending .I feel that people who discriminate need to grow up and educate themselves.
Racisum does exsists it is very true some of the countries it's hidden and some countries it's open.
HUMAN BEING HAS MADE A NEVER ENDING ISSUE ABOUT
COLOUR , CAST AND RELIGION THOUGH GOD MADE ALL OF US EQUAL....TRUST ME GOD IS ASSAMED OF US HUMAN AND IS WORRIED ABOUT HIS CREATION.


As far as our blood is Red we all are same each and every human is same .This is very simple to understand .I don't think anyone need a degree for this small thing to understand.

Ashish,
A very timely article! Racism is widespread everywhere. Having travelled to quiet a few places around the world, I realise that a lack of understanding of a foreign culture, is the main culprit. The only solution to this is proper education and knowledge about different cultures around the world. Irrespective of where you are from and where you are travelling, most people are warm, friendly and curious about a different culture than theirs, especially when they get to know you !!

But the caste discrimination in India has no excuse. Irrespective of all the technological advancements happening in India, we can never call ourselves a great country, until we break these barriers!

Shilpa couldn'tstand up for India against Jade's biased statement.

I strongly feel that Jade Goody's remark on Shilpa Shetty was highly appalling and Shilpa Shetty's response to the same was all the more ridiculus which she expressed by shedding tears.Because firstly Shilpa Shetty should have used diplomacy instead of teary pleads to defend herself by explaining that although Indians use their fingers for eating it is manadatory to wash their hands even before they touch any kind of food.Why couldn't she defend India if she is out there to represent it? And Jade Goody on the other hand is obnoxiously prejudiced and like the frog in the well when she makes a statement like this.

What I was saying was, the entire discussion that I read in the media talks about how bad that this is happening to Shilpa, and how Indians are subjected to racism abroad. A lot of the discussion plays into a 'holier-than-thou' image.
I do not condone racism of any kind, whether they happen to Indians outside or by Indians inside. So if this article gave that interpretation, I deny it emphatically.
Purpose is that we look inside ourselves, now that racism seems to be on the media agenda. Read / search for a bit more detail on how people from either the north-east or African countries fare in India.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/060607/211/64vni.html
http://www.boloji.com/wfs5/wfs677.htm
http://www.ndtv.com/debate/showdebate.asp?show=1&archive=yes&story_id=197&template=&category=Humanstory

Anamika, why light skin is better impression ? From all the TV serials, fair cream ads, and general impression from society where people talk about how fair someone is and thus a better catch. And it is a negative to be darker in most cases. We have been out of colonization for 60 years and most of the people alive now have no onhand experience of fair-skinned representing a superior power.

Ashish:
A nice article. And the timing is right.

Patricia Rodger:
Thanks a lot for your comment. It takes courage to apologize on behalf of one's people.

Anamika:
You are peevish (as yet again). Ashish is NOT condoning what happened. He is highlighting what happens in India- since we are anyway discussing what's happening to Indians abroad, why not discuss what happens to Indians inside India?

Your use of the words "a bit sick" is unwarranted. If you take a deep breath, relax, and re-read Ashish's article, I don't think you will find a reason to get so flustered!

When did Ashish say that it is OK to be insulted or discriminated against either for being an Indian, or dark-skinned (in India or abroad)?

Chaitali:
Yes, you are right. Shilpa should have stood up- she is an actress. She has been in the limelight. With media exposure on her side, she should have taken the opportunity to make it clear to the other lady that she was demeaning and insulting and that she was not ready to take it just like that.

The British tolerence for a multi cultural society rests on shaky foundations.Racial hatred simmers beneath the bland politeness of the British.Some of my friends who have studied in UK have told me that there is no racism within the college campus but that things turn out quite nasty outside the campus.Some twenty thousand South Asians living in UK have protested against the racist abuse of Ms Shetty on the TV show.

I do not understand why we bend over backwards when subjected to racist abuse and say with disarming politeness 'well, we are no different you know..we also hate dark people.'It is bad logic to conclude that somehow two wrongs make a right. By the same logic if the people of Iraq are told that under Saddam they did not enjoy a civil society does it become somehow permissible to drop napam and cluster bombs on them.

The danger inherent in such fuzzy thinking is that it sends a wrong message to the racist abuser that the victim is no better than the aggressor paving way to more racist abuses in the future.

It is small comfort for Ms Shetty to be told that we live in an imperfect world and to take it on the chin and move on.

I think Anamika's points merit serious consideration.

The issue here is that Indians are being very hypocritical in their indignation of anti-Indian racism in England/the West, when they themselves are so blatantly racist and hateful of dark skinned/lower caste/asian looking individuals. That in itself is quite disgusting.