Are Indians Offenders Or Victims Of Racism?

NEW DELHI – Most Indiansbelieve in the myth about thepresence of racism only in foreigncountries and see themselvesas a victim of it. On researchingabout the social attitudes ofIndians towards being racist, itwas found that the country hasthe least tolerant populationtowards people from othernations and their ethnicity.Another racist country like Indiais Jordan, situated in the MiddleEast where there is racist manifestation.Even though the global surveysays that India is a racist country,it might be slightly hard to believeas western countries are said tohave racism issues with people ofdifferent skin tones. The studysays that the United States,Britain, Canada and SouthAmerica are among the leastracist, reports Rediff.Interestingly, the survey claimsthat most racially intolerant populationsexist in the developingworld. According to theWashington Post, the data for thesurvey came from the WorldValue Survey, which calculatedthe social attitudes of peopleacross countries.The surveyasked individualsabout the type of people thatthey would refuse to live next to.Racially intolerant respondentsanswered back saying ‘people of adifferent race’ which was countedas a major percentage for eachcountry.People of 80 different countrieswere surveyed to know abouttheir preferences of peoplewhom they would want as neighbors.About 40+ percent ofIndians and Jordanians areamong the least racially tolerantpeople, and in Egypt, SaudiArabia, Iran, Vietnam, Indonesia,South Korea nearly 30 – 39.9 percentpeople are racists. Countrieslike France, Turkey, Bulgaria,Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Zambia,Thailand, Malaysia, ThePhilippines, Bangladesh andHong Kong have 20 – 39.9 percentracist crowd.On the other hand, United States,Canada, Brazil, Argentina,Colombia, Guatemala, Britain,Sweden, Norway, Latvia,Australia and New Zealand aresome countries that are toleranttowards people from other races.Only a small percentage of peopleare racists in these nations.The World Values Survey revealsthat Chile, Peru, Mexico, Spain,Germany, Belgium, Belarus,Croatia, Japan, Pakistan, SouthAfrica have 5 – 9.9 percent racists.Furthermore, the World ValuesSurvey says that Finland, Poland,Ukraine, Italy, Greece, CzechRepublic and Slovakia also fallunder the category of the mosttolerant nations towards peopleof diverse races, having a racistpopulation of about 10 – 14.9percent. On comparing the percentage,Venezuela, Hungary,Serbia, Romania, Macedonia,Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania,Zimbabwe, Russia and Chinahave a racist crowd but fall underthe category of racial intoleranceas there are 15 – 19.9 percentracists in each of the countries.51.4 percent of Jordanians saidthat they would not prefer tohave neighbors who are of a differentrace, whereas it was 43.5percent of Indians who said thesame. The survey also establishedthe fact that racial tolerance waslow in Asian countries.But the case was different in thefor Pakistan. Only 6.5 percent ofPakistanis had an objection withneighbors of different race,despite its location in the leasttolerantregion of the world.The survey says that racist viewsare stunningly rare in the U.S. It isonly 3.8 percent of residents whoare hesitant of having a neighborfrom a different race.The data shows that Anglo andLatin countries are the friendliestones when it comes to welcomingpeople of different race. TheWashington Post reported thatpeople from the UnitedKingdom and its Anglo formercolonies (the United States,Canada, Australia and NewZealand) and in Latin Americawere the ones who are most likelyto embrace racially diverseneighbours.Also, in the Middle East, whereimmigration is a big issue, peopleare not very tolerant towardsraces apart from their own.However, in India, there is noescaping from racism. Indianshave treated their fellow Indiansas outsiders because of theirappearance. The problem is thatpeople from the North East constantlyhave to battle to be recognizedas Indians in India.Various groups of people, particularlythe north-east Indians haveexperienced forms of racial discriminationand highlighted thepractice of racism in India. It maybe hard to digest the fact that’racially aggravated’ crimes havebeen committed against thenorth-east community people bytheir own country people.The Indian Ministry of HomeAffairs asked all states and unionterritories to file case against anyonewho addresses a person fromNorth East India with offensivewords. The punishment is up tofive years imprisonment anddenial of anticipatory bail.The north eastern side of thecountry has been isolated from allother Indian states and hencethese states do not get equalimportance like other parts ofthe country.Not just this side of the country,but people from the southernstates face discrimination basedon their dark skin. With such lessunity in the country, the slogan of’unity in diversity’ sounds so hollow.