Ranjona Banerji: All is not fair and lovely in India

The caste system never happened Indians are not racists No one discriminates against anyone India is the most tolerant place on earth And if you disagree with any of these statements you are an antinational antiIndian person who should immediately run away to PakistanThis is the response from socalled patriotic Indians whenever an ugly side of Indian life becomes public The best way to be a patriotic Indian therefore is to pretend that nothing bad ever happens or to cover it up or to look the other way or even to actively take part in some act or gesture of discrimination The status quo must never be challenged Only then will the India they love surviveStudents stage a demonstration on February 4 in support of the Tanzanian nationals who were recently assaulted by a mob in Bangalore PicAFPYes it sounds like its time to laugh And it would be funny if it wasnt for the recent suicide of Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Or the mob in Bengaluru which assaulted and stripped a Tanzanian woman because her skin was the same colour as a man suspected of killing an Indian woman in a car accident Or all those rightthinking people who cannot countenance that a woman might want to enter a mosque or a temple in the same way a man would Or that people of other sexualities should not be treated as criminalsAnyone who is seen as different from the majority or the dominant section is apparently fair game in a deadly combination of unfairness and injustice And that is a reality in India no matter now loudly you shout otherwise from the rooftops or how hard you try to silence anyone who holds up a mirrorAre Indians racist Of course we are Unless you believe those crackpot theories that the caste system did not exist or did exist but was not discriminatory until Muslims arrived in India you would know that discrimination is in our DNA Certainly every society in the world had its various differentiations of class and colour but most have changed since then And no one managed such a strict classification and system of belittlement and entitlement as us Caste maybe illegal in India but you see it raise its ugly head in society all the time Unless you are a patriotic Indian of course then you see nothingAnd then we can pretend that we do not look at darkskinned people differently or that we do not either crave to be lighterskinned or adulate the lightskinned Across India mdash width and breadth mdash to be fairskinned is seen as some sort of achievement And yet it is not even as if Indians look the same or we have some homogenous Indian standard we can boast a vast variety of features and colours The muchlongedfor fairness also barely exists or would those bogus fairness creams do such good businessWe need to understand how quickly a difference translates into making value judgments which then become an excuse for violent behaviour In recent times both Indians from the North East and people from Africa have been in the news for the threats intimidation and violence they have been subject to The excuses made by society mdash the inefficacy of our police and politicians is too well known to be surprised about mdash are disturbing and appalling Those people are tagged as the Other and are therefore responsible for every kind of antisocial behaviour No fairskinned perfect Indian has ever it seems committed a transgression let alone a crimeThis is not about politics and about political parties even if they do try to muddy the waters further with their own prejudices and need to cater to vote banks This is about us because it is us who succumb to their games Or allow them to exploit our bias It is about the inability of some of us to put justice ahead of prejudice to put inclusiveness ahead of ageold discriminatory practices to be open to new ideas instead of being hidebound in bias And then hide it in a muddle of fake patriotism as an excuse for despicable behaviourRanjona Banerji is a senior journalist You can follow her on Twitter ranjona