Remember Javed Miandad doing a monkey act on Kiran More during the 1992 World Cup in Australia. And the hue and cry the issue raised in India!
Somewhat similar thing may be happening with Champs from down under, with some petulant sections of the crowd at Vadodara and Nagpur doing a similar shameful act on Andrew Symonds, but with racial overtones.
Of course, Symonds may be an equally guilty party entering into ungentlemanly gamesmanship pact with Sreesanth, but that is no license for the crowd to get berserk. Certainly not to challenge his roots, or mock at his colour tone.
The ICC has justifiably asked BCCI to take note of this but there is precious little that the apex cricketing body in India can do. Racism seems to be ingrained in the Indian psyche. Our centuries-long obsession with anything Gora takes the cake. It is evident in the matrimonial ads where ‘Sanwala’ becomes wheatish complexion, and fair skin a great selling point for the bride’s family. Even a pan-Indian personality like Shah Rukh Khan accedes to the commercial demands for making Indian men fair-skinned.
Be it hip Connaught Place or traditional Purani Delhi --- This trend is equally evident in our propensity to go out of the way to help any Gora on the roadside. Any white skinned person, even if happens to be a sweeper at Heathrow, is Sir or Maam to be greeted with folded hands! Contrast that ‘slavish mentality to anything white’ with our attitude towards people from African countries. Even a Black CEO may not get that kind of adulation from commoners!
Few years ago, I was writing an article on African students in Delhi University. Initially, they were reluctant to come forward with their problems but when they did, their pourings presented a sorry picture of India with the common theme being that Indians are among the most racist countries in the World.
The most common worlds hurled at them, right from bus conductors to most educated citizens, were the K words -- Kaalu and Kobra. Interestingly, some of them even knew the meaning of ‘’Ravan ki Sena’’.
If Symonds considers this tour one of the most hostile he may have faced, it has because People have picked up on Symonds -- and not on other guys in the team guilty of equally abrasive behavior -- because of his skin tone. And because people believe he belongs to a particular race and region.
Black sportspersons facing monkey noises has been a sensitive issue in sports.
John Barnes, when he was playing for Liverpool as first black player, often suffered that. But then the Indians are perceived (mistakenly) to be more tolerant towards various races. However, our tolerance is surely a misplaced perception. Rather, our intolerance is gigantic in proportion. It does not extend to just race, but to religion, caste and language as well.
Crowd’s boorish behavior is just one example of our intolerance. And this insensitivity has percolated down from family ‘wisdom’, leaders’ intransigence, and some sections of the media highlighting these issues with the sole aim of adding fuel to the fire, rather than helping it get under control.
We continue to have a terrible mix of chauvinists at various levels in our society despite the fact that at one time we had people from four different communities heading important posts – a Muslim President, a Christian Congress Chief, a Hindu leader of biggest Opposition party, and a Sikh Prime Minister.
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