India Like Other Countries
IT WAS very sad to read about the plight of Africans in India that was explained in the article by Zubair Ahmed dated 12 April 2013. Indians who live in India are like any other people and most do not have any personal experience with Africans but they learn about Africans only through media or other sources which are usually negative.
Indians may excel in many areas of science and technology but a lot of them have a very narrow idea about the world and India itself. Of course, there are well ‘learned’ Indians who understand and don’t judge people by their race and treat them with respect. Sadly, that number seems to be too low.
I am an Indian and I have been around Africa for about 10 years. But when I go to India for holidays if anyone asks me where I am working, I simply say that I work in Africa. So far in my experience, not even a single Indian I spoke to asked me in which country in Africa do I work. Rather they would feel bad for me by asking questions such as why I chose to work in Africa. I simply smile at them and just move on. That’s how ignorant most Indians are.
Indeed the world is full of ignorant people at different levels. And everyone has their own understanding of the world and acts differently. It is sad but true and that’s how human beings are. The way that African countries are being promoted (demoted?) in the international media is also another reason. A lot of Indian media does not talk about international news. There is hardly any news coverage about Africa in the Indian media.
Sadly, it is still a belief among many of the people that if you are black then you must be dumb. People judge each other based on their skin colour and that is inevitably due to the past.
There is a misconception about Africa in India and lot of Indians have no exposure to the African continent. Even Bollywood goes to Europe or the Americas to shoot movies but rarely do they choose to shoot a movie in Africa. And a lot of Indians learn about other countries through movies. And only recently have the movies started to show non-Indian faces here and there, in particular Africans.
Any country has beauty that inspires and equally it has its ugliness one detests. And India is not an exception.
Vijayakumar Kandaswamy
Via the website