Most of the crowd gathered at the Press Club of India this Monday asked the attorney general and the Indian government at large something very simple: unbiased application of logic and an honest study of the sample set and circumstances surrounding racial abuse in the country.

The event, organised by the Association of African Students in India (AASI), was in light of the attorney general’s recent comments that the “people from the land of Gandhi and Buddha cannot have a racist mindset” at the Universal Periodic Review when asked about cases of racial attacks in India.

Representatives of students from Northeast India and the continent of Africa came together to show mutual solidarity and vowed to help fight the scour of racism. Also present was human rights activist Irom Sharmila.

Students from both the communities confirmed that racial bias is commonplace in India, and refuted the attorney general’s claims. AASI president Samuel Jack called the attorney general’s statement shameful, recalling that the country had seen multiple cases of racially motivated violence against Africans in the recent past.

Application of logic and an honest study of circumstances, especially in the pursuit of debunking comfortable myths, might seem like quite a task at times. But it has been done before. The sun going across the sky doesn’t anymore mean it goes around us. The high occurrence of HIV amongst homosexuals in the early 80’s does not mean homosexuality leads to contraction.

Great historical figures do not make the country they came from immune to degraded behaviour.

Seilenmang Haokip of the Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) said that the show of solidarity was important as the two communities faced discrimination on similar grounds. “Difference in features and habits does not translate to disunity,” said Haokip, adding that people in ‘mainland’ India need to understand and accept people from differing backgrounds.

Activist Irom Sharmila agreed, adding that “identities and their versions based on egoisms are unnecessary. We should learn to depend on each other without a vain sense of possessiveness or defensiveness”. Sharmila gave up a sixteen year long fast protesting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act last year to fight in the state legislative elections.

A well-known record of racism

For years now students from the northeast have complained of rampant racism across the country. The Indian delegation’s comments fly in the face of directions from the Supreme court calling for stringent measures to stop the hate and racial crimes against people from the northeast. Surely the apex court was not commenting on a non-existent scenario.

Students from the African community also have repeatedly faced similar issues. In February this month, a Tanzanian student and her friends were attacked by an angry mob protesting an unrelated accident. In March, mobs attacked people of African descent in Greater Noida after the death of a teenager. Earlier when the boy had gone missing for a few hours rumours that the foreign nationals peddled drugs and indulged in cannibalism had started going around, which the police later dismissed.

Sood Shikely, a student from D.R. Congo complained of police apathy in certain cases, adding that though the police do help out a lot of times they are late in their reactions and the damage has already been done by then. Seilenmang added that people from the northeast region faced very similar problems, though the opening of a special Northeast cell in the Delhi police has helped.

Silence of African delegates at the UPR

A notable anomaly was the absence of questions from African nations on racism to India at the UPR. In fact the only country to ask India about its policy against racism back home was the tiny Caribbean economy of Haiti. Though embassies of African nations have been very vocal in the face of racial attacks, their silence at the convention surprised many.

When asked if African nations should have been more vocal about their issues at the UPR, Jack said that the governments back in the home countries of these students were aware of the issues facing them and had taken them up diplomatically with India already. “We have full faith on our home governments” he added.

Education and acceptance the way forward

Education about the community seems like the way forward to most. “We are all cross ambassadors; in India we are ambassadors of our home countries and in our home countries we are ambassadors of India. It is, therefore, important that we are treated with respect and dignity as we take back home an image of India”, said Aaron Ndala, a student at Sharda University.

Students from India also sometimes go on to hold important positions in their home governments or public services, and therefore their perception of India should be one of an accepting land so that relations are bettered, Jack said. Acceptance of the issue is also important, “and as the Indian Prime Minister was accepted and loved during his visits to African countries, so should he accept the African community in India and speak out on their behalf” said Shikely.

A lot of work is left to be done, but historically and culturally the continent has always been tightly related to India. “Indian pop culture is widespread and very popular in Ghana and a lot of other African countries, and I think we can always work on these connections to build better ties”, said Doris Nkansah, a student. “We are very similar in our tastes and likings, and I would say that the only real difference between Indians and African is our hair!” laughed Eddie Kiondo, the AASI treasurer.

Irrespective of the doldrums of official policy, at ends the issue remains a people’s issue. Racial discrimination is just another manifestation of the deep-rooted societal, perceived and economic inequalities that plague India, inequalities that will have to be mitigated by the people themselves. One can be sure though that the fight against such tendencies will in no way be helped by denial.