Tagore had described India as the meeting place of a variety of races. He would have been sopped by the rash or racial outrages in India in the past few years. The latest shameful incidents was the attack on a Tanzanian woman student who was apparently beaten and stripped on the outskirts of Bangalore. All this was for the colour of her skin. It is unlikely that the incident had anything to do with a fatal accident caused earlier by a Sudanese. One recalls the midnightvigilante raid in Delhi’s Khirki village led by AAP minister Shomnath Bharti against Ugandan and Nigerian women. But the atrocities on Africans who come here in search of education opportunities betray a peculiar kind of dehumilisation. For decades Indians showed lip-service to the struggle of black Africans led by great men like Nelson Mandela. But colour prejudice in India seems ingrained. It appears to be a hangover from the humiliation that Indians received from whites during British rule, an inverted contempt for Africans who are more black. It has little to do with differences, lifestyle and social attitude. Colour prejudice is also rampant in Indian society. Dark girls have great difficulty in getting married amongst Indians themselves.
The despicable anti African attitude is very much at odds with the moves at the India-Africa summit. Delhi is showing great interest in forging new ties with African nations, promoting investments in science, technology and infrastructure. In these endeavours, its main rival is Beijing. The colour prejudice shown by Indians in the atrocities on Africans in Indian cities no doubt corrodes this initiative.