By Albert Thyrniang
The US is reeling under nation-wide protests sparked off by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who pinned the already handcuffed 46-year-old black man for 8 Minutes and 46 seconds on his neck. Viral videos of the ‘murder’ are heart- rending. Protests in the largest city of Minnesota state soon spread to more than 150 cities in all 50 states even as the main accused, Derek Chauvin has been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter and his three comrades with abetting the crime. The protests were accompanied by vandalism, uncontrolled looting and the ensuing police crackdowns, brutality and excesses led by Donald Trump himself who postures himself as a ‘law and order’ president and ‘ordered’ governors to dominate the street and even tweeted ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’. Now the protests have gone international with ‘I can’t breathe’ and ‘Black lives matter’ slogans echoing everywhere.
The history of the United States of America is unavoidably marked by the shameful legacy of slavery of Africans in all thirteen colonies. School history books glorify the line “All men are created equal” articulated in the US Declaration of Independence in 1776 but they don’t tell us that even in the Constitution of the great nation the word slavery was never mentioned. How could you declare equality while continuing with the worst practice in history? Slavery in the US continued well into the 19th century as it was only in 1885 that it was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment.
The long disgraceful institutional slavery in the US might have been abolished but its side effects continue. Unofficially slavery has been replaced by racism. Racism and prejudices against the Black (African- American community are deep-rooted. The George Floyd killing is just the latest in a series of similar incidents in the US in recent years involving the police. A study in 2017 revealed that officers speak with consistently less respect towards Black people than to the white community. Overt racism in the ‘world leader’ nation led to the killing of the man accused of presenting a counterfeit 20 dollar bill, in broad daylight and on camera.
Racism permeates all walks of life across the globe. Sports fans are familiar with humiliating and traumatic ‘monkey’ and ‘anti-Semitic’ chants that Black sportsmen and women face in stadia. Racism in sports is even more ‘epidemic’ than COVID-19 and have brought popular sports like football into disrepute. In spite of world sports associations like IOC and FIFA’s “No-to-Racism,” initiative disturbing trends of racism continues in US and Europe unabatedly. As sports only ‘mirror the society at large’ racism pervades all spheres of human interactions.
India has no reason to feel morally superior as far as racism is concerned. North eastern students and migrants face ugly racism, discrimination, and bullying in mainland India on a regular basis. In cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai north easterners are called ‘Chinkis’, ‘Chinese’, ‘coronavirus’ because they look different. During the lockdown there was a case of students from Nagaland being denied entry in a Mysuru supermarket. Another incident took place in Bengaluru where a man barged into an apartment of women from Northeast branding them ‘Corona Carriers’.
Exclusion and discrimination seems to have acquired DNA status in India. It is in our psyche. If the US has racism, India has casteism. And casteism is much older than racism. Originating in ancient India, it was exploited by the ruling elites, priests and ascetics in medieval and modern India, particularly during the Mogul Empire and the British Raj. The British even segregated Indians by caste and granted certain administrative jobs only to people belonging to certain castes till as late as the 1920s. However, we need not blame the British because, though banned in 1948 and negative discrimination was replaced by affirmative action, the evil is far from waning. To this day Dalits are still the most sufferers of this ingrained system.
Minorities in India are in a suffocating situation. Hindu extremists have a hatred for Muslims. Vile rants, abuses, physical violence and lynching are a norm. It is not just the loose cannons that are anti-Muslims; the government of the day has demonstrated the same attitude. The abolition of Article 370 in J&K, its demotion into union territories and the subverting of civil rights raises serious questions of negative treatment by the present regime towards Muslims. The passage of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a brazen anti-Muslim legislation.
Christians too no longer live in an enviable environment in India. With regular attacks on their institutions and personnel, threats of physical violence, sexual assaults, killing of Christian priests etc., Christians face increasing discrimination. For the record in August 2017, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), ranked India’s persecution severity at “Tier 2” along with Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year India rose from No. 31 to No. 10 on ‘Open Doors’ Watch List, only one place better than Iran, in global persecution severity. In 2020 USCIRF placed India as ‘Tier-1’ in minority persecution with North Korea and Pakistan for company.
India has extended support to the George Floyd movement but many have termed the move hypocritical as the situation back home is no better. The alleged police excesses in J&K, mob lynchings, police brutality against anti-CAA protesters and the ruthless and inhuman police treatment of the poor during the lockdowns are examples from recent memory without reminding ourselves of the past and digging into history. Ironically, the graphic and chilling videos of Chauvin’s kneeling on Floyd are freely circulated here in the country but we conveniently forget that we too are guilty of worse cases.
Here in Meghalaya do we have records of police brutality? What has happened to the Fullmoon Dhar case? Was the jail-breaker killed in a fake or genuine encounter? Will we ever know the truth? Another sensational case is that of Sohan D Shira. Till date little light has been shed on the gunning down of the GNLA chief. Should anyone be branded as criminal and then be ‘executed’ in an ‘encounter’? Does this not mean police excess?
What about racism? Are we free from the curse? In Khasi Hills we have the word ‘dkhar’ and in Garo Hills ‘bangal’ to describe ‘outsiders’. Are they not racist terms? The words are deprecating and scornful. Should we continue to use them? Non-tribal would also narrate instances of violence against the community at different points in time.
Recently Adelbert Nongrum stirred a controversy of sorts. His actions in the Legislative Assembly might have pleased a few enthusiasts. In the light the American scenario let us test ourselves. Besides racism, the US has issues with ‘White and Christian supremacy,’ There are many out there who still think that the whites are superior to others. There are Americans who say Christianity is superior to other religions. Many of us too have somehow, consciously or unconsciously, been trapped into this belief.
Historically, we know very well that our ‘lands’ have been evangelised by European and American whites. We admire and appreciate them. But did we accept them because of the colour of their skin? If they were Blacks from Africa would we have accepted them readily? If they were Browns from Japan or Korean or bearded Arabs would we open our doors to them? Hypothetical questions do reveal a lot about ourselves. If George Floyd were white would he have been killed? We the non-whites are still holding on to the idea that whites are superior.
In 2014 a world renowned personality was appointed administrator of a Church’s administrative unit. Shockingly clergymen rejected him. If he was a white from Europe or America would have he been humiliated the same way? Would attempts been made to instigate a boycott of the official? Would that unkind letter have been passed around for signatures? In what way is this not racism?
With reference to Nongrum’s controversial act, a person reached out to me saying ‘Meghalaya being a Christian majority state we should have the privilege of reading the Bible and praying the Christian way in the Assembly’. This is called majoritarianism. This is exactly what Hindu nationalist groups say, ‘we being the majority can chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in parliament; minorities can’t; we can declare India a Hindu state, other religions are subservient’, ‘we can perform puja in parliament, minorities can’t’. It is presumed that we in Meghalaya resist this majoritarian attitude. If we reject majoritarianism at the national level, is it not hypocritical to expound the same in Meghalaya or Nagaland or Mizoram? We are treading a dangerous path.