Round The World
New Delhi, 12 June 2020
Anti-Racism Protests
NO ECHO IN INDIA!
By Dr D K Giri
(Prof. International Politics JMI)
Anti-racism protests erupted across the world
since 25 May. These were solidarity actions against the brutal murder of
46-year-old black man, George Floyd in Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. Thousands
of people stepped on to streets in all continents shouting slogans and carrying
placards. Surprisingly, there was no noise here, faint or loud, against such a
barbaric act. The deafening silence of political class as well as civil society
in India merits some scrutiny.
Why did people march on the streets in thousands
with their masks on, defying physical distancing during this deadly pandemic?
The incident of 25th May was too heart-wrenching for people to remain unmoved. The
blood-chilling words that shook the conscience of people across the world and
stirred them to protest are worth-recalling here to comprehend the depravity,
insanity and barbarity involved in the crime.
As the white police officer pinned down
George Floyd to the pavement with his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes,
Floyd said, ‘please, please, I cannot breathe’. The officer, in the height of cruelty,
tells Floyd to ‘relax’. Floyd pleads, ‘I can’t breathe, please, the knee on my
neck’. The officer continued to hold him down with his knee for 8 minutes and
46 seconds to be precise; as Floyd begged for water. Floyd cried, “My stomach
hurts, my neck hurts, please, please, I can’t breathe”. After a while, Floyd
lay motionless under the officer’s knee. The passers-by watching the incident
were heard pleading with the policemen to move off Floyd.
The dying, crying and pleading words of Floyd
moved people out of their isolation and social distancing on to the streets in protest
against this gruesome incident. The placards and festoons read ‘Black Lives Matter’,
‘I can’t breathe’, ‘Justice for Floyd’. The crowds surged spontaneously as they
had experienced similar cruelties on black people, and minorities in their
countries. The people could relate those incidents in their respective
countries to that of Floyd.
For instance, in Australia, the protesters
compared the murder of Floyd with the death Dunghutti man David Dungay in 2015.
He died in the Long Bay prison in the hands of prison guards restraining him.
Dungay’s final words, “I can’t breathe” echoed in the demonstration and blended
with Floyd’s last words. In Palestine, an autistic unarmed person was gunned
down. Protestors conflated the local crime with Floyd’s death. ‘Enough is Enough’
was another slogan that drew people en masse to the streets.
There are two issues to be examined and
addressed by peace-loving, justice and equality- oriented people across the
world. One, the extreme prejudice, hatred and violence against ‘the other’ in
any country; second is co-creating mechanisms for proscribing misperception of
legitimacy of majoritarianism, and undermining of minorities. This social
misperception is exacerbated by the opportunistic populist politics pandering
to majorities in the democratic game of number. Such political leadership and
trends may fetch electoral dividends in the short term but will have
deleterious effects on a society in the long run
The white majority in America will do well to
remember the profound statement made by a pastor and author in their country,
Richard Warner, “a lie does not become truth, wrong does not become right, and
evil does not become good, just because it is accepted by the majority”. Majority
is one of several mechanisms of taking a decision in a democracy including in
elections. It does not legitimise or sanctify any action or reaction. If this
basic principle is lost on people, it will lead to denial of rights and justice
to many, the so-called minority.
This is precisely what is happening in the
world. Blacks in the West are in minority and they are ‘the other’. They were
brought to the United States as slaves. So, they are supposed to be inferior to
the white majority. Not only at home, in their colonial exploits abroad, the German
kultur or America’s Whiteman’s
burden, urged by the poet Rudyard Kipling lent a civilising-mission for
colonial invasions and post-colonial interventions.
The process of otherising certain segments of
society takes various forms from country to country. Blacks in America,
Algerians in France, Turks in Germany, indigenous people in Australia,
religious minorities in Asian countries, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, are victims
of ‘otherisation’. Their conditions become far worse when the political elite,
mainly the right-wing populists wheedle the so-called majority for electoral
gains. The majority then feels legitimised in unleashing injustices and
violence against the minorities.
If electoral majority is not turned into
social domination over the minorities, we will have greater social harmony. The
electoral majority should be constructed in each election on political issues,
not on sameness of ascriptive identities like race, religion, caste and
ethnicity. Society should be constructed on the principle of pluralism, which comprises
and compliments diversities, and encourages the spirit of accommodation.
Why was there no noise from India as a part
of solidarity to the protests in USA and elsewhere? There is more than one
reason for such silence. India is facing multiple challenges at present. First,
the corona pandemic that is causing social and economic disruptions and
terrible health consequences. Second, the cyclones affecting states like
Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra. Third,
the Chinese incursions into Indian territories. Fourth, the unabated terrorist acts
in Kashmir continue to engage India’s military and para-military force, and occupy
the political leadership. Fifth, which is the ruling party’s grand electoral strategy,
is the consolidation of majority through a couple of Acts recently passed. This
is holding back the support for minorities elsewhere.
Just before the pandemic, the anti-CAA
protests were snowballing across the country. The protesters were seen to be
supporters of Muslim minorities and supported by the Opposition parties, most
of them. Any protest that could be organisd had to be done by the Opposition. With
the economy crippled at both micro and national level, opposition fragmented,
the lock-down gradually lifting, the virus prowling and attacking all over in
the densest country of the world, a solidarity protest becomes an untenable
proposition.
On the other hand, the ruling-BJP in India is
supportive of the present US Administration led by Donald Trump. So, any
protest by the ruling party here, even in the name of justice is unlikely.
It is, however, a sad commentary on an India,
that not only philosophically prides in upholding dignity, social justice and
equality, but has demonstrated in 70-odd years of it existence that it can stand
by these principles. Why then is this silence when the entire world is raging
against this cruelty in USA? It is time to introspect as a Nation! –INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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