For the TRP driven Indian news channels this was an ideal recipe for a perfect storm. A 32-year-old techie from Hyderabad is shot dead and his co-worker is injured in a shooting at a bar in Kansas in US. The deceased, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, and the injured, Alok Madasani, had a career graph, which could evoke envy among the India's TV viewing middle class.
Hence for them it is unsettling to see people whom they look up to getting mercilessly gunned down by some xenophobic nut in a bar in US. And the assailant's cry 'Get out of my country' sounded eerily similar to 'Go to Pakistan' uttered by saffron brigade back home. Or 'go to your desh/mulk', by Mumbai's MNS storm troopers to UP, Bihari taxi drivers.
Even before they could come to terms with this attack, a rash of copycat hate crime attacks took place on Indians living across US and not just the traditionally polarised south. In all these attacks the common thread was 'get out of my country' cry by the assailants.
A couple of videos also surfaced on social media about an Indian's house vandalised and a Gujarati woman getting threatened in a New York tube train. Interestingly in the latter case the racist bully happened to be a burly looking black American. He too yelled 'get out of my country' and then went on to invoke 'black power'. So it looks like this hatred against Asian looking migrants is not confined to whites.
US is no stranger to hate crimes, it has a fairly long history and even during the previous Obama administration we had policemen getting into ugly and bloody spats with black youths. However, during Obama administration the official condemnation was prompt and reprisals were swift.
That way the recent bout of xenophobia looks very different. It can be traced to US President Donald Trump's very polarising campaign and his unabashed contempt for ethnic groups such as Mexicans, Arabs and Blacks and all those professing faith in Islam.
In this atmosphere of surcharged majoritarianism, there is a feeling of entitlement among the attackers. In a couple of cases the attackers were not some petty criminals or those living on the fringes of society, but they happened to be war veterans, bragging they have ‘done a lot’ for the country and consider these acts also as part of their nationalist endavour. The proliferation of guns, with little control, has only made matters worse.
When Trump was going about his hate fuelled campaign, many Indians were lulled into complacency that since he had not said anything against Indians residing in US, they were safe. Moreover their professional success, epitomised by two freshly minted corporate icons - Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, the 'model diaspora' tag, all this deluded them to think they were on par with the privileged white upper class.
Traditionally Indians in US were Democratic party supporters, but of late many are leaning towards the Republicans, buoyed by their professional and entrepreneurial success. There is even a lobby group called Republican Hindu Coalition, which had contributed to Trump's election campaign and was making a common cause with his visceral hatred towards Islam. To humour them Trump had also called Hinduism a great religion and some very enthusiastic fans in Delhi had even conducted a pooja for his victory in US elections.
But little did they know, or for that matter anyone else, that his foot soldiers are not all that discerning and hardly wise enough to differentiate between an Indian with other Asians like Iranians or even Saudis. For them brown skin was like a red rag, more so if it is accompanied with beard or turban. The same way as Indians with Mongolic features get mistaken for being Chinese in their own country!
With the attacks happening on a regular basis it is a rude awakening for the Indian diaspora, who were hallucinating about a privileged status on the back of their economic success.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
Hence for them it is unsettling to see people whom they look up to getting mercilessly gunned down by some xenophobic nut in a bar in US. And the assailant's cry 'Get out of my country' sounded eerily similar to 'Go to Pakistan' uttered by saffron brigade back home. Or 'go to your desh/mulk', by Mumbai's MNS storm troopers to UP, Bihari taxi drivers.
Even before they could come to terms with this attack, a rash of copycat hate crime attacks took place on Indians living across US and not just the traditionally polarised south. In all these attacks the common thread was 'get out of my country' cry by the assailants.
A couple of videos also surfaced on social media about an Indian's house vandalised and a Gujarati woman getting threatened in a New York tube train. Interestingly in the latter case the racist bully happened to be a burly looking black American. He too yelled 'get out of my country' and then went on to invoke 'black power'. So it looks like this hatred against Asian looking migrants is not confined to whites.
US is no stranger to hate crimes, it has a fairly long history and even during the previous Obama administration we had policemen getting into ugly and bloody spats with black youths. However, during Obama administration the official condemnation was prompt and reprisals were swift.
That way the recent bout of xenophobia looks very different. It can be traced to US President Donald Trump's very polarising campaign and his unabashed contempt for ethnic groups such as Mexicans, Arabs and Blacks and all those professing faith in Islam.
In this atmosphere of surcharged majoritarianism, there is a feeling of entitlement among the attackers. In a couple of cases the attackers were not some petty criminals or those living on the fringes of society, but they happened to be war veterans, bragging they have ‘done a lot’ for the country and consider these acts also as part of their nationalist endavour. The proliferation of guns, with little control, has only made matters worse.
When Trump was going about his hate fuelled campaign, many Indians were lulled into complacency that since he had not said anything against Indians residing in US, they were safe. Moreover their professional success, epitomised by two freshly minted corporate icons - Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, the 'model diaspora' tag, all this deluded them to think they were on par with the privileged white upper class.
Traditionally Indians in US were Democratic party supporters, but of late many are leaning towards the Republicans, buoyed by their professional and entrepreneurial success. There is even a lobby group called Republican Hindu Coalition, which had contributed to Trump's election campaign and was making a common cause with his visceral hatred towards Islam. To humour them Trump had also called Hinduism a great religion and some very enthusiastic fans in Delhi had even conducted a pooja for his victory in US elections.
But little did they know, or for that matter anyone else, that his foot soldiers are not all that discerning and hardly wise enough to differentiate between an Indian with other Asians like Iranians or even Saudis. For them brown skin was like a red rag, more so if it is accompanied with beard or turban. The same way as Indians with Mongolic features get mistaken for being Chinese in their own country!
With the attacks happening on a regular basis it is a rude awakening for the Indian diaspora, who were hallucinating about a privileged status on the back of their economic success.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
