India turning Trumpistan?

Looking at some of the assaults on us by our very own due to their feelings of supremacy chokes us in helplessness. The hate-narrative is the same in both instances and is, perhaps, more strident and more violent in India. Not one politician stands up and condemns attacks on foreigners, particularly those from the African countries and studying here in India

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We have recently seen and read about the hate crimes against Indians in the US as well one incident, of late, against a pastor of an Indian origin in Australia. Our reaction is always the same - appalled. How could any civilised society permit it? How could one attack Indians who are by and large peaceful and just pursuing their dollar dreams? Just because they are doing well and flourishing?

Why do they, the locals, prefer to attack us in their countries? Is it because of their ignorance and because they cannot make out who is who - an Indian, an Arab, a Muslim, a Sikh or a Middle East fellow?

These are just a few of the questions that are tossed up every time it happens and even our MPs together try to apply pressure on the Centre to take up the matter “at the highest level.” These hate crimes, however, are a miniscule, compared to what is happening in our own country.

Be it the dalits, marginalised sections, women, minorities, couples united out of love and mere opponents of a particular stream of thought, the rationalists, the modernists, the artistes, the democratcs, the secularists (real ones not politicians) and the writers, the thinkers, the ideologists..the list seems to be growing in the recent times.

The crime against Indians out there in the foreign lands could be an exception and out of ignorance or just because of momentary anger. But, the attacks on Indians in India by the fellow Indians are sickening. The hate-narrative is the same in both instances and is, perhaps, more strident and more violent in India.

Now let's try to list out what all is being attacked apart from who all too? Attire? Yes. Food habits? Yes. Free Speech? Yes. One's business? Yes. Passion? Yes. Opinion? Yes. Music? Yes. Song? Yes. Film? yes. Democratic protest? Yes. Culture? Yes. Cultural exchange? Yes. Political affiliation? Yes. Skin tone? A big YES. Caste? Yes. Religion? Yes. Region? Yes.

One could add some more by carefully sieving the news of the recent times. I don't have to elaborate where and when all these things happened? These assaults are taking place every day in one nook or the other in the country and only the blind, or those who prefer to be so, may not see it.

However, we don't realise that these attacks are also condemnable and more reprehensible. Or perhaps, it is our helplessness that makes us ignore too many of these happening everyday and a dangerous fallout is that we try to justify the attacks and the attackers on one pretext or the other.

Researchers discovered that an animal repeatedly exposed to a painful stimulus that could not be avoided would eventually stop trying to escape. When applying this to people, Seligman who found the theory, also found out that the motivation to react is subdued when control over a situation is lost, even when the situation changes so that control might be taken back.

Learned helplessness can lead to a development of negative beliefs about one's abilities and a tendency to take on blame when things go wrong. The condition often occurs from a lack of control, either real or perceived, over one's situation. A child who is repeatedly bullied at school by older children might begin to believe that there is no way out of the situation and stop fighting back or trying to run away. Children who experience a traumatic childhood may still feel powerless as adults, believing they cannot improve any situation in their lives. Learned helplessness can disrupt development and learning and can also lead to depression and other mental health conditions.

Lofty expressions float around us and even loftier philosophies are given golden hues to convince us about the Arcadia that the country has become or is in the process of becoming one. Ideal existence and a sense of ideal existence are two different things. As long as there is merger of these two, we cannot create a paradise of "Bhavya Bharat."

Agreed that there is a level of intolerance throughout the world now-a-days due to trust deficit and increasing religious domination of our thoughts. Thanks to terrorism we are more and more being conditioned by the virtues of our own religions. Living in sludge, dreading every moment of it, is an experience in itself. But, flourishing on it speaks volumes on our decadence.

Numerous studies have found that, when a member of a minority group is reminded of a stereotype about his or her group, that person is more likely to under-perform. A woman who reads a book claiming that women are innately bad at math immediately prior to taking a standardised test, for example, will likely do worse on the test than she otherwise would.

Stereotype threat is so strong that sometimes minorities do not even need to be reminded of a stereotype. Simply drawing attention to group membership — by asking them to check the sex or race box on a test — can trigger stereotype threat.

Looking at some of the assaults on us by our very own due to their feelings of supremacy chokes us in the same learned helplessness and unless this is replaced by learned optimism, the crimes continue to flourish. Take for example some of these lewd lawmakers who prefer to picture our women in the forms that suit their tastes. A senior Congressman called his own party leader in Madhya Pradesh sometime back 'a tunch' (100 per cent pure) whatever he meant by that.

A few years ago a highly rated Opposition leader called vocal women of our society "Bal kati aurat" and a Netaji condoned youngmen accused of rape women as "yeh tho bachhe hai. Gahlati jo jaati hai." The 'Khap Panchayats' which repeatedly deliver death sentences against eloped lovers or for unacceptable relationships are the most sought after by the politicians in Northern belts and they fear their wrath more than any.

Not one politician stands up and condemns attacks on foreigners, particularly those from the African countries and studying here in India. Delhi Law Minister, Somnath Bharti (AAP) raids a house in Khirki Village in 2014 alleging that Africans were indulging in pleasure trade. A Congolese man is beaten to death by a group of locals following an argument over hiring an auto in Vasant Kunj in Delhi. The latest one is the attack on Nigerians in Greater Noida.

The crimes against foreigners have only been growing and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which started collecting the data since 2014 lists 486 cases against foreigners including students in 2014. Out of these 384 were registered against foreign tourists while, 102 cases involved foreigners living in India, including students. Each of these crimes makes the foreigners wonder whether India is worth the place to visit or study or live as the threat of assault is constant.

Unfortunately the media in this country is being muzzled too by the powers that be and is forced to present a rosy picture. While assaults come in a different form in the US - call them racial or hate crimes - those here are multi-hued. Apart from physical assaults - recount that of a Shiv Sena MP on a hapless airline official - there could be financial or economical assaults too that cripple families of a particular community in large numbers all in the name of Law or development.

Can you name the members of a particular segment of the society who are 'killed' every year in large numbers by the governments?

You are right. Farmers! Perhaps, weavers too!

Now tell me which is the real Trumpistan?