The streets of Canada in September witnessed a humongous number of Sikhs, protesting for the separation of their belief from India, which put a long-lingering issue of human rights under a microscope- how far can protesting for one group’s rights be accepted until it starts hindering with another’s , and who are the judges of setting these boundaries. In India, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alongside the great intellect of the Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, has been actively trying to establish strong international relations across the globe; the internationally-residing Indian population is being continually targeted, becoming a receiver of blatant hate crimes. One can nevertheless see a loophole in the chain of events – the Indian government not taking enough mandatory actions against the issue of increasing hate crimes.
Within the toxic eco-system of social-hierarchical predator and prey, the Indian representative (more often than not) being the undertaker of violence and hate has only been properly noticed now and the unfolding of the pro-Khalistan movement has been the trigger. It’s only when Ontario saw hundreds of thousands of Sikhs coming out to protest for promoting the “Khalistan Referendum”, that the Indian-nationals of the country were continually attacked under differing ways. Led by the India-banned organization Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), which asks for a separate Punjab, outside of India as a nation-state; the protests were seen turning into violations of public spaces, as well as the obvious actions pointing towards hate crime against Indian nationals. Even though Sikhs, for a majority of cases, are a part of the Indian secular ground, the idea of a separate Khalistan others the community from the Indian umbrella. Events like defacing a well-known Hindu temple with anti-India graffiti, or furthering back to vandalising a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, or moving even further back to the attack on an Indo-Canadian radio host for speaking about the issue; all portrayed a clear violence towards the Indian association, or more specifically, being a Hindu.
Meanwhile, events pertaining to the Indian-national within the same time frame also came into notice from top international powers, USA and UK. The United States of America has always been a ground of racial discrimination, hence it isn’t a surprise when whites discriminate people of other colours or other communities; however, it was shocking to witness crimes which incorporated the perpetrators from communities of colour themselves. A Mexican-American woman was witnessed giving out physical threats and exercising hate speech to four Indian-American women in a parking lot, without any motive. Even more shocking was the incident of a Sikh guy throwing racial slurs such as “dirty Hindu” and “disgusting dog” at a fellow Indian, concluding pro-Khalistan thoughts and targeting a Hindu man. On a much larger scale were the hate crimes occurring in The United Kingdom- Muslim mobs targeted the highest populated Hindu neighbourhood in Leicester and threatened them of acid attacks. This unfolded after the India-Pak match in the Asia Cup, when the culprits strategically chanted anti-Hindu slogans and vandalised a temple, having intentions of a major massacre. The current state in Leicester is very sensitive.
According to statistics though, the hate parade against the Indian representative has been going on for many years now- Australia’s 2009 mishappening is proof. May 2009 witnessed several horrifying attacks against Indian students, one by one. The number of Indian students living in the country for education was very large, as Australia heavily depended upon India for its education programmes. From stabbing to robbing, crimes were committed specifically seeming to target the Indian mass. Although many researchers say that the occurrences took place due to logical reasoning and that statistics showed Indians being the coincidental victims; however the Indian response for retaliation was humungous. Australian High Commissioner sat down with Indian Foreign Affairs Minister to discuss strategies of countering the recreation of what had happened. Bollywood sensation Amitabh Bachchan refused to accept his due doctorate from Queensland University of Technology. And many other major endorsements were pulled back from India regarding the island country.
In Saalt.org’s published paper “Hate crimes: A community-wide impact”, a crime becomes a hate crime when the perpetrator directs their anger at the characteristics represented by the victim of a targeted community. It further explains that hate crimes occur when there are general stereotypes, which then turn into a bigger prejudice or discrimination. This clarifies that hate crimes can occur with any community by a misinformed person or group. So the question arises, why are Indians becoming the easy target? And moreover, is this a crisis of origin or religion? It is expected from the Indian government, especially now more than ever, that when Indians go through such atrocities due to their place of origin; it is then that the government comes into the picture with serious counters and strategies to back its citizens, not just depend upon diplomatic ties with foreign powers. When people of differing groups suffer, the Indian regime supports them, hence now it is time to also look out for the always-criticised Hindu; which is always served with a narrative of demonizing by international stake-holders. Not to overlook the over-arching threat of several social commentators claiming this era to be the genocide of the Hindu, a calculated target of cornering the community, leaving Hindus out as the new Jews. The only solution to end such speculations is to take a large-scale action, in order to exhibit a strong back to potential perpetrators, as well as safeguard Indian-nationals by regulating other countries with tight laws.
