As a member of the Caribbean Diaspora, I also consider myself a part of the Indian Diaspora (albeit via the Caribbean). I often use this as one of the optics through which I do my theologising, reflecting and writing. I have never been to India, yet India occupies my imagination in a number of complex ways. Over the years (especially here in the UK) , I have had reasons to give more thought to what it means to be a member of the Caribbean Diaspora and at the same time to reflect on my East Indian heritage. Quite often I am mistaken for an Asian until I start talking. I am always struck by the way Asians in Birmingham would respond to me. This usually takes the form of a movement in there parts: recognition/solidarity (I am visibly Indian); confusion (I have a strange Caribbean accent and Guyana is not in India); distancing (I cannot be figured out and besides I do not think like a "proper" Indian).
Two recent incidents have caused me to rethink my identity and relationship with India (be it that this relationship has always been in my imagination). The first is the recent incident in the India-Australia cricket match in which Harbhajan Singh was accused of making racist remarks to Symonds (with total denial from the Indian team). India made a counter claim that an Australian player made racist remarks. They also refused to continue the series as they felt they were treated unfairly by the decisions of the Caribbean umpire Steve Bucknor (the most senior and experienced umpire in the game) with the result that Bucknor was eventually removed as an umpire. While I understand that wrong decisions have been made in the game, and India has been on the receiving end, the fact that Bucknor, a Blackman from the Caribbean, was axed raises in my mind a number of questions. Besides the fact that the Indian player was found guilty and then later in an appeal the charge was toned down, I cannot rule out the the possibility that the present Indian cricket team has the potential to display racist attitudes. After all, the Indian Cricket team and Board can hardly defend itself against the charge that it excludes Dalits from its club.
India, of course, is a powerful nation and cricket is big money – which may be one reason for the removal of Bucknor. If India sneezes too hard the West is going to catch a bad cold! Money and profits dictated that the game must continue. And the sacrificial lamb was Bucknor in a similar way that the Dalits get sacrificed daily so that Brahmins can luxuriate in wealth they are entitled to even before conception. Hence, the caste system they built to support it.
Which brings me to the second event. This is the news over the millions of pounds that have been raked up as a result of the deal over the IPL and India’s Twenty20 Premier League. The deal worth over £370 million pounds sees three Bollywood film stars as part of the Consortia buying into this lucrative deal, with four top Indian iconic players expected to make loads of money. It would seem that moneymaking Brahmins will continue to rake up wealth without even batting an eyelid over the millions in their own country who live in abject poverty. How much of their wealth serves the cause of Philanthropy in their own country will make for an interesting story that some Indian journalist may wish to take up. The point here is that India has become so powerful that she does not represent for me an oppressed nation; nor can I identify with the image of Mother India, as Bollywood would have the Diaspora believe. India has now become a goliath and if I think of what happened to my ancestors who were brought to the Caribbean, she is one mother who continues to sacrifice her “untouchable children” in the global economic race. They continue to be expendable.
I am waiting to see how Indian theology responds to all of this. Certainly, the rhetoric they used to reel out against the West will now have to change. Capitalism has come home to roost and lots of golden eggs are being laid but mainly in certain caste quarters. In the meantime the Dalits, women, various tribal communities continue to be excluded, marginalized and live in abject poverty.
For me, India will remain in the imagination. I will continue to look Indian. But my heart will be Caribbean, for in that intermingling of the various impulses: Indian, African, European, and Native Caribbean lie the beauty of that which cannot be nailed down and locked up in one particular category. And I thrive on that. In the meantime, I will continue to signify on India and Indians. Just as Rohan Kanhai did when he hammered the bowling of the Indians in his great double innings (not out) in Calcutta: every stroke was a comment on India’s collusion in the exploitation of its own people (our indentured ancestors).
copyright jagessar
Photo Credit www.indiatribune.com
