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COVER STORY: THE BACKLASH
Hope In The Time Of Despair
American Indians struggle to cope with the loss
of loved ones as well as the sudden vulnerability of those who live.
—By Ashok Malik and Lavina Melwani in New York
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I'M AMERICAN: Candlelight vigil in Central Park
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Balbir Singh Sodhi
was working on one of his two petrol stations in Mesa, Arizona, when Frank
S. Roque drove in. Police say he simply shot the hapless Sikh, ignored
his Mexican colleagues and drove away. Later Roque shot at a Lebanese
working in a neighbouring station and fired bullets in the direction of
an Afghan family. When arrested, he declared himself a "patriot":
"I'm a damn American all the way."
Madhav Chari is a professional jazz pianist
living in Manhattan. Walking out of the building he lives in, he encountered
a Latino youth who demanded, "Aren't you Afghan?" Before Madhav
could answer, a black acquaintance intervened. "Shut the f... up
you mother f... He's Indian. Go get some education." Chari laughs
when he tells the story. It's an indulgence not allowed to Sodhi's stunned
family, collateral victim of the tragedy that engulfed America on September
11.
Hate crimes, racial profiling, the outsider-terms
and expressions long associated with other communities have come to be
used in the context of west and south Asians, including some Indians,
in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing. Is this a backlash?
Is this media hype? Are these stray incidents that will go away in a week
or two? Are these indicative of an underground conflict?
In the best traditions of Indian variety, opinions
vary and experiences are often influenced by something as simple as geography.
Anubhav Pal analyses telecom equities for Reuters' New York bureau and
clearly loves the city he's called home for the past five years. "Even
the air in New York," he says, "has attitude." Pal works
in a team made up of eight people from eight different countries. Has
he faced uncomfortable questions since September 11? "It's unlikely
to happen to someone like me," he says, "but that probably isn't
the case with the Indian who works in the petrochemical plant across in
New Jersey. Most of his co-workers may not be able to tell him from an
Arab."
Inarguably, sentiments against Arabs have run
high in some circles. Yet empirical evidence would suggest that blue-collar
Indians or south Asians-taxi drivers, roadside food vendors, newsstand
owners-too have been vulnerable to verbal abuse, suspicious glances and,
in a small minority of cases, physical assault. Prominent institutions
could be targets: a mosque in Chicago received a bomb threat, while the
Sri Yoga Vedanta Ashram in New Jersey had a Molotov cocktail hurled at
it.
The fact that Sikhs sport beards and wear turbans
led to many Americans- at the best of times, supremely uninformed about
the next country, let alone the next continent-to conclude they were somehow
related to the images of the Taliban that were being flashed on television
screens. "In the first few days after the incident," says an
India-born New Yorker, "a beard was bad news. To make matters worse,
Indians have very little social interaction with whites or other communities.
That may have made them paranoid." The killing of Sodhi was, of course,
the most chilling incident of them all. It led to Yogi Bhajan, religious
leader of the Sikh Dharma, appearing on CNN to counsel peace.
There are those who urge perspective, the ability
to see that, warts and all, life in New York or Chicago is still much
easier than that in an interior setting. Says Sanjib Baruah, who teaches
at Bard College, 90 miles from New York City: "Small town America
has always been provincial. There is a certain tension in this country
between red-neckism, if you will, and cosmopolitanism. At moments like
these it becomes sharper."
Bhaswati Bhattacharya offers a different viewpoint.
The New York-based doctor feels that far from being exaggerated, the backlash
issue has been "under-reported" and discounted by those Indians
who think bringing it up will only draw unnecessary attention to the community.
Bhaswati, one of the prime movers behind Sakhi, an organisation dedicated
to fighting violence against south Asian women, was horrified when she
heard two Pakistani women had been attacked outside a mosque in the Queens
borough. Along with the Arab-American Family Support Center and the Women
for Afghan Women, Sakhi sponsored a candlelight vigil in the heart of
the troubled city this past week. More such functions are planned, says
Bhattacharya, primarily to urge peace and non-retaliation "in America's
time of test".
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