Got a couple of mails from friends who read my blog on the Shilpa Shetty-Big brother issue. Those mails made me realise i should clarify my position.
I am NOT anti-white. But i hate ethnocentrism; and if i am anti-white, then i'd be guilty of what i hate- ethnocentrism.
My blog was an effort to interpret the unfortunate episode in the context of the colonial hangover as exprienced both by the former coloniser and the colonised. Hence it was inevitable that i use the terms from the colonial rhetoric. The concept of white superiority is axiomatic to the imperial discourse about White destiniy to civilise the colonised world. Remember Kiplings words about the White Man's Burden?
Like my friend pointed out, India too has its own style of racism. I agree, in a different context - in a social context which does inform the political. But in that particular Blog, i was dealing only with the realities of the Imperial hangover. And the White refers most certainly to The British who are still trying to sort out the whole colonial experience.
All whites were not racial- not even at the height of Imperial glory. There was always a questioning in England of the ethicality of the whole imperial enterprise.
History is not something we can wish or will away.A dispassionate effort to come to terms with it is part of human experience.
My blog was only one such effort.
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