Author Topic: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai  (Read 2055 times)

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Offline ✡ Hindu Zionist ॐ

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Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« on: March 24, 2013, 01:42:35 AM »
As 32-year-old Gael Soro follows this journalist into a shop selling leather bags on Bandra’s Hill Road, an attendant with his arms drawn across his chest moves ever so imperceptibly and blocks Soro’s entrance. He is smiling, but his eyes are hard. Soro asks chummily, “How are you?” The attendant steps aside and allows him entry to the 15x10 feet shop. The minutelong exchange has not perturbed Soro.

In fact, within a short span - he arrived in the city in December 2012 and will leave sometime in the middle of 2014 - Soro has grown accustomed to the improprieties that each day brings with it, starting with stares from commuters on the train ride to Sewri, where he interns at a sports company. Over a cup of tea at a nearby café, the Ivory Coast national, who shares a three bedroom apartment in Goregaon east with five other African nationals, admits that people’s reactions leave him amazed. “People stare. Even if I say ‘hello’ they don’t respond. Initially, colleagues at work behaved the same.”

Soro came here in search of a job, but like many in the black expat community, he too, is keen to start a business - he wants to import cashews from the Middle East. To tackle the problem of residents with little manners and too much curiosity, Soro simply greets them cheerfully. That has worked, he says. “My Indian colleagues now accompany me to lunch.”

Social kills

That may not seem like much of an achievement, but for the likes of Soro, a tiny gesture towards friendliness is welcome, especially since these are hard to come by. Soro’s friend Alain Sedaminou, a Togo national, would know. Over a fortnight ago, the 26-year-old went for dinner with two friends - both Africans - to an Andheri east eatery serving Punjabi food. “The waiter took our order, but returned a few minutes later and asked us to pay up first.”

Though offended, the trio paid up, ate dinner and left.

A sales and marketing officer at an Ahmedabad-headquartered construction firm has been working in its Malad office for seven months, and has faced worse. He has been shunted from homes (a former landlady asked him to shift to Mira Road, home to the infamous Nigerian wadi); residents of his housing society have refused to enter the elevator when he’s using it, and he has been arbitrarily hauled up by cops. “I was in Lokhandwala on a Saturday evening with a Singaporean friend. The constable asked to see my passport. I wasn’t carrying it so I showed him my PAN card. But he didn’t relent. Finally, an Indian colleague who lives in Kalyan had to come and assure the policeman that all was legitimate about me.”

Rules stipulate that foreign nationals must carry their passports at all times while in India. Yet, the cop didn’t bother checking whether Sedaminou’s Singaporean friend was carrying her passport.

Past catches up

In 2005, two African nationals were denied entry to Bandra’s Hawaiian Shack. At that time, the club’s owner Sadhana Lalwani was quoted saying that cops had told them “they would hold us responsible if they found Nigerians peddling drugs in pubs.” Lalwani says that after that incident - for which she apologised publicly - the pub began to check bags of all its guests, in order to not discriminate.

Not wishing to be named, a senior police officer from Thane district says there is a fear that a large number of Africans living in the city are involved in drug peddling or online frauds. Earlier this month, 109 Nigerians were nabbed in a raid by the Mira Road police from Mangal Nagar, a neighbourhood that’s come to be called ‘Nigerian wadi’ given the large population of Africans who reside there. DSP of Thane (Rural) Anil Kumbhare says 39 of them were found to have expired visas. Six have already been deported.

The Indian government website doesn’t mention this categorically, but tourists are charged differently for visas depending on their country. According to the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) Mumbai, an American is charged $140 for a year-long business visa. In contrast, African nationals are charged $290. City dwellers paint all black expats - and all Nigerians - with the same broad brush stroke. Racism, like other forms of bigotry, functions on generalisation and a refusal to comprehend nuanced differences.

It extends to women, too. A 25-yearold Ivory Coast national, who does not wish to be identified, recalls an experience that occurred a few months ago that’s changed the way she socialises. “We were a group of eight girls, including one German, and were waiting entry at a popular Lower Parel club. All of us, except the German were held back. We were told that we weren’t on the ‘guest list’.” A resident of the city for over a year, she has stopped visiting nightclubs. Old-time restaurateur AD Singh, who owns Olive Bar & Kitchen admits that the social and the F&B circuit is wary of black people. “While as a country we discriminate on the basis of colour, there is a stigma attached to the African community because of a few who are involved in the drug trade. It’s unfair to generalise, but it does happen.”

Feels like home

Yet, this city manages to throw the odd curve ball. Twenty-three-year-old student and Kenyan national James Okong’o, who has lived in Mumbai for two years recounts an incident that occurred last November on a local train. A fellow commuter started abusing him without provocation. “While I didn’t understand what he was saying, I could understand that it wasn’t pretty. I ignored it, but other travellers stepped in. They asked him to stop and he did,” Okong’o grins.

Father Lawrence Johnson, a priest at Vashi’s Sacred Heart Church for the past four years says the parish has seen a steady decline in Africans parishioners. When he started out, there were over 100 Nigerians who would attend the service. Now, that number is less than 40. Yet, ironically, over time the community has become more accepting. “The other day, a north-Indian man was talking to me in the church, explaining how he has fallen on bad times. A couple of Nigerians who overheard the conversation stepped in and offered to give this man Rs 4,000.”

After mass, more Indians have begun to interact with the expats, too, he says.

Among the parishioners is 39-yearold Rapheal Amechi who set up Wazobia, a restaurant in Vashi sector-14 two years ago to offer his countrymen a taste of home. Wazobia offers African delicacies like Egwusi soup (an Igbo dish) and Jollof rice, a popular dish in many parts of West Africa. In heavily accented English (his native tongue is Igbo) Amechi says that though the eatery is popular with Indians, 40 out of every 50 diners are Africans. For these parishioners, then, places like Wazobia often serve as a safe haven, where diners can eat a meal without being stared or sniggered at.

Mumbai is also home to a small populace of students from different African countries. Of the 211 foreign students who enrolled at the university this year, quarter were from Afghanistan. The rest were from Africa and the Middle East. Of the 77 students that reside at an international students’ hostel in Churchgate, eight are from Africa. A 22-year-old Kenyan national studying BCom at a suburban college says that in the two years that he has lived here, he has never interacted with his classmates socially. “Perhaps, it is because they speak Marathi, I speak English. But they have never stepped out of their comfort zone to make friends with us.”

Indian-in-law

It’s no different for black people who are married to Indians. For them, there is little choice but to bear the prejudice. Often spotted jogging on Bandra’s Turner road, 49-year-old Eddie Teel says he is commonly confused for an African. Raised in Atlanta, US, Teel came to Mumbai in 2011 when his wife, 39-year-old Sangeeta chose to return home. The move has left the couple with bittersweet experiences. “We were at a shop once and a man shut his girlfriend’s eyes and turned her dramatically toward Eddie. As soon as she opened her eyes, she screamed,” Sangeeta recounts, shaking her head at the utter insensitivity.

At 6’5”, Eddie cuts an imposing figure. The personal trainer says finding clients hasn’t been easy. At present, he has barely four. “Some decide against training with me once they meet me,” he says, distracted by the antics of his six-year-old daughter Pramila, who is blowing air through a straw. “People see my colour and think I am African. I have to constantly repeat that I am an American and my family has been for generations.” He wonders he is stared unabashedly. “I look at them and say ‘hello’. Only then do they turn back.”

Yet, the couple is unwilling to leave Mumbai. Pramila has settled down well - she visits a neighbourhood school and has a thriving circle of friends. The neighbours are friendly with Teel and his family.

According to social commentator Santosh Desai, racism in India isn’t surprising. “We also discriminate among our own on the basis of their birth and colour. Cosmopolitanism is a facade in Mumbai, though it calls itself a global city,” he says. According to Desai, people could use social media to set things right. “If a restaurant or a club doesn’t allow Africans in, others should boycott the place. If we are not doing anything about it, especially when it is so easy to take action, it becomes fair to say that Mumbai is not cosmopolitan,” Desai says.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/82/201303242013032401384082836e56d29/Blacklist.html

Offline Rubystars

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2013, 11:42:02 AM »
I don't really know why India allows its citizens to be targeted for criminal activity and fraud by African immigrants, especially those from Nigeria. Doesn't India have enough internal issues without bringing in another group? And if the Africans don't like India and its culture they can go back to Africa, or America, whatever their country of origin is.

Offline ✡ Hindu Zionist ॐ

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2013, 01:55:58 PM »
I don't really know why India allows its citizens to be targeted for criminal activity and fraud by African immigrants, especially those from Nigeria. Doesn't India have enough internal issues without bringing in another group? And if the Africans don't like India and its culture they can go back to Africa, or America, whatever their country of origin is.
good point, the answer to your question is in this article:
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/nigerians-make-presence-felt-in-mumbai-crime-world

Many of these Nigerians come on tourist visas for two months, but stay on illegally. Others come on student visas. The immigration department is clueless about how many Nigerians live in the city illegally.

apprehending them is a problem primarily because they are not only tall and well built, but also fast runners. "It takes four-five policemen to catch hold of one Nigerian. They do not attack us but slip away. So we find it difficult to keep pace with them," said Kavlekar a Policeman

Offline Rubystars

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2013, 04:35:11 PM »
good point, the answer to your question is in this article:
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/nigerians-make-presence-felt-in-mumbai-crime-world

Many of these Nigerians come on tourist visas for two months, but stay on illegally. Others come on student visas. The immigration department is clueless about how many Nigerians live in the city illegally.

apprehending them is a problem primarily because they are not only tall and well built, but also fast runners. "It takes four-five policemen to catch hold of one Nigerian. They do not attack us but slip away. So we find it difficult to keep pace with them," said Kavlekar a Policeman

Do Indian police not have tasers or pepper spray? Why would it take 4 or 5? It's true that they can be fast runners but I don't understand the first part being a problem.

Offline serbian army

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2013, 08:08:02 PM »
It is funny but only people of color in my city are Roma people who are originally from India. After unsuccessful revolt in India this group immigrated all over the world. Although they have been living with Serbs for centuries they speak in their own language but they speak Serbian with some accent. We never had any black people from Africa and truly believe they would face far worse discrimination than in India. But one city accepted many immigrants on their way to EU. People are very unhappy with them. There were some mass protests too.
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Offline syyuge

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2013, 04:24:08 AM »
Roma did not do any revolt in India, rather they were strongly against the continued muslamic invasions on India. So they formed a huge unorthodox volunteer army and attacked in to the west on muslamic strongholds and destroyed them. When at Iraq they wanted to go south to their target at Kaaba, but they were misguided that the center of muslamics is in north at Tataristan, so they turned north and destroyed the Tataristan. Since they missed their real target and that they were the temporary unorthodox, so they whither away and got dissolved in to Europe.
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Offline serbian army

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2013, 04:45:25 PM »
I find that highly unlikely but you can post your sources if you have any. In all my research I have found something interesting about them and that is about their musical skills being highly respected in India as they are now in Serbia and other countries.
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Offline syyuge

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2013, 06:22:13 PM »
For more than fifteen years I have studied this rare subject on the internet on available websites. I also remember some ancient verbal folklore preserved through the earlier generations especially from the surviving Hindu Sindhi and Punjabi refugees coming out of the so-called Pakistan. Many of those websites have meanwhile gone obscure and the refugees have suppressed their painful past which they do not want to revive anymore. The remnant Valmiki Hindus surviving still at pakistan666 were supposed to be a core group among the Roma and now they are highly poor. Many other peoples who were mobile blacksmiths, court singers or instrumentalist by their profession most probably from Rajasthan joined this army as per the customs of those days. Most probably Jats from the areas of Punjab were among the main organizers of this army. When the traditional orthodox Hindu Kings of Rajasthan were asked to lead this expedition, they did not agree on the counts that they were supposed to wholeheartedly defend their motherland only and attacking the vitiated foreign lands was against their dignity and codes of moral conduct. So going even against their own unorthodox and all other kinds of customs, the Roma army anointed a simple young priest as King to lead them in to the unknown battlefields and places.
 
Rare muslamic folklore had named this invasion as “dark typhoon”, which they say was more dangerous than the “yellow typhoon” of Genghiz Khan on arabia. Overall it is a lost page of the history, and I will try to refresh my knowledge over it again, when I find the time and inclination G_d willing.
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Offline syyuge

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2013, 05:45:15 PM »
Some supposedly known studies on Roma:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Romani_people
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Offline syyuge

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2013, 05:49:44 PM »
I think Roma should be ultimately settled in the emptied parts of liberated pakistan.
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Offline serbian army

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2013, 06:38:48 PM »
Quote
The researchers believe the descendants of today's Roma gypsies in Europe began their westward exodus first to fight in wars in what is today Punjab between 1001 and 1026 on the promise of a promotion in caste status.
Later, they left to flee the fall of Hindu kingdoms in what is today Pakistan, with many setting off from near Gilgit.

Very interesting. A story was circling in Serbian media how they were in oppressed caste that rebelled
to improve their status but had lost that fight and had to run for their lives. This story is not really far off from what might really happen as they apparently had been fighting to change their status in society.   
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Offline syyuge

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Re: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2013, 04:50:51 AM »
At India, Roma were more of poor than oppressed. Afterall even in a feudal society, there have to a working class who have to be adept in manial works and be even expert in use of hand tools and their technology. Such class being poor and with minimum assets had the facility to be physically mobile in order to get more work orders and output from and at different locations with the variation of time.

This explains that Roma if they really felt the social oppression so much then they would either have migrated to the emerging muslamic nations or would have converted themselves in to muslamics then and there, but nothing sort of this appears to have happened in large scale. Even now in Pakistan the Hindu Valmiki Roma survived with great isolation and tribulations.

There were no chances of compromise between the Roma and the muslamics, because the Hindu Valmiki Roma were and are the eternal pig handlers. Furthermore the Roma did not rebel against the so-called caste oppression, because in those days even the poorest and the most oppressed were more rightists than the rightists. 

The most important point that the Roma were deadly against the muslamics and only the muslamics is that the most hated word in the Roma culture is supposed to be “Gadzo” or “Gazo”, and the muslamic jihadi terrorists are and were called as “Gazi” and obviously all these are the same word with slightly differing pronunciations. There may be some problems with Roma but historically it had to be more of a muslamic and leftist propaganda. Roma were against both of them.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2013, 05:04:23 AM by syyuge »
There are thunders and sparks in the skies, because Faraday invented the electricity.