Hi Folks!

I recently came across this article posted on dadesiforum.com by King Aragorn

http://www.dadesiforum.com/t149709.html

PS: Similar post is there in www.maxdesi.com/showthread.php?p=74044. I do not know which one is original. So mentioning both addresses

I will try to enhance your understanding of the situation. I am from India and you can rest assured that Media here, despite being partisan, has also questioned whether we as a country are Racist or not. I would just like to make some things clear to you, since you are a respected Cricket Writer in Australia. Some Indians also have stirred up trouble here or got their facts wrong, so i apologise on their behalf and will try to present a clear picture.

Anyways, i’ll start off by answering your question and then moving onto the big issue. Bastard (aka Haraami in Hindi) basically implies not knowing whom you belong to, or who your parents are (not being born out of wedlock, as some people have explained). If the word Haraami is used in India, it is viewed as offensive and is used when the speaker is trying to demean the other person. Monkey (aka Bandar), on the other hand, is hardly viewed as offensive here. When you are kids, if someone looks comical, or does something crazy, you would say ‘kya bandar jaisa dikhta hai’ (you look like a monkey) or ‘kya bandar jaisi harkate karta hai’ (why are you acting like a monkey?). It basically could compare with saying ‘you look like a clown, mate’. Saying monkey does not usually associate you with Hanuman, the Hindu God. But i would like to state that it was some foolish media writer who give it that spin, rather than the team. The team has always stated that the term ‘monkey’ was not used.

Now moving onto how Racism is perceived in India. We as a nation ourselves are Black / Brown so most of us have ourselves been dumbfounded to hear that a charge of racism would be leveled against 1 of the players. Symonds, going by the colour of his skin, is as black as any of us. India, as a nation, may have many drawbacks but racism is not 1 of them. In India, the colour of the skin doesn’t matter to the people as a matter of race, although the fairer amongst us may be considered better looking or more beautiful by other Indians. So even though Symonds may not be regarded as good looking as some other who may be fairer than him, considering him sub-human probably wouldn’t even occur to us. And, to be fair, the crowds last time the Australians came over, also made fun of him because of the way he keeps his hair and applies the cream. Now, if do your best to look like a clown and then are pretty happy to dish some advice out in the middle also, you are inviting some heckling from the crowd. If the crowd catch on to something that annoys a player, you can be sure they’ll use that thing only. Now, by opening this Pandora’s Box, the Australians have virtually ensured that when they tour in October, Symonds will be called a monkey at every venue. What earlier some sections of the crowd may have done just to heckle him (thinking not of racism), will get more fierce and maybe intentionally more racist next time.

Discrimination does happen in India but not on the basis of the colour of a person’s skin. Our bane has been the ‘Caste system’ which has led to discrimination and social unrest. But the colour of one’s skin would not probably make him sub-human in Indian’s eyes, rather than just maybe making him less attractive.

Moving onto the Hogg comment, although it would be considered insulting, the players must have heard things like that before and will not have taken such a small thing to heart. This charge is just a tit-for-tat charge on the face of it. The thinking is clear, “The Australians get away with Murder, and we can’t even say anything, let us make a point too, even if it’s a small one”.

As for the Harbhajan incident, i greatly doubt whether he really did call Symonds even a monkey or not. Can you believe that a whole team and then the entire nation would bet their pride on this matter if it wasn’t true? If Harbhajan had said it, i’m sure he would have accepted it then and wouldn’t have created such a furore.

As for the new spin, that the term was misheard, that is VERY POSSIBLE. Even though again it’s a media spin, saying a derogatory term like ‘teri maa ki ..’ (or Your Mother’s …) would be a very possible scenario since if you want to abuse, that is among the most common abuses used in Hindi and Punjabi. Harbhajan, being excitable as he is, and having learned English mostly in the last 4-5 years, would probably get abusive in his native language. Not that the Indian public would endorse him abusing Symond’s family, i’m sure these kind of instances might have occurred before also and with the Aussies doing it too. But then the principle of ‘what’s said on the field stays on the field’ must’ve made the instances die down.

Although in this case, 2 points are very interesting. Why was Procter so convinced the word was used? Considering the standing of Sachin (not only in India), why was his word disregarded? It was essentially an instance of one team’s word against another, so why favour anyone? Secondly, Aussies mention that a similar instance happened in Mumbai while Harbhajan denies this. This also needs to be looked into.

Regarding the whole uproar, i will mention some relevant points:

1. Regarding Ponting’s sacking, it was not India or the India media that brought that up.

2. Ponting, talented though he may be, has been the worst offender of all in the way he’s handled the issue. The Australian team played as it does all the time, but the way the captain Ponting handled many issues has created many problems. Despite 16 wins in a row, i do not regard his captaincy skills on the pitch on par with Mark Taylor or Steve Waugh. He is winning simply because he has a good team in which each person knows his role. As a Diplomat, he’s worse than maybe any Aussie captain i’ve seen in last 20 years (that’s how long i’ve been watching cricket).

3. The Indian team has always insisted that the word ‘monkey’ wasn’t used. Secondly, Sachin has already denied that he sent the purported SMS (even then, i see the Aussie media still reporting he was the mastermind). Thirdly, Kumble had mentioned that this wasn’t the only issue but the ‘final nail into the coffin’.

4. Also, Indian public as a whole have also overreacted. But the way Cricket is a religion here in India and anything related makes news, that is to be expected. But please let me make it clear, all these effigy burning pics shown are isolated events really. 20 or so people get together like in every city and do these kinda things, hoping to get on TV. These are not mass scenes, nobody has the time here to indulge in such stupid and silly things all day long.