Xenophobic Nativism is growing within the Indian Middle-Class . . . . and it’s SCARY!

There is a disturbing trend growing within the Indian elite middle class circles. They are becoming more and more xenophobic and nativist. The subscription following of pages like The Frustrated Indian has made the Indian right wing cool again. The Indian youth is filled with an aspiration that worships gimmicky visuals of superficial development like the bullet train or the clean Sabarmati riverside instead of social mobility of historically backward classed or inclusive pluralistic politics. They’re reconciling with the social right in hopes of a more economically bright future.

The following is a real conversation I had with a friend of mine who hails from an upper middle class family and studies in a premier law school of the nation.The conversation has been edited to exclude expletives and typographical errors.

Jon Doe:-Will Trump manage to beat crooked Hillary?

Me:- So far no chance.

Jon Doe:-Damn. What if Bernie stands as an independent?

Me:-Trump might edge out then

Jon Doe:-Brilliant!
*ALL ABOARD THE TRUMP TRAIN*

Me:- Count me out.

Jon Doe:-I like his style.
No one gave him a chance at the Republican nomination.

Me:- What style?

Jon Doe:-He speaks his mind out.

Me:-Is that a good thing?

Jon Doe:-Of course!

Me:-Even if it is ignorance and he doesn’t know what he is talking about?

Jon Doe:-He called Mexicans criminals. That’s true! I have uncle living in Texas. He told me these Mexicans are a huge menace. He wants to throw illegal immigrants out. I absolutely agree!

Me:-Do you even know about the complexity of the issues you are talking about?

Jon Doe:-Someone needs to throw these Bangladeshis out of my state too.

Me:-Which ones? Hindus or Muslims?

Jon Doe:-Illegal immigrant Bangladeshis. Preferably muslims because Hindus are religiously persecuted there. There should be at least one country in this world which still remains a safe haven for Hindus being religiously persecuted

Me:-ahhh! that’s the good stuff. India as a Hindu Zion.
Then why shouldn’t Trump allow Mexicans and Muslims to immigrate to US. They are fleeing persecution and poverty too.

Jon Doe:-If they are legal immigrants why not?

Me:-Do you know the complexity of migration rules in US or that deportation of illegals can in many cases cause families to be estranged from each other? Is that a sound humanitarian policy? Similarly Muslims born in India are Indian citizen. Separating their Bangladeshi parents is a sound strategy just because they’re Muslim?

Jon Doe:-I think a better strategy would be to send them along with their kids to Bangladesh. Ain’t no place for Bangladeshi illegal immigrants here. Wish we had a Trump to kick them out.
The court can make certain exceptions and allow extreme cases. But all these f*****s should be deported!
The only significant contribution of the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are that they make very good political gundas.

Me:-I hope you see what you’re saying is born out of prejudice and not awareness of the nuances of the issue. Ignorance is not a virtue. Not knowing what you’re talking about isn’t telling it like it is. It is not an attack against political correctness. It is really harmful speech that can cause violence in the long run.
BTW gundas aren’t immigrants. They’re the illegal border crossers who come and do a job and go away. You have to be out of your mind to think that enture communities are inherently gundas. That is straight out of the playbook of Hitler’s anti semitism.

Jon Doe:-HAHAHAH! Nicely Drafted.
Though the problem is I couldn’t make out your stance on the issue even with your nice flowery language.
I don’t care illegal immigrants are illegal immigrants. OUT with all these people

Me:-I don’t feel the need to take a strong stance for the sake of it. It is not about principle.It is about fact based policy proposals.which must be really tuned to ground realities and not prejudice. As I said Ignorance is not a virtue.

Jon Doe:- Lol . Of course in your case it is prescribed ignorance. The only policy proposal needed is an identifying and combing out of illegal immigrants.

Me:-I don’t know the ground reality enough to be able to take a stance here.So yeah I don’t want to talk what I have no idea about. Majority of immigrants are children and women and they’re not inherently criminal.

Jon Doe:- Lol! You and your sickular liberal ideology. It’ll bring our nation down. Make India Great Again. *smiling emoji*

A poster doing the rounds on facebook

The increasing nativist xenophobia of my friend is not an isolated incident. There is a growing trend of outward projection of nationalism aimed at competition with Bangladesh as we get to see in the heightened passions during the cricket matches these days. Bangladesh is a natural target of outrage as its nebulous border allows for easy migration and difficulty in patrolling it or in classic Trump fashion build a wall around it. Sometimes the rhetoric is laced with our own communal xenophobia as the BJP strategy in Assam shows that it is after all a winning populist strategy. In other cases as in West Bengal where there is a general discontent with immigration and a substantial Muslim electorate, the rhetoric daftly takes on all immigrants as the evil ‘other’ against whom Indian(actually Hindus) must unite.