Indians Condemn Racism In Royal Family But Remain Silent On Inequalities At Home?

Indians Condemn Racism In Royal Family: The tell-all interview of ex-royal couple Meghan Markle and Prince Harry has sent shockwaves across the world. The interview made big revelations about the politics, discrimination and racism that the Royal Family harbours.

The British Royal Family has been criticised by people across the world, a significant number of which is from India too. You must have come across tweets, statements and even hilarious memes in India that supported the couple and portrayed a not-so-shocking commonness between the issues of Buckingham Palace and those that prevail within our country.

Be it the discrimination against Meghan Markle or racist conversation about that son Archie's skin-colour, the royal family's ugly secrets resonate with the age-old obsession with male-dominance, fair skin and upper caste in our country and the discrimination against dark-skinned and lower caste people, especially women.

But, did Indians condemning the racist and discriminatory practices of the royal family introspect and question the inequalities within their nation? Or just repeat the history by bringing forth performative wokeness and hypocrisy of the privileged sections of Indian society?

Undoubtedly, it is good to see how many Indians have spoken up in support of Meghan Markle and condemned the racism and discrimination in the Royal Family but equally disheartening as this exposed their silence on the inequalities that mar their own country.

In India, discrimination and oppression against a certain group of people based on caste, colour and gender are commonplace. Women in our country are discriminated against, molested, raped and killed daily to serve the haughty and dominant male ego.

Daughters and daughters-in-law are oppressed and deprived of their freedom and choices in almost every Indian family. Discrimination based on colour still reveals the colonial hangover of our country which was declared independent more than 72 years ago in the pages of history. Even today, a dark-skinned person is shamed and considered less capable than a fair-skinned person. The marriage market especially is notorious for its obsession with fair-skinned bride and groom.

Even if a dark-skinned groom with a good salary is acceptable, for a woman, her dark-skin seems to overshadow all her talents, degrees, success and freedom. And the discrimination gets worst if a person, especially a woman, belongs to a lower caste and marginalised section of the society. The holy scriptures followed in our country deign lower caste people as impure and sinful and legitimate the practice of caste oppression and untouchability that pushes the idea of equality and harmony in society further away every single day.

If the injustice meted out to Markle as a daughter-in-law and woman and racism against her child troubles our conscience and pulls out words about equality, why is all this absent when dark-skinned and lower caste women are shamed within our homes?

However, this selective and hypocritical wokeness in India is not new but has only repeated its history.

Picture Credit: YouTube

Just last year, when #BlackLivesMatter contracted worldwide activism, many woke Indians which included actors, CEOs and common people came forward to condemn the brutal murder of George Floyd and the prevalence of racism in the USA. Even at that time, the activism in India exposed its hypocrisy as the people who raised voice against racism in the USA assumed silence on Dalit oppression in India. Read an opinion on this here. Infact, many Indian actors who supported the anti-racism protests in the USA were criticised for promoting fairness creams and being silent on the CAA-NRC protests that shook the country in the same year.

Why don’t the discrimination and fights for justice reverberating the walls of our country receive activism from the privileged and woke Indians who speak on similar issues affecting the west?

Are the issues, struggles and individualities of women (or any other discriminated group) in our country not serious, royal or trendy enough? Doesn’t this signal towards a biased and hypocritic wokeness that gives importance to the privileged, powerful and trendy over the common and underprivileged? Doesn't the back-to-back selective activism reflect the casteist and colonialist history of our country that now seems to be an attitude or prevalent perspective? Wait, doesn’t all this resonate with common practice in India to not “interfere” in private “ghar ka mamla” and find an excuse to remain silent on evident injustice?

Dear woke Indians, it is really applaudable that you understand and raise your voice against the injustice that the ex-royal couple has been facing. But this understanding and activism will be empty words if you can’t mend the damage that is long-standing in your own country.

Post Meghan Markle Interview Revelations, Indians Condemn Racism In Royal Family But Remain Silent On Inequalities At Home?

If discrimination based on gender, class, race and colour is wrong in foreign countries, so is it in India too. If your distant wokeness can contribute to the tremors in the royal grounds of the foreign countries, imagine the change it can bring in your own country. There is no fault in being outspoken about the issues in foreign countries. But when you shed your silence make sure that the echoes break the long slumber of justice in your country too.