"Hate kills the man who hates" warns the Gandhian quote headlining the January issue of South Asia Times and below lies the casketed corpse of Nitin Garg over which his mother grieves. A collage of advertisements and Bollywood gossip are regular features of the free monthlies aimed at the Australian Indian diaspora, but what now sticks out, like the frozen hand of Lenin, is the word 'racism'.
A cross-cultural talk on racism doesn't work, it entombs meanings within slogans. Whether it's the Indian media's "Australia is a racist country" splash or Deputy PM Julia Gillard's denial of "the nature of the crime", reality is conveniently banished.
In every society, a tiny minority do harbour intolerance toward the foreigner. The Scanlon Foundation, a supporter of cultural diversity, puts that number at 10 per cent in Australia. Interestingly, the survey is targeted at the adult population. According to a dossier submitted to the Indian government, nearly half of those arrested or evading arrest are juvenile or under 18.
Dr Peter Gale, an Australian Studies lecturer, on being interviewed by The Wire amid the spate of protests by Indian students in May-June 2009, blamed the political environment in the last decade for fostering violence. Males currently aged 18-25 would have witnessed the debate on the One Nation Party, the 9/11 atrocity, and the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq in their formative years.
Although there is no official data, Andrew Jakubwicz, professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney, does not rule out the possibility of non-whites also perpetrating violence.
"It may be that kids who have suffered the same thing are kicking the heads of other kids lower down the totem pole,’’ Jakubowicz says, while arguing that the leadership vacuum is escalating racism.
This also suggests that there have to be diverse discourses at specific community levels if the problem is to be suitably contained. During my own school years in India, I came face to face with the harshness of apartheid. Where else have you heard this?
"They come here on student or tourist visas but stay on for years. They come from a poor country and they can do anything for money."
This is the intolerant, ignorant language of an Indian about African students in Mumbai, but it could easily find echoes from Egypt (Baha'is) to China (Uyghurs), and here, too. The good news for African students like Afram Ogani in India and Indian students in Australia is that many teachers and fellow students try to help them. It isn't about what the authorities and media cook up, because they will never know how a so-called outsider feels.
