In his article, “The iconography of fascism and Hindutva hate” (Herald, Comment, October 19), Rajiv Tyagi rightly said, “A primary icon of fascism is racial purity. An examination of early 20th century manifestation of fascism will reveal patterns that we can find in 21st century India.”
We find it because we have allowed toxic trees of racial purity grow within ourselves. This makes inter-marriage among Indians a rare event. India Human Development Survey (IHDS) figures that while 26.9 per cent of marriages are among inter-economic group, only 6.1 per cent inter-caste and 2.7 per cent inter-religious marriages have taken place in our country in 2001-2005. Even these microscopic figures of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages invite honour killings. According to statistics from the United Nations, one in five cases of honour killings, internationally every year comes from India.
Generally, higher caste Hindus all over India believe that they are direct descendants of Aryans and they are to keep their Aryan blood 100 per cent pure! There is no problem if a higher caste man marries say a Swiss lady who is Christian by religion and even if she does not know English. She will not face social ostracism let alone honour killing in India. Her Aryan features help her get full marks in racial purity. Even Mansur Ali Khan when he married a higher caste Hindu could easily cross the hurdle of racial purity in our mindsets because of his Aryan appearance.
Our obsession with fair skin and racial attacks on Africans have been passed for our colonial baggage. But this is not just because of our English hangover. It is largely because of our obsession with white Aryan ancestry which is also embedded in our casteism and our preferring Aryan features over others. In other words, this is, as it were, an Aryan luggage and not colonial baggage.
This makes our brothers and sisters from North East in spite of their having fair complexion and even with a good command of English sometimes face racial comments like “Chinky” (i.e a person with non-Aryan features) in many parts of our country. Whereas a German even with his poor knowledge of English gets our admiration as Sahib! It is his Aryan features (sharp nose as well as white complexion etc.) that attracts our admiration.
